Where Did My Capitalism Go?

Have you heard about this? Police in the U.K. town of Gloucestershire are asking citizens to tip officers off to persons believed to be living lavish lifestyles or donning too much “bling”. This is described as an attempt to seek out persons involved in illegal activities and businesses from which such wealth is made, but this flies right in the face of respectable crime fighting. And more importantly, the question we should all be asking is: when did it become a crime to enjoy your wealth?

If I make enough money to buy a fancy car or wear expensive clothing and jewelry, it’s my decision whether or not I want to purchase and use these luxuries. The power to buy these things is the reward that I receive for finding a way to make the money to purchase them. I’m not at all condoning illegal means of making money, but fighting crime by targeting the result of the criminal’s work is just lazy policing. Watching someone suspiciously drive by in an expensive car is by no means witnessing a crime, and the thought that an act such as this constitutes probable cause is preposterous.

Don’t the police think they could build a better case by catching someone in the act of a crime? Or maybe they’re not interested in building a good case, but rather confiscating the earned wealth of another. Perhaps they have a Robin Hood “steal from the rich” thing going on (that’s an English story, right?).

The issue is that programs like this discourage the accumulation of wealth by criminalizing the ability to display the luxuries that some enjoy. The fact that the police department has said “the campaign is meant to target anyone who displays excessive wealth” tells me that whether you’re a drug dealer with a heap of gold jewlery or an investment banker with a Porsche and a Rolex, you’re a potential target.