Crime, we hear repeatedly, doesn't pay. We hear about "full might of the law", shoot to kill, warnings to criminals etc, ad nauseum - but I'm beginning to wonder whether crime isn't an essential part of capitalist economics (well, yes, I can expect a marxist nodding here - but that's not quite what I mean).

Crime has spin-offs: we need a huge police force-became-service-becoming-force, masses of buzzing little security company cars and bicycles, alarms and attached alarm companies, a huge "justice" system (which has provided hours of entertainment and work for the entertainment industry that plays at being journalism (E-News in particular). The police service/force creates economic activity (new private jets so that management can pop in to open new police stations while generating income for struggling 5 star hotels; make a few advocates sickening amounts of money in drawn out court cases defending a variety of retired, fired, in suspended animation, senior law-enforcement officials).

But this economic boost reaches other sectors too.  Our daughter had her old '97 Ford Laser broken into over the weekend. Clearly this was purely a job-seeking ativity as while the haemorrhoids that carried out the activity took what was in the boot as a bonus, clearly this was only a secondary aim. The real aim was to bring work for the tow truck industry (they did so much damage, they immobilised the car), autoelectricians, parts manufacturers (new door, lock sets, dashboard, radio), panel beaters, and an insurance company (who have been receiving premiums since 1997 on the car without ever having to pay out, and now they can up the premiums). Of course the tow trucker (approved and ordered by the insurance company) tried to spread the economic benefit by accidently mis-laying the car in another backyard panelbeater that no-one had ever heard of. Then couldn't find it until the police muttered something about "theft charges", which jolted his memory and the car mysteriously arrived over- night at the contracted panel beater. Then there's the cellphone company (we've lost count of the phone calls), and even HellKom. This all excludes the person-hours lost / used in the process. And then of course the retail outlets as my daughter replaces all the clean laundry that was in the boot.Then there's the banks: Criminally high bank charges on the transactions involved, especially the gross excess charges.And all of this brings VAT (who gets that again? - ah yes, private jets, BMWs, Mercs, Range Rovers and so on).

They missed another couple of opportunities though:another R500 damage and the car would have been written off because the damages would have exceeded 66% of the "value" of the car - this would have meant that the car could have been cheaply repaired and sold off, while we would have forked out more and helped the bottom end of the cess-pit, sorry, the used car market, and released another income source for aforementioned haemorrhoids.

Grief, this could help end the recession - no wonder South Africa has not experienced the recession as badly as othe countries - its the crime that's kept the economy ticking over!The only people who lose out on all of this, as far as I can see, are the victims.