This blog contains posts and comments written by students in Dr. Tufte's economics classes at Southern Utah University.
10/13/2005
Utah Crimes
I had the opportunity to attend our very own professor David Tufte's presentation on his paper Crimes in Utah today. Even though his paper wasn’t all the way finished, he still did a good job of presenting his views and opinions. Not to mention he was very accepting of everyone else’s comments and ideas to better his paper. Tufte made the point that Utah may be high in one "crime" such as bankruptcy or fraud, but significantly low in another such as murder or rape. It was surprising to me to hear that Utah was so high in the bankruptcy area, although i can see how this might be. It seems to me that everyone in Utah is always trying to be better than their neighbor. Another "crime" Tufte talked about was perscription drug abuse. This may be due to mothers who are trying to be "super mom". We can only push ourselves so far before we break down, then it's on to the medications. There is so much pressure in Utah for mothers, and everyone else, to be perfect.
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-1 on Alex's post for a capitilization error.
I won't add too much here - if you're really interested just stop by my office and ask for a copy of the paper.
I don't think Utah's bankruptcy and fraud rates have too much to do with how people are financially educated when young. That seems to be a problem everywhere.
I'm curious about whether there is a "keeping up with the Jones' effect in Utah". One of your (LDS) professors who attended my session suggested afterwards that their may be some excessive competition within wards - but I'm not sure how you'd ever get data to test that.
I don't have a ready answer for prescription drug abuse either, but Destiny's rather colorful comment did get me thinking. When I first moved to Utah in 1991 I was immediately struck by the number of pills that people took here. Now, that wasn't necessarily prescription drugs either - it was supplements of various kinds. There were people taking all sorts of stuff, which you would not see back East at all. So, again I'm not sure how you'd measure this, but I wonder if prescription drug abuse is a lateral shift from supplement abuse.
Thanks for coming to my presentation Alex!
Dr. Tufte said:
"I'm curious about whether there is a "keeping up with the Jones' effect in Utah"."
I definitely think that there are many people in this area that are trying to outdo their neighbors. It's unfortunate. Having lived many places, I would have to assert that this kind of attitude is more particular to Utah than any other place I've lived. I wonder if this poor style of money management has anything to do with the trend to marry young. In Utah, it seems that many people get married before they really have a chance to live on their own and establish good budgetary habits.
Dr. Tufte said, “. . . their may be some excessive competition within wards.” This is true, but I don't think that is specific only to Utah. I think it is true in any tight-nit community – so any time you get a group of people together that interact with each other frequently, there will be competition. This is true within small towns and also in large towns where the neighbors are close. Hmm, sounds like Cedar fits the bill on both of these.
I think Matthew may have hit on something. It may be that - while the organization structure of predominantly LDS society has benefits - that it also has costs that come out as "Utah Crimes".
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