Comments and conclusions about marriage and the family no doubt can be traced back to the first time Mrs. Neanderthal leaned out of her cave to gossip with a neighbour. However, competence is a synonym for ability. It means a satisfactory degree of ability for performing certain implied kinds of tasks. As with virtually all human abilities by practice and purposeful training wide differences result. In this sense, interpersonal competence although based upon inherited potentialities, and directly contributing to self-conceptions, may be compared to acquired skills. To conceive of interpersonal relations as governed by relative degrees of skill in controlling the outcome of episodes of interaction is to diverge greatly from some other explanations of characteristic differences in behaviour. The term “social skills” is now quite widely used. It might seem more advantageous and less awkward to employ it, rather than “interpersonal competence.” Unfortunately, however, it has already accumulated a number of connotations which hinder its conveying what is intended here. Thus social skill often indicates correct etiquette or polish. At other times it means success in achieving popularity through display of coveted virtues. Social skill is also used instead of a word such as rhetoric. In some of the numberless books on self-help and human relations readers are initiated into the various tricks and routines for persuading others—into the sort of skills that are necessary for salesmanship and supervision. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

While selling and supervision are legitimate activities, and success in these no doubt makes some use of interpersonal competence, skill in influencing others would be a very limited and limiting objective to impose upon family life. Countless educational media—though ostensibly not commercially or manipulatively minded—likewise profess to furnish training for leadership, which is described in the language of social skill. Again, however, their emphasis tends to be on institutional ends, to the relative neglect of self-realization in day-to-day family living. However, it is fairly often observed that a person can function quite successfully in one’s job or committee post, though one’s behavior as a husband or father is unsatisfactory to all concerned. Conversely, even the development of extraordinary competence in interpersonal relations—though it may help—cannot guarantee success in business or politics. Despite these warnings against confusing interpersonal competence with the social skills of success literature, a word can be said in defense of the impulse which moves writers and readers of self-help books on human relations. Immense numbers of our fellow-citizens feel inept in their interpersonal relations; they sense narrow limits to their ability to influence or even to conciliate others. Their belief that something can be done about their ineptitude is hopeful and constructive. Were they to adopt the pessimistic alternative, and construe their fate as recalcitrant to all throughout or effort, the result would undoubtedly be grave for them and the community at large. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

The mounting demand for functional courses in marriage and parenthood may be interpreted in part as a response to the fact that knowledge and skill in these matters can no longer be simply absorbed through watching one’s parents. The motives which inspire this demand are not merely intended to repair a deficit. Many people feel that they can learn to do a better job or do a better job than their parents did. In nearly all such expressions the assumption is evident that differing outcomes depend upon relative degrees of competence. One reason people want to be more competent parents is because they do not want their children to grow up to be criminals. Research suggest that the motivational aspects of common property offending can vary significantly. For example, in a five-part taxonomy of shoplifting offenders: impulse, occasional, episodic, amateur, and semiprofessional. Impulse shoplifters are spontaneous in their thefts and do so with little concern of the product’s utility or the consequences of their actions. Their thefts are ritualistic in nature and often arise from some psychological malady (id est, self-punishment, kleptomania, stress, depression). Occasional shoplifters steal inexpensive items for peer approval or to alleviate boredom. Episodic shoplifters are emotionally troubled thieves who steal specific items to satisfy bizarre rituals or perceived needs. Amateur shoplifters are opportunistic thieves who steal select items for which they do not want to pay. Finally, the semiprofessionals are habitual perpetrators who steal large quantities of goods for resale purposes. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

The literature on motor vehicle theft also highlights the presence of varied motivation. We can differentiate between profit motives, transportation motives, and recreational motives among auto thieves. The first of these categories takes on decidedly instrumental qualities while the second and third fit the description of expressive motivations. Most scholars agree that the motivational aspects of automobile theft can be directly linked to the offender’s intent. Those persons (usually youths) who steal cars for joyriding (recreational) purposes tend to exhibit expressive motives (id est, status attainment) while those who intend to resell all or part of the car exhibit toward instrumental motives. There appears to be a sense of situational rationality that goes into the planning and target selection aspects of common property crimes. Take shoplifting, for example. Researchers accompanied known shoplifters though retail environments where they were asked to describe their thoughts and ideas about potential theft opportunities and preferences. The researchers used reported theft histories to categorize some subjects as “novices” and others as “experts.” Novice shoplifters were acutely aware of their surroundings and much more planful about their proposed theft opportunities, processing environmental cues more thoroughly and targeting small, expensive products. Professional automobile thieves (id est, those who steal cars or their parts for resale purposes) are often meticulous in their planning and target selection. They my seek out specific makes and models of cars depending on their resale potential. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

Once an in-demand target has been acquired, they quickly scan the car to assess potential security and surveillance impediments before electing to break into it. Oftentimes, they sell the cars to illegal chop shops that cut the car up and resell it for a profit. A very different trend emerges among youthful car thieves. Most juveniles who steal cars for transportation (id est, to get from point A to point B or to commit a crime) or recreation (id est, to go cruising or show off) engage in little theft planning. We use the term joyrider to describe these offenders. In some cases, joyriders will steal the first soft target available. Other juveniles are more selective, seeking out luxury or sports cars that fit their driving fancy. Drug and alcohol use appears to play a prominent role in the common property theft transaction. When asked to describe their state of mind, more than half of the larceny-theft and automobile theft inmates surveyed indicated that they were under the influence of form of mind-altering substance at the time of their offense. Moreover, it appears that the financial demands of a drug habit often serve as the driving force behind routinized property offending. Interviews with seasoned property offenders establish a clear link between the frequency and intensity of drug use and the frequency and intensity of criminal activity. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

Most common property thieves are quite unsympathetic about their victims’ losses and unapologetic about their own behaviors. They tend to justify their actions and the resulting fallout on the basis of need. Persistent property thieves describe their victims as “suckers” or “tricks” or “easy marks.” This sort of conceptualization allows offenders to downplay the wrongfulness of their actions at the same time as it put them at ease about the degree of loss that they have brought upon their victims. For example, shoplifters will often reason that retail chains can afford minor losses or that they simply pass the losses on to paying customers in a “shoplifting tax” that amounts to mere pennies. Auto thieves have a tendency to emphasize insurance coverage or the temporary nature of a victim’s loses (id est, joyriding) as a way of rationalizing their behavior. The social organization of common property offending can take on a number of forms—offenders organize themselves as loners, colleagues, peers, or even team. The loner variety often takes shape among amateur shoplifters, naïve check forgers, and automobile thieves. Here, the individual lives out a solitary existence, stealing as the opportunity or perceived need arise. Other property offenders operate under a colleague-like level of organization. For example, “systematic check forgers” (habitual offenders) choose to operate alone but are well aware of the other “paper hangers” that are at work in the same area. Professional shoplifters (boosters) tend to organize as peers. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

Under this arrangement, we find offenders embarking upon collaborative theft activities in which short-term roles (id est, lookout, diversionary, box man) are assumed to increase efficiency. In the case of professional automobile thieves, we often see the social organization of offending take on a teamlike format. In these instances, set roles and relationships emerge out of the need for steady business as chop shop owners need reliable in-house employees to cut up stolen cars and reliable thieves to target and deliver in-demand models. Simplicity tends to be a hallmark of the socialization scripts that underlie common property offending. More often than not, learning takes place “on the fly” with a lone offender or collective of offenders reding and reacting to their surroundings. They tend to have considerable contact with the criminal subculture but the lack of planning and pervasiveness of drug and/or alcohol use makes for a less than ideal learning scenario. Only in the case of peer or teamlike arrangements do we see point-by-point instruction taking place. In general, common property crimes do not receive a harsh treatment from the criminal justice system. This trend begins with the legal classification of the offenses. The Model Penal Code contains three-tiered offense grading for the crimes of larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft. The theft of a firearm, any motor vehicle, or any form of property valued in excess of $500 is deemed a felony in the third degree and thus subject to a potential sentence of 1 to 5 years in prison. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

A midlevel grading of misdemeanor is assigned to all thefts in which the targeted property is valued in excess of $50 but not more than $500. These offenses are punishable by up to 1 year in jail. Those theft involving property valued at less than $50 are assigned a petty misdemeanor status, meaning that the perpetrator could be subject to a sanction ranging from a small fine to 6 months in jail. Police are overwhelmed with property crime calls for service. In 2022, law enforcement officers made more than 1.6 million arrests on the charges of larceny-theft (19 percent) and motor vehicle theft (15 percent) were well below those of almost every type of crime, for example, the nearly 50 percent of violent crime clearance rate that was recorded for murder, assault, rape, and robbery combined. In fact, burglary (14 percent) was the only form of index crime to post a lower clearance rate. An arrest is not the only outcome that citizens hope for when they have been the victim of a common property crime. They also ask for the safe return of their valuables. Law enforcement data reveal that police are able to return roughly 60 percent of the stolen automobiles to their rightful owners. These data also show that the recovery of a stolen vehicle more than doubles the likelihood that an arrest will occur. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

Given the shear volume of common property crime arrests that occur each year (larceny-theft cases alone accounted for 52 percent of the index crimes arrests that were recorded by police in 2022), it should come as no surprise that court dockets are overflowing with these cases. Common property offenders comprise roughly 20 percent of all felony defendants that are processed through the U.S.A. court system. Roughly 70 percent of property crime defendants were able to obtain their release from jail while awaiting the final disposition of their case. A full one-third of the bailees engaged in at least one form of misconduct while under conditional release, and one in seven were rearrested before their pending case was even settled. Only 55 percent of the theft-related cases resulted in a felony conviction and sizable portions were resolved via a plea bargain to misdemeanor charges (18 percent) or a dismissal (32 percent). Of all the offenses types represented in the study, we found that felony theft defendants were  less likely (25 percent) to be convicted and sentenced to prison. More often than not, a finding of guilt led to jail time (36 percent) or probation (38 percent). For those theft defendants who were unlucky enough to receive a term of imprisonment, the majority received a sentence of less than 2 years. It is estimated that 1 in every 113 motor vehicle thefts that get reported to police result in an arrest and felony conviction. Moreover, it is contended that slightly more than 1 in 10 of the motor vehicle thefts that produce an arrest will lead to a felony conviction and term of incarceration—with only 6 percent receiving a prison sentence. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

The U.S.A. correctional system also appears to adopt a relatively relaxed approach to common property offenders. On average, these inmates serve less than half of their original sentence behind bars. A person who is imprisoned for felony larceny or fraud can expect to serve only 15 months in prison. These average time served figures are shorter than any other form of felony except felony drug possession. The general public would be hypocritical to complain about the leniency that is afforded common property offenders by the agents of the criminal justice system. There is a severe lack of effort when it comes to the informal social control of common property crime. Take, for instance, the crime of shoplifting. Research has confirmed the long-feared assumption that shoppers are unwilling to intervene in the shoplifting event. For example, we found that few shoplifters come to the attention of store personnel as a result of customer-initiated action. A series of quasi-experimental studies, known as staged shoplifting studies, were conducted to assess the thought process behind this lack of informal social control. Well, it was found that only 30 percent of persons who admitted to witnessing the theft reported the incident to store personnel. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

The race, gender, and perceived social class of the perpetrator play an important role in the shoppers’ decision to intervene in shoplifting. The findings of these staged shoplifter studies have spawned several efforts to get customers more involved in the social control of retail theft. Numerous public awareness efforts have been undertaken to raise levels of concern and intervention among the general public. These include the use of in-store signs, media campaigns, and ingenious school-based initiatives. Regardless of their form and process, we have concluded that these efforts to mobile citizen concern and action have been largely unsuccessful and sometimes unadvised for safety reasons. In the final analysis, public opinion polls establish that the average citizen does not consider shoplifting to be a serious crime. One would think that a capitalist country such as the United States of America would have a low tolerance for theft of personal capital. However, we have long adopted weak formal and informal social control responses to crimes such as larceny and auto theft. Why is it that we as a country have been able to develop and maintain this seemingly conflict set of ideals? It is commonly agreed that drug addiction plays an important part in the motivation of many chronic property offenders. This had led some scholars to argue that the legalization of drugs might be expected to vastly reduce the occurrence of crimes such as theft and fraud. How feasible is this argument and how might one best approach the implementation and empirical assessment of this assertion? #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

With crimes rates being so high, many parents not being fit to have children, and other parents not wanting their children to grow up to become criminals, to have or not to have children has become more fully a matter of judgment and planning, with the consequence of marked fluctuations in fertility among those classes which exercise superior foresight and exert most influence on the other segments of the community. Among rural families and the more traditional urban groups, where children’s labour contributes to family income, children have been wanted in the past as additional hands. However, among the increasing other groups, where each child as an uncompensated cost tends to be evaluated against alternative expenditures of money and effort, a sufficient motive must be found in other terms than economic worth for the child not to be accidental and unwanted. Thus results not only the smalless of contemporary families but the heightened self-consciousness with which couples approach parenthood, instead of taking it for granted. When the population is graded according to income and education, it is found that the major contributors to the baby boom of the early 1950’s, for example, were mostly the same white-collar groups among whom family limitation was most pronounced in the 1930’s. It is among these that early marriage had gained most rapidly since. These families, through the mass media and the public schools, furnish the model for other families, and the deliberateness of their approach to parenthood has become a pervasive cultural influence. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

It could be argued that population dynamics—almost by definition—should not be taken as a conditioning factor external to families. On the other hand, from the standpoint of any given family, it is obvious that the example of family size set by others, the general atmosphere of optimistic or pessimistic expectation, and such tangibles as the availability of large houses and uncrowded schools are rather influential conditions. Families are more likely to feel they must adapt to them, than that they can appreciably modify them. To relate family size positively to family income is coming to be both a cultural and statistical pattern among the prototype strata. The chance to become righteous is not to be waited for, but take or RECEIVED from the ultimate concern. One must learn to speak the truth, trust the truth, have great discernment, and learn to recognize the devious plots of offenders and their counterfeit working of the law. Righteous people work according to laws and conditions, and those who uphold the law become known as trustworthy to others. However, it is important to keep in mind that no man is absolutely right in all that he says and does. Sin has been deeply ingrained in many people, and we cannot believe that sin has been eliminated from the whole being. For one to say, “I am is so wise, I do not believe I can be deceived,” is a shutting off of the eyes to fact around us on every hand. Some people learn more quickly than others. That is true. However, one must not close one’s mind to the facts of life nor the help of others who could throw light upon the way. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

Self-transcendence of morality and culture is constantly endangered by the ambiguity of profanization. The intellectual sphere is a kind of fortress. Ambiguity, however, is the proximate, not the remote, an answer to the objection. For one must ask: Why is there ambiguity? The ultimate answer lies in the nature of life itself, in the actualization of potentiality, in the transition from essence to existence. Ours is a fallen World, id est, in transition from essence to existence. I am not sure it has actually gotten any better or worse, for it is hard to judge suffering. Life has changed, but there are more people on the planet to do more bad, more people on the planet to increase the good, but one thing is for sure, it does not seem that the planet was meant for human life to be as advanced as it is, or as primitive as it is. It depends on how you look at it. For we create a lot of waste and are destroying the natural environment and killing animals. This is not always being done out of malicious intent. For instance, the tiny microbeads that were used in face wash to exfoliate the skin, they are being consumed by humans and fish and are poison and being embedded in our DNA, which alters it. The medications we used to save lives can also harm the environment when they are passed through the body into the sewer system. And then there is plastic. We use a lot of plastic to build houses and make sprinkler pipes and sprinkler heads. The sprinkler pipes and sprinklers used to be made from metal, sometimes brass. However, when the town Paradise, California burned down, the plastics used in housing materials released more toxins in the air than usual. The goal of using plastics was to reduce cost, not to hurt anyone nor the environment. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

The ultimate concerns says that because we are in a unenlightened World, everything we do, even good, causes harm. However, I guess it is better to try and do the right thing, than to knowingly do harm. Eventually, the planet will correct itself. One must keep one’s efforts focused on the creative depth of the ultimate concern. Being self-actualized is part of the human being, namely, the dimensions of depth in all of its functions. People go wrong with the tragic estrangement from their soul loses its own ground and depth. But glorious or inglorious, genuine or distorted, the being cannot be avoided no matter how man twists or turns. It is less than human to live without asking the question, “What is the meaning of this life which is given to me?” And now this is what becoming self-actualized means. Self-actualization means ultimate concern about the ultimate, unconditional seriousness about that which is ultimately serious, infinitely serious, namely, the question of the meaning of my life. While many question what is the purpose of their live, several are born knowing they need to wake up and make money. Until recently Japan was a one-legged nation. If a nation’s global influence springs mainly from military potential wealth, and knowledge, Japan’s, until very recently, rested on one leg of the power triad, much like that of the Soviet Union. Instead of nuclear weapons and the Red Army, Japan had cash. And more cash. But one-legged stools are notoriously unstable. And even wealth has its limitations. For this reason, Japan today is pursuing the power balance. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

At first bullied into military spending by Washington; Japan has recently needed little prodding to expand its armed forces. What has been unthinkable since Hiroshima—the notion of a nuclear-armed Japan—is no longer regarded as entirely out of the question. It has become, instead, a noticeable gleam in the eye of some Japanese hawks. Japan’s military budget is now the third-largest in the World, after that of the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Its hawks, according to their critics, now want to expand  the military’s role beyond Japan’s immediate territorial waters, but China and Japan have been having conflicts over ownership of islands and military expansion. To write a mutual security pact with a neighboring country, giving Japan a definite role as a regional policeman; and to equip the navy with an aircraft carrier so Japanese power can be projected over a much wider radius. Japan’s budding military-industrial complex is champing at the bit to build its own fighter aircraft, missiles, and other advanced weaponry. Companies like Fuji Heavy Industries, Kawasaki, Heavy Industries, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Komatso all produce military goods under U.S.A. license. After acrimonious negotiations with the United States of America, a joint project is under way to build the FSX advanced fighter plane using active phased array radar, sophisticated composite materials, and other advanced technologies. Japan is also engaged in research on missile defense. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

Japan is neither aggressive nor irresponsible. It military, since World War II, has been firmly under civilian control, and every survey shows the Japanese public to be fare more peace-loving than some other nations. Nevertheless, it is hard to say how long that sentiment will last as frictions rise between Washington and Tokyo. It is by no means clear what role the Japanese military might play in Southeast Asia if U.S.A. forces were further weakened or withdrawn; and war or revolution threatened Japan’s huge investments in the region. With political unrest flaring from Beijing and Hong Kong to Manila, Japan’s neighbours in the region have one worried eye cocked on Japan’s rearmament and the other on America’s post-Vietnam retrenchment, its troop withdrawals from South Kore, and its defense cutbacks in general. Japan is now driving toward military self-sufficiency, preliminary to suggesting, it the most courteous way, the U.S.A. forces are no longer needed in Japan—or in the region. In 1988, former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita put Japan’s military buildup in sharp perspective. Japan, he told the Japanese Defense Academy, needed military power to match its enormous new economic clout. Japan is racing to balance its triad. When it comes to China, China’s nominal GDP has just become the second largest in the World. From now on, the World economy will be rapidly adopting a two-towers-dominated shape: with the United States of America and Chinese towers much taller than all other buildings. Moreover, the Chinese tower will continue growing much faster than the American and overtake it, most likely, in the first half of this century. #RndolphHarris 17 of 21

Within this U.S.A.—China duopoly, China will first of all further strengthen its position as the leading manufacturing nation, while America will be the number one services nation. At the same time, China will gradually becoming a strong competitor in services as well. On their part, America and the West have opportunities in manufacturing, but will have to work hard not to miss them. Second, “China as the number one producer” had become an international standard for most manufacturing industries and products. As a rule, gaps between China and the followers are increasing. The circle of industries and goods whose top producer is another nation (in most cases, it is the United States of America) is becoming more and more narrow. By and large, it is already limited to several materials-producing sectors. Third, China’s drive to the number one position in merchandise exports, mostly in manufacturing, was even faster than in manufacturing production. In the electronics/electrical products and the light industry consumer goods sectors it is becoming not just a leading, but a dominant exporter. However, in other industries, China’s growing lead in production does not necessarily translate into the lead in exports, as most of its production increment is absorbed by the domestic market. In these industries China often emerges as a big net importer. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Especially, growth of China’s manufacturing production and exports is accompanied by a rapid increase of the imports of production. What countries and companies will succeed in tapping China’s capital goods market. Up till now, in this regard East Asia has been doing much better than the West. Fourth, Chinese producers have become the World’s dominant players in the production and exports of low-tech—low-end—mass products segment. Their global presence in the low-end—differentiated-product segment and especially in the high-end products segments is much weaker, though increasing. At the domestic market they are rapidly occupying the latter two niches as well. Fifth, China’s manufacturing production/export offensive drastically changes the global rules of the game and the status of Western manufacturers. For the West, if not meaningless, it is getting increasingly difficult to protect traditional local industries from the inflow of affordable made-in-China products by imposing punitive tariffs or other import restrictions. The notion of local industry itself is changing. Because China-West production cost differentials are enormous, Western factories are doomed to lose in the low-tech-low-end mass-products segment and, more and more, also in the segment of high-tech-low-end mass products. In these two segments, globalization and the Chinese offensive deprive them of the economic rationale to continue operating. It is a new globalized World, and it is high time to change the mentality. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

In a way, it is very simple. Here is the World—your World—and if you want to manufacturer a particular item, find the place in this World where you can make it most efficiently and the markets where it will sell well. If you stick to a different way of thinking and want, by all means, to produce in your home country (it is understandable: In spite of globalization, many people, perhaps the majority, would still prefer to live and work in their homeland), then you have to find an answer to the key question: What particular products does it make sense to manufacture there and why? Basically, today’s Western factories have no other rational option but to drift to the segments of low-end-differentiated products but to drift to the segments of low-end-differentiated products and, especially, high-end products—in other words, to aggressively differentiate their products raising nonprice competitiveness. This drive has to be accompanied by the increase in exports, especially to the most dynamic Chinese and other Third World markets. Governments have to do much more for exports promotion. Exportability of the product—its acceptance by consumers around the World—is becoming the major criterion of whether or not it should be manufactured in this or that particular place. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

The number of West-based manufacturers is and will be declining, and only “excellent producers” capable of differentiating their products and competing on their quality and uniqueness will feel good at home. Others will either have to move to China and the like to produce mass products or continue a bitter fight for survival. Sixth, though China is becoming an increasingly important player in the global market of services as well, it is not a strong service economy. To become one, China has shown traditional, committed and skilled human resources, and know-how. China has gained a competitive edge in the service industry. Seventh, China has become one of the World’s leading financial powers (that is why BMW changed the 750iL to the 760Li), and, technically, the number two creditor nation, but its financial might first and foremost reflects the strength of the Chinese state. The major manifestation of this strength is the unprecedented amount of foreign exchange reserves. They are working as a very important factor in global politics, letting China set terms on a wide range of issues. On the other hand, they are brining very modest returns and are not used efficiently enough to solve China’s development problems and raise the living standards of its people. As far as household wealth is concern, China is on its way to becoming a World superpower. Chinese families’ saving rates are exceptionally high. China is a rich state and the wealth of its people is growing rapidly. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

The subject matter of social science is the behavior of human beings. When people are the subjects of any particular study, their permission if not their active co-operation is indispensable. Whether people will permit themselves to be observed, whether they will answer questions truthfully or at all, whether they will carry out experimental tasks, whether indeed they will give of their means to maintain the professional investigator, are all field problems which have to be solved before any new knowledge of their behavior can be gained. After their infancy, it is only in their public behavior that human beings remain indifferent or unaware of observers. One alternative is for the observer to secretly intrude on people’s privacy. To be admitted with their consent as an observer to their private behavior requires the establishment of trust in the investigator and eventually of some kind of reciprocity, some quid pro quo. The significance of these commonplaces of social research may be overlooked or unrecognized when social research is thought to be too closely analogous to natural science. It would be unrealistic to insist that social science cannot be conducted as if it were a natural science. Much of what goes on under this name follows the model of natural science. Its phenomena—its subject matter and subjects—are assumed to be passive objects, indifferently receptive to contemplation or manipulation, and findings of a sort do accrue. Moreover, the goodwill of persons used in this way seems almost inexhaustible, with a manageable modicum of recalcitrant exceptions. However, meanwhile the potentialities of the alternative assumption remain relatively unexplored. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

Social science is the only branch of science which needs the co-operation of its subjects and where the results are of interest to the subjects. This is acknowledged every time the subjects of a survey are promised a later look at the findings. To recognize the subjects’ stake in the social sciences does not infringe the principles of scientific methods; it only demands an acceptance of empirical fact. Yet acceptance of such a pregnant axiom fundamentally affects everything that the social scientists does. The potentialities to be derived from this axiom are so extensive as to raise the question of why they have attracted so little attention up till now. The predominant prestige of the contemplative-manipulative model of natural science may be the reason, or perhaps the blame lies in the social scientist’s failure to appraise one’s professional role. Due to its origins, social science has been pursued mainly as an avocation or as a derivative branch of liberal education; only recently has social research become a full-time paid occupation. In defining one’s profession, the social scientist may conceive oneself as serving several employers or audience. One may conceive oneself as applying one’s techniques to predicting or manipulating the behavior or one group on behalf of another, such as buyers and sellers, voters and office-seekers, workers and managers. Research adds dimension and devices for self-regulation to the persons and groups which before they did not possess, or experienced only through flashes of genius. In this sense social science represents the democratization of critical insight about behavior; it is both the product and means of generalized access to social knowledge and self-control. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

There tends to be a decidedly unskilled dimension to property theft transactions, as thieves seem to prefer to keep things simple. Take, for example automobile theft. As many as 20 percent of all auto thefts require little or no skill on the part of the offender as the offender gains entry through an unlocked door or takes advantage of the keys being left in the vehicle. If a would-be offender is not lucky enough to happen upon a defenseless automobile, then he or she needs only a minimal amount of expertise to close the deal. Very little skill is required to smash a window or gain access using a coat hanger or “slim jim” (a tool designed to assist tow truck drivers or police officers in opening unlocked doors). One inside, the steering column can be easily broken with a hammer or crowbar and the car can be started in seconds with the turn of a screwdriver. Research also shows that automobile thieves, especially seasoned violators, are well versed at defeating antitheft devices such as alarms and steering column locks. An observational study of shoplifters reveals further evidence of the unskilled nature of common property crime. Of the 105 persons observed stealing products in a retail drug store, less than 15 percent relied on anything more than their unmodified clothing to conceal the stolen merchandise. A sizable number of thieves (15 percent) made no effort whatsoever to conceal the merchandise and simply walked out of the store with the product(s) in hand. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

Ecological factors play an important role in our understanding of property theft transactions. For starters, the setting play an important role in the property theft equation. Victimization data reveal that 40 percent to 50 percent of all automobile thefts occur from areas immediately surrounding one’s homes (id est, streets, parking lots, garages). Automobile theft victimizations are also likely to be concentrated in certain places such as parking lots for railway stations, shopping centers, and select public parking lots. The hallmark of these auto theft “hot spots” is that they represent impersonal public venues with large numbers of unoccupied vehicles and low levels of guardianship. Research suggests that retail thieves also try to blend into their environment. Shoplifters seem to prefer a moderately crowded store wherein they can rely on employees to be busy with other customers while at the same time being able to access and conceal merchandise in a secluded location. Similarly, pickpockets seem to thrive in crowded streets or transit stations where they can operate with little fear of detection. The offenders and victims of common property crime are disproportionately young men. The motor vehicle theft victimization rate for a household headed by a person under the age of 20 (27.5 per 1,000) was more than 8 times the rate experienced by households headed by a person 65 years of older. A nearly identical pattern is observed in the offender pool. Persons under the age of 25 accounted for 66 percent of all motor vehicle theft arrets and 56 percent of all larceny-theft arrests occurring. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

Conversely, only a small fraction of the arrests for these two offenses (4 percent of all larceny-theft arrests and 1 percent of all motor vehicle theft arrests that year) involved persons over the age of 50. Self-report data provide further evidence of juveniles’ willingness to engage in common forms of property crime. It was found that nearly one in three high school students admitted to shoplifting to engaging in thefts in excess of $50 (12.5 percent) and motor vehicle theft (5.2 percent). Race also appears to play an important role in the dynamics of common property crimes. For example, data suggests that European American households experience below average victimization rates for motor vehicle theft (8.2 per 1,000), whereas African American (16.1) and Hispanic American (19.8) households experience victimization rates that far exceed the national average. Less pronounced race-based trends are observed in the theft victimization data. Less pronounced race-based trends are observed in the theft victimization data. Shifting to offender-based data, African Americans comprised 31 percent of the larceny-theft arrests and 40 percent of the motor vehicle theft arrests. This means that African Americans are overrepresented by a factor of 2 to 1 in larceny-theft arrest figures and a factor of 3 to 1 with regard to motor vehicle theft arrests. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

Next, we consider the way that gender manifests itself in the common property theft equation. Males accounted for 64 percent of the larceny-theft arrests and 84 percent of the motor vehicle theft arrests occurring. It is worth nothing that no other form of crime posts female arrest percentages that even approach the 37 percent that is observed for the crime of larceny-theft. This anomaly is likely a function of women’s high level involvements in shoplifting. If fact, 51 percent of person who were secretly observed stealing from a chain drug store were women. Most property crime transactions occur quickly, before the unsuspecting victim even knows what happened. Most offenders are able to perpetrate their crimes in a matter of minutes or even seconds without drawing much attention to themselves. Offender-based research reveals that thieves are willing to conceal merchandise on their person within plain view of shoppers or even employees. Property criminals tend to have relatively flat but drawn-out criminal careers. In other words, they tend to perpetrate numerous thefts over the course of their lives but the intensity of the violations remains predictably low. A full 60 percent of the persons charged with a theft-related felony (grand theft, grand larceny, or motor vehicle theft) had a prior felony arrest record. In fact, almost one in eight had a rap sheet containing ten or more prior felony arrets. Only burglary and drug defendants had more involved criminal histories. Over 40 percent of the felony theft defendants had prior felony convictions on their record (10 percent had five or more) and 38 percent were in active criminal justice status (id est, on parole, probation, or pretrial release) at the time of their felony theft arrest. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

A prison stay does not appear to deter common property criminals from future offending. In fact, 79 percent of the automobile thieves and 75 percent of the larceny inmates in a recidivism study were rearrested within 3 years of release. Perhaps more significant is the fact that one-third of the larceny-theft offenders and slightly more than one-tenth of the motor vehicle theft offender found themselves under indictment for the exact same offense within 3 years. Interviews with known juvenile car thieves speaks further to the issue of offense specialization. It appears that a sizable portion of juvenile car thieves (approaching 50 percent) concentrate their illegal activities in the area of car crime. Those who stray outside the ream of auto theft tend to concentrate their offending in the areas of property and/or public order crime. Regardless of their level of specialization, a career portrait emerges in which individuals start out engaging in minor property and public order crime at an early age and then graduate to more serious types of crimes as they move into their late teens and early twenties. The career dimensions of youth automobile crime suggests that most persistent property thieves begin their criminal careers while still in their early teen years. They tend to dabble in a variety of offenses, guided mostly by opportunity and pressure. The frequency and intensity reaches a peak during their twenties while their sill and comfort level with the crimes is at a high and the rigidity of their domestic and employment lives are at a low. Only hardened few see their criminal careers persisting into the middle-age years. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

The development of identity in a person or a group, is established by the pattern of recurrence of related events. The paradox of personality is that it changes; identity is the thread which unites episode to episode, as much as they are untied, but it is a wandering thread, and often not one thread but several. Moreover, there are many transitions and turning points, and each is a dramatic event, which may be appraised as news or as development—as either a subtle or discordant variation on the previous theme. When people help each other in self-examination they greatly alter their notions about themselves. Self-examination alters relations within the group, confirms some tendencies, and discourages others. In a group of affectionate friends, the adjectives used as are potent to cultivate growth as the views of the hostile to curb it. A person flourishes in one group, fails in another, and remains unchanged in a third because no appraisal has been given, it being either repressed or ignored. The secret of self-examination and the secret of families, friends, and foes is that only those can hurt or help us whose view—whether hostile, helpful, or a mixture of both—is close enough to us to be known and respected. From the static view of personality, nothing could result from such a game. According to this there is only one truth, which does not change and it is only enlarged by additional knowledge. However, the developmental view recognizes the reflexive effect of another person’s evaluation. Each description is all the more constitutive as its speaker supposed it fact, and acts accordingly toward the person one so described. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

If all behavior were determined by the ascriptions of others, then the self would be left with no room for movement, or for self-determination; when consensus prevails there is no choice. However, there are always discrepancies in the estimations of others. Even the smallest child soon learns to distinguish between his father’s and mother’s differing evaluation of one’s behavior. And given the chance, one gravitates toward that audience which helps one develop one’s self. At least this hypothesis of the thematic selection from the stream of events appears the only one which can offer the person potential control over the course of one’s own development and prevent the diffusion of one’s identity in episodic flux. Some ascriptions by others are taken as true, some not, and some are problematic and are either rejected or assimilated. Some we wish were true, some not, and there are some perplexing maybe’s. Yes we must tarry to act righteous or else one may be rudely awakened. Take time to think your thoughts through. Do not live on the wrong side of the law. There is a lot of good out in the World, but one has to make sure to surround themselves by people who have morals, ethics, values, and follow the law so they do not go astray. There is a time of development where we learn what is right and wrong, and when we selected actions that are good and noble, opportunities will open up for us. Just as there are numerous academic disciplines which bear upon family behavior from one theoretical aspect or another, so there is a wide range of public and private agencies which attack one kind of practical family problem or another—medical, economic, protective, psychological, educational, or recreational. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

And just as the disciplines tend to segment the family, so do the professions. For example, a strong case has recently been made that family welfare agencies, in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness, ought to coordinate their efforts in order to deal with problem families rather than with family problems. The ultimate measure of the effectiveness of any such agency is take to be the observable change it produces in the behavior are so interconnected within the family that efforts which deal only with one aspect of a person, and that disregard this network have only partial results. Family research, therefore, is here confined to generalization at the level of the family unit. When reduced analytically to the constituent aspects and processes, it is with the idea of reconstituting them as a more direct means of realizing the family’s functions. They very phrase “family research” raises many problems about what include or exclude. Fortunately the issue of reductionism has been threshed out so fully that it may suffice simply to state that a study of the family on its own level is intended. While the network of relationships based on occupation is thus reorganized, consumption patterns likewise shift qualitatively and substantially with inflation and general rise in real family incomes. Even where most gratifying, these gains often have unsettling effects in the development of persons and families. Mass distribution methods and industrial research confront consumers with a frequently bewildering array of incentive to buy. At the same time, amidst general prosperity, the massive fluctuations in particular segments of the national economy are especially disruptive to certain disadvantaged populations—unemployed workers in heavy manufacturing, farmers, aged people on small fixed incomes, the lowest-salaried, the dependent.  #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

Moreover, the strenuous pace of competition for advancement puts severe strains on even the most successful. The takes us to another leg of the power triad: knowledge. The wildfire spread of the computer in recent decades has been called the single most important change in the knowledge system since the invention of movable type in the 15^th century or even the invention of writing. Paralleling this extraordinary change has come the equally astonishing spread of new networks and media for moving knowledge and its precursors, data and information. Had nothing else changed, these twin developments alone would warrant the term knowledge revolution. But as we know, other related changes are transforming the entire knowledge system or “info-sphere” in the high-tech World. They hyper-speed of change today means that given “facts” become obsolete faster—knowledge built on them becomes less durable. To overcome this “transience factor,” new technological and organizational tools are currently being designed to accelerate scientific research and development. Others are intended to speed up the learning process. The metabolism of knowledge is moving faster. Equally important, the high-tech societies are beginning to reorganize their knowledge. As we have seen, the everyday knowhow needed in business and politics is growing more abstract every day. Conventional disciplines are breaking down. With the help of the computer, the same data or information can now easily be clustered or “cut” in quite different ways, helping the users to view the same problem from quite different angels, and to synthesize meta-knowledge. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

Meanwhile, advanced in artificial intelligence and expert systems provide new ways to concentrate expertise. Because of all these changes, we see rising interest in cognitive theory, learning theory, “fuzzy logic,” neurobiology, and other intellectual developments that bear on the architecture of knowledge itself. Knowledge is being restructured at least as profoundly as violence and wealth, meaning that all the elements of the power triad are in simultaneous revolution. And each day the other two sources of power themselves become more knowledge-dependent. This, then, is the turbulent background against which the rise and fall of civilizations and of individual nations needs to be seen, and it explains why most current power assessments will prove misleading. Diplomats like to talk about the balance of power. The powershift principle helps us gauge not only the balance of power but the “power of balance.” Nations (or alliances) can be divided into three types: those whose power is based predominately on a single leg of violence-wealth-knowledge stool, those whose power rests on two legs, and those whose global clout is balanced on all three of the main sources of power. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

To judge how well the United States of America, Japan, or Europe will fare in the global power struggle to come, we need to look at all three of these sources of power, focusing special attention on the third: the knowledge base, since this will increasingly determine the value of the other two. This knowledge base includes far more than conventional items like science and technology or education. It encompasses a nation’s strategic conceptions, its foreign intelligence capabilities, its language, its general knowledge of other cultures, its cultural and ideological impact on the World, the diversity of its communication systems and the range of new ideas, information, and imagery flowing through them. All these feed or drain a nation’s power and determine what quality of power it can deploy in any given conflict or crisis. Going beyond the triad, the powershift principle introduces a further useful insight by asking about the relationship of violence to wealth to knowledge in any given period. If we look at the power balance, as distinct from the balance of power, we discover that throughout the Cold War, the power of the United States of America has been extremely broadly based. America not only had massive military might but supreme economic clout, and the World’s best supply of power-knowledge, ranging from the finest science and technology to a popular culture much of the World wished to emulate. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

By contrast, the Soviet power was, and remains, totally unbalanced. Its claim to superpower status derived exclusively from its military. Its economy, a shambling wreck at home, counted for little in the World’s system. While its Research and Development was excellent in a few defense-related sectors, its general technological know-how was backward, cramped by paranoid secrecy. Its telecommunications were abominable. Its education system was mediocre, its centrally controlled media, tightly censored and backward. Over the long run of the Cold War, it was the power-balanced United States of America, rather than the one-legged Soviet Union, that won the enduring race. This insight, only half-understood by the main global players, helps explain much of what China, Europe, the United States of America, and Japan are doing as they race toward their coming collision. In 2022, the total household wealth in China was USD $2.6 trillion, now ranking second in the World. With the rapid development of financial markets and the increase in family wealth, the importance of family finance has become increasingly prominent. In relative terms, the Chinese save much more than Westerners. It is a well-known and frequently mentioned fact. In the 2000s, households’ net savings in China stood at a 20-25 percent of their disposable income. The average American savings account balance is $4,500. Between 1959-2022, the average U.S.A. saving rate has been 8.96 percent. The average household savings rate in the United States of America was only 5.1 percent in the second half of 2022. In total, gross personal savings in the U.S.A. is worth USD $2.3 trillion. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

The gross financial assets of Chinese households increased 13.6 percent to USD $29,689 billion in 2020. The financial position of the United States of America includes assets of at least USD $117.72 trillion in 2021. At this point China’s strength as a global financial power does not stem from the wealth accumulated by Chinese people. It is rather the opposite: State coffers overfilled with cash on the one hand and mostly not-so-wealthy, if not poor, households on the other This situation may be socially explosive, as there are 560 million people in China is zero in saving. Is China already a new major financial power? Yes, definitely yes. However, it is a financial superpower of a very special kind. Its financial strength does not stem from the wealth of the vast majority of its citizens. First and foremost, it reflects the might of the state, which, due to soaring exports and inward investment, accumulated a -tremendous amount of foreign currency reserves. The Chinese ruling elite feels very comfortable on the international area using this financial might as big leverage to win concessions from its counterparts and push its own interests and priorities. This is one of the major reasons why it is not that eager to reduce the country’s trade surplus and to speed up the appreciation of yuan. The weak yuan is a political choice whose main goal is to strengthen the system of Communist Party rule. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

France—household saving rate was 17.43 percent in December of 2022, Germany household saving rate is 19.96 in December of 2022, in Italy the gross saving rate in December 2022 was an average of 20.3 percent. Households’ saving ratio as of the second quarter of 2020 was 23.9 percent in the United Kingdom. The household saving rate in the euro area (EA-19) was 14.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. In the fourth quarter of 2022, financial assets held by households in Japan amounted to USD $15.02 trillion. IN 2021, China had 6.2 million millionaires, up by more than a million from 2020, while globally total number of millionaires increased by 5.2 million. That number in China is expected to double to 12.2 million in five years time. Global household wealth reached USD $463.6 trillion by the end of 2021, mainly propelled by a strong rise in financial assets, which worsened inequality in 2021. Global household wealth is expected to increase by USD $169 trillion by 2026 to USD $632.6trillion. China is rapidly emerging as a leading international lender. Its major state-owned banks are feeling more and more confident as major players in the global banking community. In other important respects—effectively all the respects unrelated to the state and state-owned financial entities—today’s China is still becoming a financial superpower in the true meaning, and as it does, life will change around the globe. The role of its companies (not to say its individuals) as international investors remains comparatively small, though it is growing. Most companies are still gaining international experience and expertise. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

 China’s domestic financial market is heavily regulated. Still, the global market is dominated by the West, but Chinese financial institutions have already joined the leaders’ ranks. Demand for the yuan as an international currency is growing, but we are not sure how it will challenge the dollar or euro until it is allowed to appreciate. Western governments have become increasingly dependent on China as a creditor. With $1.1 trillion in Treasure holdings, Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S.A. debt. Japan surpassed China as the top holder in 2019 as China shed over $250 billion, or 30 percent of its holdings in four years. Chinese state-owned banks will establish a key position among the World’s major lenders to clients not only in the developing, but also in the developed World. A relatively narrow circle of big companies, especially state-owned ones, will rapidly develop as important foreign direct investors. On the other hand, the formation of a wider range of strong Chinese multinationals, include private firms—a range comparable to the one in the major countries of the West—will take a longer period of time, as well as the emergence of a cohort of Chinese largescale investors into securities around the World. In these areas, competition from China is still relatively mild. The wide-scale and rapid growth of leisure—through shorted working hours, vacations, lengthened schooling, and retirement—has created vast new wants which American culture as yet does not fully satisfy. The aspiration for leisure is often associated with a lack of involvement in work, but with everything costing so much, many people are looking to pick up more hours at work, instead of shallow and restless pursuit of a good time. Many see that our students need to become more serious so they can compete with China. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Personality has become an object of popular concern, as much as the soul was formerly. The belief in fostering the optimal development of children, in psychosocial respects as well as physically and mentally, is propagated through countless media and organizations, among which the parent-teacher associations are pre-eminent and characteristic of the American scene. Due to the desire for scientific sanction for practices adopted, it is not too early to speak of the professionalization of parenthood, or at least of motherhood. Except for those who remain thoroughly confident of traditional recipes for child-rearing, many parent exhibit some uncertainty and even anxiety over the satisfactory performance of their own roles and their children’s development. This effortfulness may therefore somewhat limit the joy and ease with which they conduct their family living. Popular concern with mental health and hygiene, which are professionally recognized as primarily the responsibility of the home, adds a special edge to the concerns of certain families. Stray psychiatric thought lends a faintly ominous tinge to some of the literature intended for normal parents of normal children, and may thereby accentuate—among those who expose themselves to it—the hazards as against the satisfactions of family life. It is possible that in retrospect his decade will be seen as a transitional to one in which professional emphasis will be upon the joys of competent performance as parents, rather than upon the difficulties and threats of failure. It is unlikely, however, that a later decade will witness any decline of parental self-awareness, as long as better knowledge and recommended practice continue to be evolved. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

Life has many functions. People are to be logical, aesthetic, ethical, and social. These spheres, theoretical and practical, are concerned with the fulfilment of meaning for the self-actualized. Thus, in the sphere of knowledge, culture attends to conditioned forms of being and their unity. In the sphere of law, the unconditioned person learns the personal grounds of every right; and, in the social sphere, to unconditioned love. Self-actualization is the practice of learning to use one’s power and meaning in unity to designate the human dimension of life to causes that improve humanity, environment and self. Life is the actualization of potential. Life actualizes itself in several dimensions or realms which, while distinct and often in conflict, compenetrate one another. In each of these dimensions life is actualized in three basic functions: self-integration, self-creativity, and self-transcendence. Self-integration appears as morality; self-creativity, as culture; and self-transcendence of life under the dimension of morality. The goal is to adhere to the ultimate concern, and this state cannot be restricted to a special realm. The unconditional character of this concern implies that it refers to every moment of our life, to every space ad every realm. The subjective unconditionality of the ultimate concern means it encompasses the total engagement of the person, is linked with objective unconditionality, the ground and abyss of being and meaning. Once in the grasp of such ultimates, man cannot limit his response to an isolated area. The scope of life and self-transcendence is not another horizontal line of actualization, but a striving in the vertical direction toward the ultimate and infinite being. Self-actualization has no horizons; its only dimensions are the unlimited height and dept of being and meaning. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

We have seen that activities related to transportation and store in the stolen property system (SPS) can be shared by fence and thief. The sharing of responsibility for these functions is not, however, haphazard nor random in nature. Instead it is determined by the degree of control which each is considered to determine by the degree of control which each is considered to exercise over the stolen property at a given point in time. Thus, any storage or transportation activities that are required, pursuant to an agreement reached in the exchange process, are likely to be performed by the thief. Once this exchange agreement has been satisfied any further need for transport or storage becomes the fence’s responsibility. To require the thief to perform such functions beyond those pursuant to the exchange process would be to defeat one’s prime motivation for making an agreement with the fence, which is to divest oneself of the stolen property. Similarly, to require the fence to perform these functions prior to an exchange agreement would force one to exercise control over property which one has not as yet decided to purchase. Both thief and fence recognize that their possession of (id est, effective control over) stolen property requires the performance of certain activities; neither, however, will be willing or likely to assume responsibility for such activities once possession has been relinquished or before it has been undertaken. The final activity area, marketing mode, which includes transportation and storage, demand analysis, packaging, and advertising, of the SPS is the preparation of property resale. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

This is almost exclusively the province of the criminal receiver who, following the exchange with the thief, becomes the new seller of the merchandise. It is the fence who takes responsibility for decisions relating to modification of the goods prior to sale, in what quantities one will sell the goods, and in what manner one will present the items to potential customers. With some items, such as automobiles, the fence will find it important to remove or disguise identifying numbers while keeping the make and model apparent. In other cases, with fair-traded appliances for example, it may be more important to disguise make and model than identifying numbers. The type of customer which the fence serves, whether retail or wholesale, corporate or individual, knowledgeable or native, will determine the quantities in which the merchandise is sold and the manner in which it is promoted. The planning and coordination of activities in the packaging and promotion area emphasize again the organizational know-how and financial base which a fence needs to operate efficiently. It also serves to explain why one may not be able to “afford” to reward the thief too generously for one’s efforts. There are certain limited cases in which the thief shares responsibility for preparing stolen property resale. One such case is that of the professional thief. ITEM 16: (interview with Greg, professional burglar) “As soon as we finished a job we always went back to my apartment. There I’d remove all the stones from their settings, weight them, appraise them and put them in jeweler’s paper to protect them.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

Greg explained that this was done for two reasons: first, as a form of protection. Often the only identity possessed by a gem is its setting. By removing a gem from its setting, then, its identification becomes much more difficult so that even upon apprehension by the police one and one’s associated had a good chance of not being charged with anything. Second, Greg found that he could make better deals with fences with loose stones since he had saved them the trouble of removing the setting. In addition, the origins of the items could remain somewhat obscure protecting both of them. The professional thief is probably one of the few classes of thieves who has sufficient skill or motivation to perform such preparatory activities. It is obvious that one does not perform them as a favor to the fence but out of one’s own self-interest. This activity area in mode 4, then, is similar to the area of transportation and storage where activities are performed by the individual in control of the property. Because of the nature of the packaging and promotion activities and the point in time in which they occur, it is the fence who in nearly all situations is in possession of the merchandise. Responsibility for these activities, therefore, falls primarily on one. From our review of mode 4 activity areas it also becomes quite clear that the fence is the prime mover in the marketing process of the SPS. Nonsequential activity performance—the second axiom of the SPS relates to the nonsequential nature of the functioning modes. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

 In order to demonstrate the sort of variety which this axiom suggests, we will discuss three modal configurations in the SPS: (1) the system beginning at mode 2 (extraction) and proceeding spontaneously; (2) the system beginning at mode 1 (planning), moving to mode 3 (exchange agreement) then to mode 2 (extraction) and finally proceeding to modes 4 and 5; (3) the system beginning at the mode 5 (redistribution) then moving to modes 1, 3, 2, and 4 in that order. Each of these configurations represents not only different degrees of determinateness in the SPS, but also different degrees of integrative control exhibited by the fence. The SPS beginning at extraction mode 2, having eliminated a research and planning phase. This configuration can be termed the “cheapest opportunity” model. It is likely to be initiated by the least killed thief or the addict thief. Because of the lack of planning involved, it will also be the least determinate, least integrated and least efficient model in the SPS for one of two reasons. First, it is unlikely to yield property of great resale valuesince its targets must be those which can be attacked spontaneously and with a minimum effort. For example: ITEM 17: (police radio message item) “B & E at pawnbroker’s shop on____ St. Window broke and two trays of jewelry removed. Assailant believed to be on foot.” In some cases, this model of the SPS will yield nothing at all and instead will serve only to create a disturbance within the environment surrounding the system. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

ITEM 18: (police activity report) “Alarm sounded at warehouse on ____ Avenue. Two w/m seen running from building. Would-be thieves didn’t have time to get anything. Pct 2. will put a patrol car in the area in case they try again.” The second reason why the “cheapest opportunity” model is inefficient is that it fails to predetermine a demand for merchandise. For example, consider the luckless thieves below who managed to steal merchandise of some value but whose lack of planning rendered it not only valueless to them but also incriminating. ITEM 19: (police activity report) “X and Y (thieves) were arrested this AM in the act of trying to peddle meat from the ____ warehouse. They did not have a refrigerated truck so most of it had already started to spoil when recovered.” This model, if it is to be effective at all, requires the existence of the generalist fence who is willing to handle a wide range of items of varying quality and indeterminate quantity. The SPS does of course provide for this sort of individual in the form of owners of secondhand and general merchandise outlets and used furniture and appliance stokes. Fences who engage in this sort of trade do so because they can acquire property very inexpensively from hard-pressed thieves whose lack of planning has put them in precarious possession of stolen property. If, then, the thefts initiated of the least rewarding variety to the thief. For the fence they also represent the “cheapest opportunity” since they comprise the best bargains one can get from any set of thieves. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

If this model is to have any determinateness, it is the fence who must introduce it by manipulating the rewards offered in the exchange mode. By giving such direction to the thief’s activities, the fence is not generating a planning process but only narrowing the range of products which one is likely to encounter. This can help make the thief a bit more predictable and the system a bit more determinate and efficient. This model of the SPS remains, however, the least integrated configuration. The SPS in the modal sequence of planning (mode 1), exchanging (mode 3), extraction (mode 2), marketing (mode 4), and redistribution (mode 5). This is the “exchange-oriented” model of the system in which thefts are planned but not carried out until the terms of the exchange agreement and the responsibilities for activities pursuant to that agreement are determined. This model is significantly more determinate and efficient than is the “cheapest opportunity” model, although this is only true through the exchange-extraction process. The marketing and redistribution modes retain an indeterminate quality in this model. The degree of integration in the “exchange-oriented” model depends upon who generates and plans the theft and who initiates the terms of the exchange agreement. Two basic situations are possible: the thief-generated pact, and the fence-generated pact. The thief-generated pact is the situation in which the thief assures a market for the theft one envisions by making preliminary arrangements with a fence to buy the product of one’s activities. In some sense, then, t is the thief’s insurance policy which one hopes will prevent one from being caught holding stolen property unnecessarily. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

ITEM 20: (Robert E. Barnes) “one…must always remain conscious of the fact, it is impracticable for the thief to steal what one cannot sell. What should be of vital importance to law enforcement officials is the fact that semi and professional thieves seldom steal before they sell, thus proving the fact that all major crimes whereas [sic] merchandise is involved would never occur if there were no outlets for this merchandise.” In many cases the professional thief wants more than the assurance of a market, one may also want to make sure that one’s efforts will be sufficiently rewarded before attempting a “big score.” Perhaps the most important element of the above statement is the fence’s “if.” It is clear that the professional thief can succeed in getting binding agreement upon the fence before one has seen the merchandise. Robert E. Barnes, for example, maintains that fences are notorious for promising to pay a certain price prior to the thefts of goods and then defaulting on the agreement later. The thief-generated pact under the exchange-centered model of the SPS, then, does not display very much integration. All it really does is assure the thief of a buyer and notify the fence as to the type of property one is likely to receive and when. The fence-generated pact is somewhat different. Here a high degree of integration can be introduced into the system as the fence has opportunity to specifically direct the activities of the thief and to beneficially determine the products one will acquire. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

The fence who plans the theft and who provides information important to its commission is also in a position to extract from the thief a specific exchange agreement. This makes for a highly rationalized extraction process which has been preplanned with an exchange phase that is predetermined. The integrative control of the fence over the exchange-extraction process produces a more efficient and determinate model of SPS behavior. The SPS beginning at the redistribution phase (mode 5) and proceeding through mode 1 (planning), mode 3 (exchange), mode 2 (exchange), and mode 4 (marketing). This final modal configuration of the SPS is by far most complex and sophisticated sequence. The most apt term for this configuration s the “production to order” mode. What happens in this case is that no activities relating to  theft are initiated until and order for the merchandise has been received. Once this order is received, the theft is planned; an exchange agreement decided upon; the extraction carries out; and the marketing activities completed. And all of the above processes are coordinated and directed by the fence. The “production to order” model is an accommodation made in the legitimate marketplace to avoid the stacking up of inventory surpluses and gluts in the marketing process. The fence uses the model for similar reasons but has the advantage over the legitimate marketer that one’s suppliers (thieves) are likely to produce goods quicker than is the legitimate manufacturer who supplies the legitimate businessman. The model, then, is likely to be much more effective within the SPS than it has been found to be in the legitimate marketplace. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

The most frequent cited example of the “production to order” model in the SPS is the auto theft ring. Instances have been reported of automobiles being stolen to meet the exact specifications of buyers, with color and bogus engine numbers added before resale. Robert Earl Barnes suggests that the “production to order” model is not limited to the stolen auto area, being particularly prevalent in the hijacking and cargo theft arena: “Prior to any hijacking, the merchandise has already been sold to underworld sources, and once the crime has been set-up, and carried out by the thieves, the merchandise is extremely difficult to recover, as it may go out for resale on the legitimate market to as many as 50 to 100 middle men.” Both the “cheapest opportunity” and “exchange-centered” models of the SPS require the fence to have increasing amounts of control over the forces of supply in the system. The “production to order” model requires of one the ability to generate the forces of demand as well. Demand control by the fence is somewhat more amorphous than is supply control. It will depend on such things as one’s individual abilities to forecast the desire of disparate customers: the kinds of contacts one has been able to cultivate at the wholesale and retail levels of the legitimate marketplace; and often upon one’s particular occupation. For example, the individual described blow pursues a legitimate occupation of which generating orders for merchandise is an integral part. Their additional abilities to initiate an illegitimate supply process, allows them to operate a tight and effective stolen property distribution system. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

ITEM 23: (police activity report) “Mr. S who owns a jewelry manufacturing company is alleged to be fencing for some of our better burglars. He supposedly has nationwide customers and contacts. Should be kept in mind whenever jewelry is taken in residence jobs.” The control which the fence has over the sequencing of events in the SPS under the “production to order” model makes it possible for one to bring the forces of demand and supply into a fairly stable equilibrium. This makes the model highly efficient and determinate. It also serves to protect all of the persons involved since by insuring that all aspects of the system are coordinated beforehand, stolen property can move swiftly to its final destination, minimizing the risk of either thief or fence being found in possession of it. The limits upon the “production to order” model are of two orders. The model is limited, first, by the individual ability of the fence to generate demand (id est, contacts and outlets to do business with one.) Second, the model hinges upon the amount of organizational and financial resources at the fence’s disposal which can facilitate the completion of all activities based in mode 4, the marketing mode. This is perhaps the more important limitation since it defines the size and scope of one’s operation. If one cannot command the use of storage and transportation, or cannot finance the performance of such activities by others, no matter how organizationally skilled the fence is his business volume will remain small. The “production order” model need not, then be characterized by large scale operations. Instead this model describes a highly integrated, tightly controlled and finely precisioned model of the SPS in which the fence is both the orchestrator and the central character. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

The Powershift Era has only begun and already, it would appear, the future is up for grabs. With the “East” in upheaval, the “South” increasingly divided, and the leading powers of the “West”—Europe, Japan, and America—on a collision course, we face a frantic, endless round of summits, conferences, treaties, and missions as diplomats meets to construct a new global order. No matter how much hammering, sawing and wordsmithing they do, however, the new architecture of World power will depend less on their words than on the quantity and quality of power each brings to the table. Are the United States of America and the Soviet Union both now global has-beens? If so, how many new “superpowers” will arise to take their place? Some speak of a World organized around Europe, Japan, and the United States of America. Others see the World broken into six or eight regional blocs. Still others believe the bipolar World is turning into a five-sided star, with China at one of the points, India at another. Will the new Europe stretch from the Atlantic to the Soviet border—or beyond? No one can solve these puzzles with certainty. However, the powershift principle can help. It reminds us that while many other factors—from political stability to population growth—all count, violence, wealth, and knowledge are the three main rivers from which most other power resources flow, and each is now in the process of being revolutionized. Take violence. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

So much has been written about “peace breaking out” that World attention has drifted away from the menacing fact that as the two former superpowers scale down their arms, other nations are racing to fill the gap. India, for example, despite its image as a backward, peace-loving land, has been the World’s biggest arms buyer since 1986, purchasing in 1987 more weapons than warring Iran and Iraq combined. This policy had drawn fire from the Japanese and a sharp riposte from New Delhi. India already possesses nuclear weapons and is party to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which allows the country to develop a missile with a range of over 300 km weighing more than 500 kg but not to export it to other countries. This is true even in the case of the supersonic BrahMos missile, the latest variant of which has a range of 500 km. The export version is capped at 290 km to comply with the MTCR restrictions of 300 km. The BrahMos-II is expected to be capable of travelling at speeds of up to Mach 7 and had a range of over 300 miles. It is being designed to be launched from multiple platforms, including land, air, and sea. Hypersonic weapon systems are advanced military technologies that can trave at extremely high speeds, typically defined as Mach 5 or higher (five times the speed of sound). These weapons are designed to be extremely maneuverable, able to change course quickly and evade enemy defence, an dcan travel long distances in a very short time. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

Furthermore, HWS are capable of carrying out launches from a variety of platforms, including ground-based systems, aircraft, and submarines. They are typically designed to carry conventional or nuclear warheads and are seen as a potential game-changer in military operations, particularly in terms of their speed, range, and ability to penetrate enemy defence. Pakistan continues to expand its nuclear arsenal with more warheads, more delivery systems, and a growing fissile materials production industry. Analysis of a large number of commercial satellite images of Pakistani army garrisons and air force bases shows that appear to be launchers and facilities that might be related to the nuclear forces. We estimate that Pakistan now has a nuclear weapon stockpile of approximately 165 warheads. The U.S.A. Defence Intelligence Agency projected in 1999 that Pakistan would have 60 to 80 warheads by 2020, but several new weapon systems have been fielded and developed since then, which leads us to the higher estimate. Pakistan may become the World’s third-largest nuclear weapon state—with a stockpile of some 350 warheads by 2030. If the trend continues, their stockpile could more realistically grow to around 200 warheads by 2025. According to William Webster of the CIA, fully fifteen countries are known to produce ballistic missiles: the United States of America, France, Russian, China, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, Egypt, Syria, Ukraine, and Argentina. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

Beyond this lie a number of terrifying scenarios. Soviet nukes are located in Azerbaijan and other Muslim republics where ethnic fighting has broken out, leading some experts to speculate on the nightmarish possibility that a breakaway republic might seize some of these weapons. Asks one alarmed U.S.A. official: “Will the fourth-biggest nuclear power be Kazakhstan?” So serious are the risks that Moscow had reportedly begun withdrawing nuclear arms from the tense Baltic region, and a top Soviet official, speaking privately to the author, has said: “I used to be against SDI [Washington’s Strategic Defense Initiative whose goal is to intercept and destroy income nuclear missiles]. But now I’m for SDI. If the U.S.S.R. splits apart, the World could suddenly find itself confronted with ten more nuclear-armed countries.” In fact, a civil war in the Soviet Union—or any other nuclear power-raises the possibility that rebel forces might seize the weapons, or that rebel and loyalist forces might each seize part of the nuclear arsenal. Even more ominously, some “developing countries”—Iraq and Libya are not alone—are designing plans to manufacture chemical and bacteriological weapons as well. The present distribution of weapons in the World, and especially nuclear weapons, neither fixed nor stable. A key source of state power, therefore, the capacity for hyper-violence that was once concentrated in a few nations, is now becoming democratically but dangerously dispersed. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

At the very same time, the nature of violence itself is undergoing profound change, becoming increasingly dependent on such knowledge-intensive technologies as microelectronics, advanced materials, optics, artificial intelligence, satellites, telecommunications, and advanced simulation and software. Thus, whereas the first F-16 fighters needed 135,000 lines of computer programming, the Advanced Tactical Fighter now on the drawing boards will require 1,000,000 lines. These changes in World military systems do more than merely shift power from here to there; they revolutionize the nature of the global game. Shintaro Ishihara, a former Cabinet member in Japan, blew up a storm in Washington recently with a brief book called The Japan That Can Say No, which consisted of speeches he and Akio Mortia, co-founder of Sony, had made on various occasions. In it Ishihara pointed out that to radically improve the accuracy of their nuclear weapons to the United States of America and the U.S.S.R. alike would need extremely advanced Japanese-made semiconductor technology. Referring to the United States of America, he said, “It has come to the point that no matter how much they continue military expansion, if Japan stopped selling them the chips, there would be nothing more they could do. If, for example, Japan sold ships to the Soviet Union and stopped selling them to the U.S.A., this would upset the entire military balance. Some Americans say that is Japan were thinking of doing that, it would be occupied. Certainly, this is an age where things could come to that.” Mr. Ishihara’s remarks underscore the growing dependence of violence on knowledge, a reflection of today’s historic powershift. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

Meanwhile, when it comes to powershifts, China has become the largest international lender for developing countries, and it rapidly emerging as one of the World’s leading lender nations. China’s overseas development finance is almost as sizable as the World Bank’s, though more intermittent in nature. From 2008-2019, Chinese overseas development finance amounted to nearly half a trillion dollars–$462 billion. In the same time period, the World bank (through its sovereign lending windows, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Development Association), barely exceeded this amount, extending $467 billion. China has also become a global infrastructure powerhouse, reflecting the goals of the Belt and Road Initiative. Over half of the finance commitments listed in the dataset–$249 billion—went to construction of infrastructure projects, particularly in the sectors of transportation and power generation and distribution. In terms of assets, Chinese commercial banks, especially the Big Four (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Agricultural Bank of China), are rapidly approaching the World’s top 10. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is the sixth largest bank in the World, and has total assets for the quarter ending September 30, 22 of $5,774.397 billion, a 19.3 percent increase year-over-year. CITIGROUP INC $2.4 trillion, BNP $2.67 trillion. Chinese commercial banks are becoming increasingly important lenders for Western companies. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

When the self-actualized first hear of the possibility of counterfeits in the hierarchy and sacred things, they almost invariably ask, “How are we to know which is which?” It is enough, first of all, for them to know that such counterfeits are possible. Then, as they mature and seek light from the ultimate concern, they shall learn to know for themselves, in a way that no human being can explain to them. However, they cry, “We do not know, and how can we know?” Well, they should remain neutral to all forms of enlightenment. There is among many self-actualized a wrong anxiety to know, as if that knowledge alone would extricate them. They think that they must be solidly for or against certain things, things which they cannot decide are from the ultimate concern or an unenlightened source. They desire to know infallibly which is which, that they may declare their position. However, self-actualized should take only a tentative attitude of “for” or “against” while uncertain whether the things in doubt are sacred or of the unenlightened nature—maintaining the wisdom and safety of the neutral position. In time, by a means which cannot be fully described, they will know what they have wanted to understand. Over-eagerness in desiring certitude can result in mental suffering, restless anxiety, worry and grief, which can cause a loss of moral poise and power. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

It is important in seeking one source of knowledge not to destroy another. In seeking certainty in these matters of the ultimate concern, let not the self-actualized lose patience, and calm, quiet restfulness and assurance. Let one watch oneself, lest the offenders gain advantage, and rob one of moral power even while one is keen to get light regarding the way of victory. The battle for truth may keep us awake at night. The source of expression can sometimes be a mystery. One’s thoughts and feelings come, not from any attempt to force change, but from an intense and compelling desire to live and respond fully to life. One’s communication may be strong and intense, a response to indifference, to purely self-centered interests, to sleep in the face of tragic searching and suffering. Perhaps these intense feelings are potent enough to break into one’s own detachment, isolation, and loneliness. In the face of human struggles met with complacency and indifference, one may begin to feel deeply the tragic nature of the life before one. One may begin to experience once more an involvement and intoxication with life. The mystery of what it is all about remains to be unsolved for some. The metaphysical solution one seeks may never come to one but that is not the ultimate concern. Once one is in touch with people of like-mind, fully awake, with all of one’s sense, a search for communal values is underway. This is essential beginning. Everything is moving toward this reality. People will appear in the dawn of the new day. Everything has to recrystallize. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Ambiguity is a characteristic not of the structure of being, but of the process of life, according to which positive and negative elements are mixed in such a way that definite separation of the negative from the positive is impossible. The positive elements are essential elements, and the negative ones are existential; however, they cannot be separated simply into good and evil, for in all life processes an essential and an existential element, created goodness and estrangement, are merged in such a way that neither one nor the other is exclusively effective. For example, one of the ambiguities of being self-actualized, is that, on the one hand, it is self-transcendent—it points beyond itself to the ultimate concern, on the other hand, it is profanized—it becomes a finite institution, a sociological unit subject to the same laws that govern secular groups. Life basically consists in a going-out and a return-to-self. Against this movement of life there is always a counter-movement, so that the life process of self-integration struggles against disintegration; self-creativity struggles against destruction; and self-transcendence struggles against profanization. This struggle of tendencies—one positive, one negative—is ambiguity. The sacred is ambiguous because it embraces the clean (the positive) and the unclean (the negative), both of which produce “numinous awe.” However, this ambiguity is merely an instance of the more radical ambiguity of the scared which embraces bot divine and the demonic. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

The sacred manifests itself in consecrated objects, for without the finite bearer of the revered, the sanctified would remain unknowable. These objects are not sacred in themselves, but they become consecrated only by negating themselves in pointing to the sanctified which they are the medium. If their sacredness is considered inherent, they become demonic. They are still sacred, but their sacredness is anticonsecrated. These sacred objects, whose function is to represent man’s ultimate concern, usurp the place of the hallowed and establish themselves as his ultimate concern. They are transformed into idols. Sacredness provokes idolatry. As an example of demonic, we can consider the Roman empire which became demonically possessed in compelling men to worship itself. Both the sacred and the demonic appear n the concrete as ecstatic, overpowering, and awe-inspiring. However, the demonic refuses to bow to the unconditioned, and, in fact, elevates itself to the same level. If the ambiguity of the divine-demonic loses its tension and the two elements are separated, the result is a religious dualism such as Manichaeism. Religious dualism concentrates divine holiness in one realm and demonic holiness in another realm. Reality is then partitioned between the two realms, and what belongs to the demonic realm is essentially evil. The concern is to keep the divine and the demonic, the clean and the unclean, ambiguously united, as they re in the primitive notion of the holy. One never ceases to remind us that the demonic’s favored place is the holy. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

This analysis of the experience of the holy lays bare the root of faith. The unconditionality of ultimate concern springs from an encounter with the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the ground and abyss of being and meaning. The total demand of ultimate concern is explained by the stern “ought-to-be” of the holy, while ultimate concern’s promise of total fulfilment arises from the majestic presence of the holy. The ambiguity of faith, the possibility of its deterioration into idolatrous faith, is accounted for by the ambiguity of the holy itself which is open to invasion by the demonic. A systematic analysis inevitably dilutes the intensity of a religious experience. As a gesture to offset this loss, we conclude the exposition of faith with the poetic description of the moment of faith. It is only in a concrete situation that the ultimate power of being, the ground of reality appears and reveals the infinite depth and meaning of the present moment. Yet, in the light of the ultimate the concrete present is shown in all its shallowness. Thus it affirms and negates; it is transparent for its ground which is also its abyss. The experience is like a blinding flash of lightning at night. Reality is seen as something new, for in the ecstasy of faith its ground is glimpsed. Nor do we remain as detached subjects staring at an object, for we are seized in the very center of our personality. We are grasped, in the experience of faith, by the unapproachably holy which is the ground of our being and breaks into our existence and which judges us and heals us. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

As young adult, we might find the temptation to give in to jealousy especially strong. We are all eager (if not anxious) to find the sense of security that comes from becoming self-reliant and reaching certain cultural and spiritual milestones. Watching someone else get what you righteously desire at this phase of life can leave you feeling frustrated and even envious. Experiencing feelings of jealousy is natural in mortality. However, what really matters is what we do with those feelings. Do we let them fester and cause relationship-damaging resentment? Or do we turn to the ultimate concern to find a way to manage our feelings? Everyone’s experiences will be different. Sometimes feelings of jealousy are what leads to people committing burglaries. In some ways, female residential burglars may differ from their male counterparts. However, we need more information. Do female burglars, for example, tend to play “secondary roles” during offenses? We need to consider the typology of female residential burglars. In constructing our typology, we used the categories of accomplice and partner. (Our sample contained no sole perpetrators. By definition, conspirators were not included in research because they did not participate directly in committing the offenses.) We categorized six of the females in our study as accomplices because of their subservience to others—usually men—during their burglaries. (Not only females act as accomplices; a few of the males whom we interviewed also assumed this role. In no case, however, did a male respondent admit to being subservient to a woman during offenses.) #RandolphHarris 1 of 14

We did classify the 12 remaining females as partners because they participated as equals in their burglaries. Although some of these females co-offended with males, they did not take orders from them. Partners could be distinguished from accomplices in a number of important ways, including their motivation for committing the crimes, their participation in target selection and planning, and the work roles they adopted while committing burglaries. The factors that the female burglars regarded as leading them to commit their crimes differentiated the partners clearly from the accomplices. Those whom worked as partners, whether with other women, with men, or both, reported making an independent decision to commit their burglaries. They did not see themselves as drawn into offending against their will by other offenders or by the irresistible pressure of circumstances. The independence of such offenders is illustrated in the following quote: “My partner ain’t got to influence me. I just want to do it. I’m so used to doing it.” Women who carried out burglaries as partners often were motivated by material or instrumental concerns. Their responses reflected an affirmative commitment to burglary. Some, for example, saw the offense simply as an easy way of obtaining money. As one of them said, “[Burglary’s] a damn good way of getting over. It’s like a white-collar crime. Hell, it’s just fast money.” The women who worked as partners displayed considerable diversity in motives. Some reported engaging in burglary because they found it fun or enjoyable. These women derived a psychic reward from such offense. #RandolphHarris 2 of 14

One of these women said she committed burglaries for “the thrill,” adding “I get off on it. I do it for the enjoyment, ‘cause I do truly enjoy it. It’s a hobby; it’s recreation to me.” The women who worked only as accomplices had a far different perspective. These offenders felt that they were caught up in circumstances beyond their control, which compelled them to commit burglaries. Often these circumstances arose in the context of an unequal relationship in which the females were reduced to carrying out the will of other, more dominant people. They dominant parties in such cases typically were males, though occasionally they were females. The women quoted in the following passage expresses the belief that she was trapped by her companions’ activities: “[The burglaries] got worse when we moved and I started hanging with a different crowd. It wasn’t too bad where I first did it. It’s getting worse now, though, ‘cause I’m with older guys and they go for bigger things, and when they go, they got things planned—if somebody walks in before they are done, they would rather hurt them first.” Another entanglement for accomplices involved the lack of employment: “Sometimes I have to wonder myself my I [commit burglaries]. And I always come to the conclusion that my kids need things. I always go and fill out applications and everything like that, but they don’t never seem to call back. Every time I want to go and finish school, something is always in my way.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 14

Drugs also played a prominent role: “I got into this thing with cocaine with my friend, and she don’t work or anything, and it ain’t cheap. So I pretty much go out with the boys to get what we want. It is getting pretty deep.” Alcohol also was contributory factor. One woman explained that she and a male friend were enticed into burglaries by a third offender while they were intoxicated: “[Another offender would] always get us both either drinking alcohol, or [my friend] smoked marijuana a lot. I only smoked it two times in my life and I didn’t like it and I don’t do it, but he would get me drunk and say we need some more money. Then they would go to a house.” Females’ participation in burglary can be examined with reference to their role in finding targets and planning offenses. The extent to which offenders participate in these tasks distinguishes partners clearly from accomplices. A number of the women with partner status played an important role in finding targets and planning offenses, as illustrated by the following quote: “Last time I took hm. It was a real good, decent neighborhood, you know, like in the country. I mean, we just sit up and…spot them up, and I find what I find and get what he get and we just go. It’s like a sharing thing with us. He come to me and ask me what’s up. I tell him nothing, but I know where we can get some money. We just come to each other. ‘I ain’t doing nothing, what’s happening?’ ‘Well, I ain’t got no money either, but I know where we can get some.’ #RandolphHarris 4 of 14

“He asked me if I been watching a house. ‘Yeah, I’ve been watching a house. There’s some old people and they go to church every Sunday. Every Sunday they go. They be gone from like about four to five hours. They go to church in the morning, Sunday school then, you know, all of that. I had watched that one. They be old people. They be having good stuff.’” Planning was crucial for many of the females who worked as partners in committing burglaries: “That’s one reason why we got so many youngsters in jail today. I see this, so let’s make a hit. No, no, no. If they see this and it looks good, then it’s going to be there for a while. So the point is, you have to case it and make sure you know everything. I want to know what time you go to work, the time the children go to school. I know there’s no one coming home for lunch. So plan it with somebody else. We’ll take the new dishwasher, washing machine, and this other stuff. We just put it in the truck. Do you know when people rent a truck, nobody every pays that any attention? They think you’re moving [but] only if you rent a truck. Now if you bring it out of there and put it in the car, that’s a horse of another color.” A few of the females classified as partners occasionally engaged in more spontaneous burglaries. The women who worked in this way, however, did not do so exclusively. These “spur-of-the-moment” burglaries emerged in the course of their day-to-day activities. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14

Women involved in burglaries as accomplices exercised much less control over the selection of targets and the planning of crimes. (In fact, some were unaware that a burglary was going to take place until they arrived at the site.) Other people invariably set up the burglaries: “He’ll call e, you know. And he’ll say, ‘I don’t think we’re going out today.’ I’ll say ‘OK.’ It’s nothing really specific why he do it that way. He just stop for a little while and start back…[H]e’ll pick them out. You can tell if it’s a nice neighborhood or bad neighborhood. What areas we go in, he picks them out. However, the self-actualized individual should investigate and decide all things. The self-actualized is to use one’s renewed judgment. The ultimate concern respects the intelligence of those who follow the righteous path, and knows that such a person judges and examines one’s own workings by one’s cognitive functions. One does not need to be spoon fed by a higher power as to the path to take, while it is good to study ethics, morals, laws, and virtues, a self-actualized being should reject all things that are deviant, and until such a time one knows who to discern with clearness what are the things that are proper. And not only is the self-actualized to discern or judge the things of ultimate concern—id est, all things in the higher realms of the pyramid—but one is also to judge oneself. For if we discriminated ourselves—the Greek word means to make a thorough investigation—we would not need the dealing of a higher power to bring to light the things in ourselves which we have failed to discern by discrimination. #RandolphHarris 6 of 14

Do not be led by false information and misunderstandings. However, in your mind know how to see the truth without fiction. Make sure you are mature and reasonable in all dealings. And when you make a statement, be sure to bring proof, and prove all things. Self-actualized beings are abound in knowledge and all discernment, so as to distinguish the things that differ, that one may be sincere and void of offence unto all minds have been enlightened. But we want to delude ourselves that love is the root. It is not. It is only the branches. The root is beyond love, an unveiled kind of isolation, an isolated me, that does not meet and minge, and never can…it is true what I say; there is a beyond, in you, in me, which is further than love, beyond scope, as stars are beyond the scope of vision, some of them. The way back is within you. Within the darkness inside of each individual, there must be a light that will shine forth in one’s solitude. What it requires is an unveiled kind of loneliness. It is understood that one’s life may not move forward through the caring or help of others. It is even possible to be completely at home with oneself in one’s detachment from significant communication and relationships. The passions within may had died, the joys of living may diminish, yet in solitude, one may be convinced that something vital will emerge and awaken one’s soul. At many crucial times, it is not therapy or love and understanding that move a person forward but rather what happens between meetings when the person is utterly alone. #RandolphHarris 7 of 14

It is in this state of unveiled isolation and loneliness that the potential for growth and change exist, that the desire to live and to be joyous again are reborn. We have emphasized the value of relationship and communication with others as essential in learning and in living, and how little we have encouraged and assisted the individual to know the significance of solitude, how little we have recognized the significance of communion with one’s self in all real living and personal growth. What we do not see is often what matters; invisible sources of life contain the seeds for new growth, and a profound experience of inner silence is required to start the new life. One may only be able to discover this on one’s own. What matters is not what others do for us but what we do for ourselves in the internal sense when we are alone with the powers of life that surround us—the stars, clouds, water, Earth, and air, and senses, feelings, and awareness that emerge from the unknow. In days of isolation, one may realize that out of conflict, tension, and despair a new truth arises that enables a person to return to life with others. In a time of personal crisis, it is important that the individual not seek an answer from outside. Neither friendship nor therapy can provide the awareness, direction, or shift that is required when a pattern of living is ending, when life has lost its vitality and meaning, when the person is no longer responding in depth, in a full way. In such times it is essential that the person look within, detached and isolated, that he or she be opened to the unknown sources of energy in life and in the Universe. The alternating rhythms of work and solitude are in one’s salvation. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14

Each day, one should honor the simple, ordinary routines that help one to move with real energy. Nothing seems to matter, yet everything one does as one waits to be reborn. Remember to keep faith with internal rhythms, with the integrity of one’s self. The new life will come in a resounding way, not while one is alone but in a heavy stream of involvement with others. Sacredness is an experienced phenomenon. The mysteriousness of the ultimate concern veils itself even when it reveals itself. The individual feels one’s annihilation is near; so does the soul which echo’s this feeling. A twofold meaning s expressed in the soul’s cry: majesty and purity. The terrifying and annihilating encounter with the majesty of the ultimate concern shakes the foundations, masking, yet revealing itself. The purity of the ultimate concern implies the moral perfection, the goodness, truth, and justice of itself which compels the individual to confess with one’s whole being that he or she is unclean. This concrete example indicates the two elements which constitute the notion of the sacred: The experience of the sacredness as being, and the experience of the sacred as what it ought to be. The sacred has a double relation to man, a relation of giving presence and commanding transcendence. Furthermore, man experiences the sacred as a gift and as a demand. This leads to the sacredness of the “is” and the sacredness of the “ought.” There are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets an unexpected blessing or receives some special recognition. May I pled with us not to be hurt—and certainly not to feel envious—when good fortune comes to another person? #RandolphHarris 9 of 14

The King Lear Problem: “Tell me, my daughters, since now we will divest us both of rule, interest of territory, cares of state, which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend where nature doth with merit challenge.” Shakespeare, King Lear. King Lear was worried about how his children would treat him in his old age. Much to his regret, he discovered that children do not always deliver what they promise. In addition to love and respect, children are also motivated by the possibility of an inheritance. Here we look at how a strategic use of inheritance can manipulate children to visit their parents. Imagine that parents want their children each week to each visit once and phone twice. To give their children the right incentives, they threaten to disinherit any child who fails to meet this quota. The estate will be evenly divided among all the children who meet this quota. (In addition to motivating visits, this scheme has the advantage of avoiding the incentives for children to suffocate their parents with attention.) The children recognize that their parents are unwilling to disinherit all of them. As a result, they get together and agree to cut back the number of visits, potentially down to zero. The parents call you in and ask for some help in revising their will. Where there is a will, there is a way to make it work. But how? You ae not allowed to disinherit all of the children. As before, any child who fails to meet the quota is disinherited. The problem is what to do is all of them are below the quota. In that case, give all of the estate to the child who visits the most. This will make the childrens’ reduced visiting cartel impossible to maintain. We have put the children into a multiperson dilemma. The smallest amount of cheating brings a massive reward. A child who makes just one more phone call increases his or her inheritance from an equal share to 100 percent. The only escape is to go along with the parents’ wishes. (Obviously, this strategy fails with only children. There is no good solution for couples with an only child. Sorry.) #RandolphHarris 10 of 14

The dramatic death of state socialism in Eastern Europe and its bloody anguish from Bucharest to Baku to Beijing did not happen by accident. Socialism collided with the future. Socialist regimes did not collapse because of CIA plots, capitalist encirclement, or economic strangulation from outside. Eastern Europe communist governments toppled domino-fashion as soon as Moscow sent the message that it would no longer use troops to protect them from their own people. However, the crisis of socialism, as a system, in the Soviet Union, China, and elsewhere was far more deeply based. Just as Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type in the mid-15^th century led to the diffusion of knowledge and loosened the Catholic Church’s grip on knowledge and communication in Western Europe—ultimately igniting the Protestant Reformation—so the appearance of the computer and new communications media in the mid-20^th century smashed Moscow’s control of the mind in the countries it ruled or held captive. As recently as 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev could dream of “burying the West.” Ironically, this was the very year when blue-collar workers in the United States of America were first outnumbered by knowledge and service workers—a shift that signaled the coming decline of the smokestack and the rise of the super-symbolic economy. Equally ironic is the fact that mind-workers were typically dismissed as “nonproductive” by Marxist economists (and many classical economists as well). Yet it is these supposedly nonproductive workers who, more perhaps than any other, have given Western economics a tremendous shot of adrenaline since the mid-fifties. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14

Today, even with all their supposed “contradictions” unresolved, the high-tech capitalist nations have swept so far ahead of the rest of the World in economic terms as to render Khrushchev’s boast merely pathetic. It was computer-based capitalism, not smokestack socialism, that make what Marxists call a “qualitative leap” forward. With the real revolution spreading in the high-tech nations, the socialist nations had become, in effect, a deeply reactionary bloc led by elderly men imbued with a 19^th-century theology. Mikhail Gorbachev was the first Soviet leader to recognize this historic fact. In a 1989 speech, some thirty years after the new system of wealth creation began to appear in the United States of America, Mr. Gorbachev declared, “We were nearly one of the last to realize that in the age of information science the most expensive asset is knowledge.” He rose to power not just as a remarkable individual, but as representative of a new class of better educated, largely white-collar Soviet citizens—precisely the group despised by earlier leaders. And precisely the group most closely connected with symbolic processing and production. Mr. Marx himself had given the classic definition of a revolutionary moment. It came, he said, when the “social relations of production” (meaning the nature of ownership and control) prevent further development of the “means of production” (roughly speaking, the technology). That formula perfectly described the socialist World crisis. Just as feudal “social relations” make it all but impossible for socialist countries to take advantage of the new wealth-creation system based on computers, communication, and above all, on open information. In fact, the central failure of the great state socialist experiment of the 20^th century lay in its obsolete ideas about knowledge. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14

China is on its way to becoming a World Superpower. America can still sharpen its competitive edge without becoming an appendage to China. It could help them to enhance the lead in the lead in the fastest growing sector of the global economy having the greatest potential for the expansion of demand in the future. For America and Europe and, maybe, also Japan, time is ripe to use their edge in full to conquer the Chinese services market, still largely underdeveloped. In this regard, a combination of three factors is working in favor of Western service providers. First, in today’s China, the level of development and penetration of most services is low. Second, Chinese consumers’ awareness about various kinds of services and their importance is growing. Third, contrary to manufacturing, Chinese domestic service companies are growing significantly. Let us pick up the insurance industry as just one of the examples. Life insurance penetration (total insurance premium income as percent of GDP) in China in 2022 stands at a 13 percent against the 7 percent global average. America has a life insurance penetration rate of 11.7 percent. However, China’s general insurance penetration rate is at 1.3 percent, which is below developed markets’ average of 4 percent. This may be due to culture. Some people in China see insurance as a curse. It is like casting demons on a person. Americans penetration in the non-life insurance stood at 1.00 percent in 2022. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14

As domestic public and private institutions do not provide a sufficient level of protection against accident, disease, disability and death, as well as against the risks associated with unemployment and retirement, families in Chia are boosting their low-yield bank deposits to have money at hand for the “rainy day.” Around 72 percent of all personal financial assets are held in cash deposits. On the other hand, as time foes by and consumers’ education progresses, more and more people come to understand the advantage of being insured, especially the fact that long-term insurance products can help them address the risks mentioned in a much more efficient way, freeing significant funds for consumption activities. The Chinese government is gradually pursuing deregulation and improving the regulatory framework. Steps are made to promote insurance services in the vast country side. The industry’s growth rates are remarkably high even by Chinese standards. For instance, between 2009 and 2022, the life insurance industry grew by 200 percent. The total assets of Chinese insurers amounted to USD $3.91 trillion at the end of December, up 11.5 percent from the beginning of 2021. That is 56 percent of the Americas total assets of insurers, which amounts to $7 trillion. Chinese insurers are quickly catching up. As a result, for service exporters, man believe the Western government should press Beijing harder to open up its services market. This way, the West will not be just exporting jobs to China, they will be in China making Chinese money. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14