Billionaire Rupert Murdoch is one of the richest people in the world.  People who watch Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News or follow other billionaire-funded right-wing media are less informed than people who pay no attention to news at all.  They often believe:

• crime is soaring despite the rates of violent and property crime being at a 56-year low.
• immigrants are more dangerous than US-born Americans, despite US-born Americans being TWICE as likely to commit violent or property crimes than immigrants.
• our voting process is filled with fraud, despite almost nonexistent voter fraud.
• owning a gun makes you safer, despite it not making you any safer from murder by strangers and increasing the shooting of romantic partners 7 times and suicides 4 times
• government is bad and inefficient and cutting government is good.

The truth is great education, health care, and social services reduce crime, overdose deaths, violence, and homicide and create opportunity, peace, and happiness worldwide!

Research in the US, England, and Australia shows when conservatives cut government services:

• the economy does worse
• unemployment, poverty, and homelessness increase
• more people snap—murder and suicide rates increase

But when progressive parties make lives easier for the poor:

• economic growth increases
• unemployment decreases
• murder and suicide rates plummet

More equal developed countries with good social services have:

• lower murder rates
• less bullying in schools
• less addiction
• less obesity & chronic illness
• longer lives
• more opportunity
• more trust in others

Researchers know the cheapest, most effective ways to reduce crime and disabilities also save plenty of money in the long run:

• We neglect people until they get sick and treat them with expensive specialists.
• Health care prevents disabilities and reduces crime. We should have guaranteed health care emphasizing family doctor visits and early prevention.
• Child poverty costs us $500 billion a year in lost productivity and extra health and crime costs.Ending poverty with decent pay and emergency financial aid reduces violence and crime
• Medicaid, food aid, and welfare save more than they cost by reducing death, disability, crime, and jail and increasing employment up to 50 years later, bringing in more tax revenue.
• Food aid results in healthier babies, less obesity, disabilities, welfare use, crime, and prison, with more school graduates and better jobs.
• Great childcare, pre-K, education, and job skills training prevent crime and welfare use, overdose deaths, crime, violence and murder.
• High quality childcare and pre-K alone would add $2 trillion to our economy each year within a generation
• To give everyone great education and opportunity, we must end local funding of schools.
• Mental health and addiction services reduce crime. Early help for families with problems is cheapest and most effective.
• After-school and summer job programs prevent crime, reduce welfare use and prison later on.
• Community violence prevention
• Services to help disabled people live at home are far cheaper than nursing homes.
• Housing the homeless is far cheaper than shelters and the hospital and jail stays that result if they remain homeless.

Jailing people for debts, addictions, and nonviolent crimes wastes money and destroys families, resulting in an endless cycle of poverty and crime.

• Experts say jailing too many people costs us $1.2 trillion a year in police, jails, lost income and family poverty.
• Providing more social services instead, like other countries do, would be far cheaper and more effective.

Poor people in northern Europe are now much more likely to climb the ladder of success than are poor people in the US.

• Over 80% of people in these countries rise in economic class above their parents.

Billionaires spent $1 billion in the last few years making it harder for poor and minority people to vote with strict ID requirements, voter roll purges, eliminating voter drop boxes, etc.

Now people in some poor areas must wait many hours to vote, sometimes as long as 8 or 10 hours, while people in rich areas can vote quickly and easily.