Are you saying that the Bay Area doesn't have these same worker shortages driving up pay to never-before-seen levels? It's certainly happening here in PA, and it was happening back in my Texas hometown when I went back for Thanksgiving. It's happening in Kansas when I visited there last month.

Is it really a lack of jobs driving these young people to crime, like the essay claims?

I'm saying that

>> I can go to a warehouse here in cheap Central PA and have a job tomorrow making $30-35/hr working on the loading dock. You can live on that here

isn't going to get you enough to live in the Bay Area.

> Is it really a lack of jobs driving these young people to crime, like the essay claims?

No, it's their own moral weakness plus perceived opportunity. I thought I made that clear in my previous comment.