Claim: Large corporations are to blame for violence in Chicago.

Question

Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson claimed that poverty and violence in the city were caused by "large corporations" not paying enough in taxes.

Answer 1

Brandon Johnson did say this, but it is not that simple. He explained that he wants to raise taxes on corporations to invest more money into the city to make it safer.  (https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago-mayor-elect-brandon-johnsons-taxes)

Answer 2

Over the past few years, more and more companies big and small have been leaving Chicago because of the increasing rate of crime.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/skyrocketing-chicago-crime-small-businesses-corporations-pack-their-bags

This is leading to less tax revenue for the city to carry out its duties. So I would say the city is experiencing a sort of paradox. The less companies operating in the Chicago, the less tax revenue is available to take care of the city. Therefore, these worsening conditions leads to higher rates of poverty and can be linked to crime as well. One might say the solution is for companies to start coming back, but at the moment, due to Chicago's reputation as a dangerous city, there is not much attracting new enterprises to bring jobs that could help alleviate the situation.

Comments

Your analysis is interesting. Also, couldn't there be many other factors that make this claim false? Poor education for instance? NPR mentioned this: "Chicago Police say it's a combination of guns and repeat offenders. Other say it's the economy, gangs or a poor public education system. Still, others say it's the geography because Chicago's central location makes it a hub for the drug and gun trades."


https://www.npr.org/2016/09/03/492549546/examining-the-reasons-for-chicagos-violence#:~:text=Chicago%20Police%20say%20it's%20a,the%20drug%20and%20gun%20trades.

Answer 3

There is a multitude of different reasons why the crime rate is constantly rising in Chicago. You could attribute it to the education system, the politics, the sheer population, among so many other things. However, when it comes to the business, layoffs may be a problem but I'm not sure that you can blame it on them not paying enough taxes. 

If they paid more taxes, would that truly go back and help the population anyway? That's a whole other topic. But in terms of putting the blame completely on the 'large corporations' would be an exaggeration. In fact, more and more businesses continue to leave Chicago because of the violence.

Chicago violent crime causing corporate exodus (newsnationnow.com)

Answer 4

According one politician, Liberal Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, he claims that large corporations are, in fact, a large influence on violence in Chicago.

He claims that "We have large corporations. Seventy percent of large corporations in the city of Chicago — in the state of Illinois, did not pay a corporate tax."

It seems like Johnson believes the the large corporations are actually not giving the city of Chicago the funds it needs and are therefore, somewhat responsible for the crime rate.

He did not elaborate in this article if large corporations are the sole reason for a high crime rate, or simply contribute to it.

https://www.newsbreak.com/chicago-il/2985558265701-hot-comments-today-chicago-mayor-elect-brandon-johnson-rebukes-large-corporations-for-poverty-violence-in-the-city

Comments

How would you rate the claim then? Don't forget to select a rating for each fact-check going forward.

Answer 5

There are too many reasons to count on why crime is increasing in Chicago. Poverty and violence being caused by corporations not paying taxes is an exaggeration or not true. There are so many other things that cause violence and poverty. The school system is a good example of an issue that can be solved. It has nothing to do with corporations paying taxes.

http://Principles of American Journalism: An Introduction. Routledge, 2016.