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Grifts are undertheorized, and too often conflated with long cons, scams, frauds and other more blatant soft crimes. Lemme offer a definition. A grift is a scheme that profits from the existence of a real problem without actually addressing it.
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Interesting to think of the connection bw this defn and "rackets". If I follow the argument, grifting is a form of soft racket, where you don't cause the problem but rather soak resources that could be used to actually solve it
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As an extension, do you think grifts require intention? If I take donations to fund a prayer circle for gun violence, is that a grift if I believe it will actually reduce gun violence?
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