The real cost of crime

[duncan drennan]

I had never really though of the impact of crime this way, but this thread is causing some cogs to turn...

Say I import 1000 iPods at R1000 each, so R1mil has exited the country. On the way to the warehouse my truck is hijacked and all 1000 stolen. They are smuggled north across the border. Again another R1mil exits the country. Not nice...not nice at all.

Trade deficit goes up by R1mil, and there is absolutely no return on that. Trade deficit goes up, it puts pressure on the rand, rand decreases in value. I get my insurance pay-out (let's assume R1mil) and want to go buy another 1000 iPods. Now they cost me R1100 each (because the rand weakened). Effectively a R100000 disappears....poof!

[Dave A]

And now you got me thinking down that line.

Say I import 1000 iPods at R1000 each, so R1mil has exited the country. On the way to the warehouse my truck is hijacked and all 1000 stolen. They are smuggled north across the border. Again another R1mil exits the country. Not nice...not nice at all.

So let's speculate that story a little further. The buyers up north of the border are a little short in hard currency, so they pay the local thieves in what they've got - copper, diamonds, drugs, whatever - say R2 million worth at "retail."

That's quite a tidy return.