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{{examples}}
▲== Fan Fiction ==
* Deliberately played straight in ''[[Mass Effect: Interregnum|Mass Effect Interregnum]]'', [[Played for Drama|in a very serious way]]. It's commented at several points that Omega's criminal population seems to outnumber its innocent population (mainly because why would innocent people go there in the first place?), to the point that Garrus sarcastically remarks that Omega's the only place in the galaxy where you could fire an assault rifle into a crowd and come out with a net karma boost. Things get a whole lot more serious, however, when [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|Golf]] sets out to destroy Omega's entire population, saying he's done the numbers, and the benefits of exterminating everyone on Omega literally would outweigh the innocent deaths in just a few years.
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* The (fictional?) country of [[Mexico]] in at least ''[[Desperado]]'' (if not its sequel and predecessor) have a ''lot'' of people running around with guns in every town, working for mob bosses who will happily turn even on their own "allies". Even the normal people are working and ''get paid'' by the mobsters, and the only ones which appear to make an honest income are American tourists who ''bartenders don't want in their bars, and would even '''shoot''' them for asking to be served normally''. In the long run, economy failure aversion sort of justified because almost everybody's working with drugs, and the money for assassinations, paying gang members, drug mules etc. come from outside economies which ''actually work honestly for them''.
* In a place like [[Sin City]] where everyone is either a criminal, a victim, or a [[Heroic Sociopath]], you'd think the entire population would've been killed off by now.
* In ''[[The Godfather]]'', when Michael is in hiding in Sicily he is surprised to find that almost all the men in a particular town have killed each other in vendettas. If he learns anything from this, [[Aesop Amnesia|it doesn't stick.]]
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* This was one of the reasons Colin Dexter gave for announcing he would never write another ''[[Inspector Morse]]'' novel.
* In ''[[Discworld]]'', this is Ankh-Morpork before the Watch starts actually fighting crime. In the early books, it was a parody of the average fantasy-setting city entirely occupied by thieves, thugs, assassins and innkeepers. When Twoflower shows up, at least half of the people he meets are trying to figure out how to scam him. He remains oblivious.
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* In ''[[The Dark Lord of Derkholm]]'', the [[Thieves' Guild]] supports the overthrow and expulsion of Mr. Chesney and his tour groups because they insist on [[Enforced Trope|enforcing this trope.]]
== [[Live
* On ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', Highwayman Dennis Moore has this trouble. At first he stole Lupins from the rich to give to the poor; eventually the poor were able to get it into his skull that they'd rather have money. So Moore started robbing the rich of their riches, with the result that the rich were poor and the poor were rich. Eventually Moore was reduced to stopping coaches, making people pull out what money they have, and redistributing it so they all have the same amount.
* British mystery series ''[[Midsomer Murders]]'' loses three or four members of a small village per episode. One of the [[DVD Commentary|commentary tracks]] notes that there shouldn't be anyone left by now.
** It's a different small village each week though... Midsomer is an entire fictional county. Point still stands though; you wouldn't think it would be so gentrified with that kind of murder rate...
*** A different village every week, yes, but there are only six or seven villages in the county so by the time it's, say, Midsomer Mallow's turn again (or Badger's Drift, which seems to bear the brunt of the murder rate)it's not like the birth rate has nearly made up for last month's bloodbath.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' has an odd example: a child prostitution ring catering to the survivors of the Cylon attack, who number less than 50,000. This population is about the size of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or Nantucket Island in the summer. So either pedophilia is much more common than on Earth or they should have great difficulty finding clients.
** Perhaps having survived
*** It wasn't a
*** Subverted when the episode ends with the summary execution of the black marketer in question at the hands of the authorities, and his replacement by another black marketer who is willing to abide by some reasonable limits on his activities, precisely because while the Fleet might be able to tolerate some things they just aren't going to put up with a new venture into underage sex slavery.
* A similar kind of logic applies to ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'', in which the murder rate in Cabot Cove, Maine is ludicrously out of proportion to its peaceful, gentrified population.<ref>Which no doubt contributed to the number of "promotional trips" she would go on in later seasons.</ref>
** Leading to the [[Alternate Character Interpretation]] that Jessica Fletcher is a serial killer who frames/brainwashes other people into taking the rap. As a stand-up comedian once claimed his dog said, "Wherever dat little white woman goes, ''people die!''"
== [[Tabletop
* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' fits the bill. Various books
** It kind of helps that ''every'' employer in the city has need of
** Also, not all of the runs take place in Seattle, not even in the same nation (there's NAN, Tír Tairngire and California Free State nearby - as I recall, at least one of them borders the city). For most
*** Seattle is specifically mentioned in the lorebooks as having an unusually large runner community precisely because it is simultaneously the largest trade nexus on the West Coast, the North American regional headquarters of approximately six of the world's ten largest megacorporations, and with four different national borders -- between nations that routinely spy and intrigue against each other all the time -- all available to cross within 50 miles of the place. In other words,
* Predatory variant: The ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting's largest territory, the Core, is roughly the size of Denmark, and most of its domains have populations in the low thousands. Yet it somehow sustains ''massive'' numbers of vampires, werebeasts, and other monsters that pass for human in public, while subsisting wholly or largely on human prey. Never mind how they can maintain [[The Masquerade]] when [[Flock of Wolves|half the population is a monster in disguise]]: unless the monsters are eating each other, there shouldn't be anybody left alive there!
** Ravenloft is constantly kidnapping people from other planes, so it actually makes sense that they would need to be disposed of to prevent overpopulation.
* Luskan of
* In a trophic rather than economic version, the demiplane of Grixis in the "Shards of Alara" block of ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' is populated almost entirely by undead predators, with few living creatures and no equivalent of photosynthesis that would introduce new energy into the ecosystem. Many cards take note of the problem of Grixis' ecosystem (such as it is) winding down, a problem eventually mitigated by the collision of the shards.
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** If you join the thieves, there are just as many guardsmen the city won't miss as there are criminals if you join the watch.
* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' appears to have this, with bandits plaguing the roads to such an extent that trade has ground to a halt - which raises the question of why the bandits are still there if their prey is no longer risking the trip. Somewhat unusually, though, there's an answer: the bandits {{spoiler|were actually hired by someone specifically to shut down trade}}, so the fact that the merchants are staying home isn't a problem for them.
* ''[[City of Heroes]]''{{'}} Paragon City is endlessly populated with [[Gang of Hats|Gangs of Hats]], [[Mecha-Mooks]], [[Gaia's Vengeance]] monsters, ancient malevolent spirits, demons, aliens, rogue military/black ops groups, [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]s and their minions, witches, zombies, a [[Mad Doctor]]'s minions, wizards, [[The Mafia]], [[Cardboard Prison|escaped prisoners]], and a [[Circus of Fear]]. It gets a bit of lampshading; people complain about, for instance, repeatedly getting their purses stolen.
** It's also home to an opposite problem; more heroes than citizens. It's kind of funny to see an entire park full of brightly-costumed vigilantes watch the only civilian for five blocks walk by, waiting patiently for the inevitable mugging to happen.
* ''[[Fallout]]'' in general suffers from this, number three in particular being the major offender. Tennpenny Tower and Rivet City get a pass due to sheer numbers and relative isolation. The smaller settlements, however, consist of four-ten people, three of which are would-be soldiers on patrol, max. Even the standard group of six to nine raiders could have a field day against Megatons lone sheriff and security robot. It is worth noting that the settlement of Evergreen Mills does get overrun by a large raider group prior to your departure from the Vault.
** Megaton, at least, is justified; it's city with a large number of inhabitants, many of whom are armed and will fight you if you commit crime there. Megaton's lone Sheriff maintains law and order, but its very likely the whole town would band together to form a militia if they got seriously attacked. The walls are also a good force multiplier that would make it hard as hell to get inside the city.
** A better question about Fallout 3 is how can the region support so many humans without agriculture (towns have small enough populations and often mutant cattle or at least trade, but there are far too many raiders). Or how so many large predators (like mutant bears or deathclaws) can survive with so few prey items (other then smaller predators, which also have little enough to eat). Then again, if the player character and his companions can live for years on end without food or drink, maybe all that radiation has given everyone the superpower of super nutrition.
*** Trade. ''Fallout 4'' reveals that a fertile agriculture-producing region exists a short distance north of the DC Wasteland, and supplementary canon also has similar regions existing south of it. DC is on the caravan routes between points A and B, therefore the raiders can live off the traffic.
** There are also more mercenaries than people who can hire them, though by their behavior, it's established that the largest mercenary group, [[For the Evulz|Talon company]] does more raider work against hardened wealthy targets like super mutants and brotherhood of steel than actually filling contracts.
** Averted (for once) in New Vegas.
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** Probably why they're pretty much all starving to death.
** This part is probably on purpose, as most of them are hereditary criminals...the Casteless are living in ghettos, and likely to die out. They don't interact as much as expected with the people who have wealth. It's unsustainable, and but justified.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' has bandits, or their spiritual kin: Forsworn and Silver Hand, in nearly every cave, abandoned watchtower, or crumbling ruin. Their total population is vastly greater than the citizens of the inhabited towns, and their chiefs tend to wear the third best armor in the game. The same applies to the Thieves' Guild in Riften, which has nearly half as many (visible) members as the population of the city itself.
** The Forsworn are partly explained in that they are militant radicals of the native population—within their region, there ''should'' be a lot of them (things are not very happy for the natives, in the main), and if they drive out foreign traders and aristocrats, that's a perk, not a problem (they are fighting an insurgency for independence, rather than trying to earn a living by being bandits).
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* In the ''[[X (video game)|X]]-Universe'', Pirates and the [[The Mafia|Yaki]] typically outnumber civilian traders by 5:1 to 100:1 in the contested Pirate Sectors. However, as a whole, there are less Pirate ships active in the game at any one time than just a single race's trade ships.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' [[
▲* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' [[Lampshades]] this with Greysky City, where everyone is a thief, mugger, or murderer to the point that the city really shouldn't be able to function. And home of the Thieves Guild, naturally.
** And way before that were the forest bandits, to whom Haley gave a detailed tirade on exactly why thievery by brute force was just unsustainable for a force that size. Of course, the explanation practically [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum|ran on nonsensoleum]] itself since it was based on [[RPG Mechanics Verse|the premise]] that no one could ever get a certain amount of wealth without being a high-level character.
* Parodied in ''[[RPG World]]'': the backstory for a few of the characters is that they were in a town which was economically depressed until it was revitalized ''when everyone became a criminal''.
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