Freakonomics, a book

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rich

Didn't read it yet, but it is enticing. The author says that the main reason for our significantly lower crime rate here in the U.S. is due to abortions. It makes sense to me.
 

Maryn

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The author was a guest of Jon Stewart's on "The Daily Show" last week (or maybe the week before?) and his theories are fascinating.

The idea--backed up with quite a bit of data--is that unwanted kids are more often poorly raised and educated and may turn to criminal endeavors. If those kids are never born, about 20 years later there's a drop in the crime rate.

I intend to ask for it for my birthday. Me, reading a book on economics!

Maryn, stunned
 

William Haskins

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nothing like a preemptive death penalty to keep the riffraff out of the world.
 

rich

No ethics showing up in the disclosures here, just facts--plain ol' cold facts.
 

William Haskins

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well, i haven't read the book, so i'm not aware of what facts he's using to support his hypotheses, but i could argue off the top of my head that there are many factors outside of abortion that have contributed to a lower crime rate.
 

William Haskins

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i'm not going to lie... the whole thing smacks of the eugenics movement of the early 20th century.

if they could only isolate and sterilize the idiots, the criminals and the racially inferior, it would usher in a new golden age.

i find it sickening.
 

rich

Chill, Will. The author has nothing to do with social engineering, nor any other movement. He's just plugging in stats. Interesting stats btw, but merely stats.
 

William Haskins

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stats are rarely "plugged in" to anything without an agenda riding on their coattails...

i plan on reading the book, and find the whole notion fascinating.

and, by the way, i'm quite capable of voicing an opinion on something without needing to "chill".
 

eldragon

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I'm total pro-choice, so don't misunderstand me........


But I'm also a spiritualist, so I don't believe an abortion stops a soul from being.

Why would the crime rate drop because of people not being born? Does that mean the old criminals got tired of it? What happened to them?

Of all the aborted, weren't there a few that might have changed the world for the better?
 

rich

Hmmm, guess all of us should read the book.

Check nationwide stats on crime for the past three decades. That fact is not disputable. The abortion issue is.
 

mmm... pancakes

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rich said:
Check nationwide stats on crime for the past three decades. That fact is not disputable. The abortion issue is.

So the "significantly lower crime rate" is in the entire US, in recent history?
Crime rates in the US have dropped significantly?
Is abortion legal throughout the USA? I was under the impression it was in some states, not in others.

Fill this non-American in.
 

three seven

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rich said:
Hmmm, guess all of us should read the book.

Check nationwide stats on crime for the past three decades. That fact is not disputable.
What fact? Not all of us have got time to read the sodding book. Can you not just tell us what the fact is?
 

rich

Good Lord. You're starting to sound like Mr. T. Luckily, my Brooklyn upbringing has taught me to deal with impatient folk.

I just bought the sodding book some two hours ago, and will be reading it in a day or so.

(You will maybe tell us what "the sodding book" means? I'm assuming it's akin to "the ****ing book" as would be said here in the colonies, but I'm not sure if "the bloody book" is more or less edgier than "the sodding book.")
 

Maryn

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William Haskins said:
took me 20 seconds to find an academic study that suggests the exact opposite:


http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=270126

One of the authors is from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank which takes a public and vocal anti-abortion stand. (Say hi to Newt Gingrich and Lynn Cheney next time you stop in.) He therefore arrives with an agenda which precludes objectivity.

Maryn
 

eldragon

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One of the authors is from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank which takes a public and vocal anti-abortion stand. (Say hi to Newt Gingrich and Lynn Cheney next time you stop in.) He therefore arrives with an agenda which precludes objectivity.


Thanks for the heads up. I certainly won't throw any of my lower than poverty income at them.
 

rich

Lordy, what hath God wrought? Didn't think this book would spawn such excitement. Maybe I should've started with the fact that most drug dealers live with their moms.
(And I still haven't read the freakin' thing.)

Here's what I'm missing, Maryn. If the book says that abortion has lowered crime, why would an anti-abortionist seek to find merit in abortion?
 
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Maryn

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"Freakonomics" doesn't have a co-author from the American Enterprise Institute. The contradictory "academic" study does. When I saw the author of "Freakonomics" on TV, he appeared to have no socio-political agenda at all, just a fascination with the various correlations in the data.

The AEI definitely has a socio-political agenda, of course--that's the reason for its existence. Among its stances are opposition to feminism, abortion, and gun control.

Maryn, who doesn't plan to be barefoot and pregnant after a shotgun wedding
 

Maryn

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I'll be interested in your thoughts after you read it. I haven't even bought it.

Maryn
 
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