Freakonomics on abortion, crime and unwanted children

 Freakonomics on abortion, crime and unwanted children

I learned a lot of things from a recent podcast, and had a very empathic experience - rare and valuable. I thought others might also enjoy the insights I learned.

Freakonomics #384 https://freakonomics.com/podcast/abortion-and-crime-revisited-update/ 

There is also a transcript, if you are more inclined to that mode of learning.

To further entice you, here is a short outline.

1. Roe V Wade was a major factor in a significant reduction in crime. Roe v Wade had a major impact on our world - reducing crime enormously. Many factors were at work in that period, but the major one was reducing the number of “unwanted children’ by the millions. Steven Levitt, professor of economics at the University of Chicago, and John Donohue, professor of law at Stanford Law School, published a research paper to prove that.

2. The original paper had a flaw. The paper was criticized for all manner of reasons. A pair of economists found that one of their tables was not correct. This led to a lot of public bashing in the press to discredit the results. The authors corrected the paper, and the result further confirmed their thesis.

3. Removal of lead in gasoline also had an impact on crime about the same time. In a totally separate effort, Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, professor of economics at Amherst College, did a research paper showing that the removal of lead from gasoline and the atmosphere had a similar effect on crime during the same period, as well as many other positive impacts. The original paper was enhanced with this data - and further confirmed the original hypothesis. 

4. The result is NOT an argument that abortion should be legal. If you believe that a fertilized egg or a fetus is a human person, taking a million of their lives every year to save the 6,000 victims of their crimes 20 years later, is simply not a good moral argument. Levitt is very clear on that and you should be too.

5. BUT  “unwanted children” is a very bad thing. It is very clear that “unwanted children” are a major problem in our society and our world. They make up the largest portion of our dangerous criminals. But even more importantly, these millions of tiny people have terrible lives. 

6. These are OUR children - and we can fix this. This is not a pipe dream. The Covid Relief Child Tax Credit was a major step in this direction. But it was not renewed in the most recent legislative compromises. The cost is very doable - the benefit to the lives of ALL of us is enormous.

7. Love your kids!  As Levitt says, the key thing he learned is that he should LOVE his children. Discipline and learning are important, but make sure they know you love them - really. That is the real bottom line.

8. Advice for Politicians: Do NOT argue with people about the morality of abortion. It just reinforces their beliefs and commitment. Instead, give us all a picture, a plan to create a world with no “unwanted children”. How can we best do that for the benefit of all of us - and especially for the benefit of those children? It is clear that we all want this outcome - but some of us have been persuaded that this is simply impossible. NOT TRUE. Some of our European friends have figured it out. Our mental “caste” view of our world seems to be in the way. We think the people on the bottom are somehow not deserving - not capable. That is simply wrong.

We can do this. Listen to the podcast. Thanks. 

We are ALL in this together, and we are counting on you.