As we saw in class, and as you will discover on reading the rest of Stephen Dubner's introduction to Steven Levitt's essay, "Where Have All the Criminals Gone" (pp. 115 - 144), caused quite a fuss when it was first published; it especially upset Christian conservatives in the US who are all for reducing crime, but were extremely unhappy to learn that perhaps the single most effective way of reducing crime was to legalise abortion, which they tend to hate. It's probably the most famous essay published by an economist so far this century.
We haven't gotten around to Levitt's support for that very surprising claim yet, but it might be worthwhile reflecting a little on the morality of abortion in advance, which is something I also touched on last night when I explained why I disagree with Stephen Law's thesis that eating meat is immoral; the argument I put forward against Law appears to also entail that abortion is not morally wrong.
So, what do you think?
- Is abortion morally right or wrong? Why?
- Should abortion be legal or illegal?
Should the state have any involvement in such a personal decision by women?
- What has your country's experience of abortion been like?
- And since this is response writing, any idea that the topic inspires is OK.
By the way, Levitt is also the source for my two facts on Monday morning: that "the child has many books in his home" correlates strongly with him doing better in school, whereas "the child's parents read to him nearly every day" does not matter for school performance (2006, p. 172).
Levitt, S. & Dubner, S. (2006).
Freakonomics:A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. London: Penguin Books.
And in "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With their Moms?" (pp. 89 - 114), Levitt also presents some interesting insights into the profitability and economics of the drug trade, which might be relevant to some of the essays we are working on this week. Again, some of his discoveries on this topic are as surprisingly contrary to conventional wisdom as they are solidly supported by facts and statistics, leading him to paraphrases the famous John Kenneth Galbraith: "conventional wisdom ... must be simple, convenient, comfortable and comforting - though not necessarily true" (p. 90).
ReplyDeleteAnd I've just found that TED has uploaded a video of Levitt discussing the economics of crack cocaine to YouTube, which you might find interesting. It's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UGC2nLnaes, and as well as being surprising, it's some great extra lecture listening practice.
ReplyDeleteThe video is also has some very funny bits. (I had never watched it before. It's as enjoyable as it is informative. Levitt is a good speaker, and has a couple of nice power point slides.)
ReplyDeleteAnd if you continue to level 6, we can study Plato on justice and morality.
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