Wednesday, September 28, 2005
"What Were They Thinking?"
Sigh.
Looks like Bill Bennett is trying to get his Freakonomics on in the worst way possible:
Examining the issue of abortion in the context of other trends, he made this rather unfortunate sociological assertion: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby and your crime rate would go down."
Yikes.
It should be noted that Bennett says in the next immediate sentence, "That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."
OK, kids, what are some possible corollaries? "You could abort every white baby, and your corporate scandals would collapse."
"You could abort every white chubby baby likely to grow into a moralizing, one-armed bandit abusing hypocrite -- but Las Vegas' GDP would plunge 50 percent."
Consider your own and discuss!!
(hat tip: Jon and Cathy)
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Looks like Bill Bennett is trying to get his Freakonomics on in the worst way possible:
Examining the issue of abortion in the context of other trends, he made this rather unfortunate sociological assertion: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby and your crime rate would go down."
Yikes.
It should be noted that Bennett says in the next immediate sentence, "That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."
OK, kids, what are some possible corollaries? "You could abort every white baby, and your corporate scandals would collapse."
"You could abort every white chubby baby likely to grow into a moralizing, one-armed bandit abusing hypocrite -- but Las Vegas' GDP would plunge 50 percent."
Consider your own and discuss!!
(hat tip: Jon and Cathy)
