Even though it's strange to admit, the premise that abortion was the biggest cause of the decline in violent crime makes more sense than any of the other explanations offered by the so-called "experts". The way that Levitt went through and analyzed each and every one of those possible explanations and was able to refute them with strong evidence made his argument even more clear. And while some of the claims did still have a cause on the decline, specifically increased number of police and changes in the drug markets, abortion appears to be the true cause of the decline. So, I believe that abortion kept those children who would have grown up with an inclination to be criminals from being born, but I'm not really a believer in abortion.
I don't think that it ever needs to get to that point. I know a few married couples who were unable to have their own child and ended up adopting. Those people actually couldn't get any babies here in the U.S., so they ended up adopting. In fact, one couple actually adopted from Romania, and this was right around 1989. However, if abortion hadn't been a choice, I'm sure that they would have been able to find plenty of children that needed to be adopted here. There's no reason why a girl should have an abortion when there are plenty of other people out there who would want their baby.
So, I guess my stance is similar to the one I have about cheating: if you're going to take the risk, you need to suffer the consequences. In this case, that would be carrying the baby to full term and giving it up for adoption. There are a lot of people who have the ability and desire to provide that child with a much better life.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Chapter 3
It's pretty strange to read about the inner workings of drug dealers. I can honestly say that I never figured that I would be reading the income statements of a South-side Chicago crack gang but all the information was so interesting. I mean, you hear all this talk about the gangs but this really points out the intricacies that you never take into account.
I thought the whole idea of Venkatesh going into this abandoned housing project, armed only with his questionnaire, which started off with the question, "How do you feel about being black and poor?" was insane. Did this guy not even glance at the survey beforehand? And then for him to be essentially held captive for an entire day was crazy. But, you can't say that it wasn't all worth it. I've never really given a whole lot of thought to how gangs go about making and managing their money, but the similarities to typical business actually illustrates that it's not just a bunch of idiots running them.
Going through the information, its easy to see now why drug dealers live with their moms. The part about how they're really not that much different from aspiring actors or professional athletes does answer why they put up with the most dangerous "job" in America: the potential payoff.
It's also funny how the timing of events has so much to do with their impact on society. If the environment hadn't been right for the crack boom to happen, it may have turned out completely differently. Examples of this include the decrease in available life-time jobs and the relationships built between the Colombians and the black gang leaders.
This chapter reminded me a lot about the growing problem of crystal meth. in America, which seems to be cracks replacement. In my hometown of Panama City, you hear a lot about different meth labs being shut down or a people being arrested for dealing probably. The difference being that you don't even have to start off with an illegal drug to do it, all you need is some pseudophed, which is a lot more readily available than cocaine.
I thought the whole idea of Venkatesh going into this abandoned housing project, armed only with his questionnaire, which started off with the question, "How do you feel about being black and poor?" was insane. Did this guy not even glance at the survey beforehand? And then for him to be essentially held captive for an entire day was crazy. But, you can't say that it wasn't all worth it. I've never really given a whole lot of thought to how gangs go about making and managing their money, but the similarities to typical business actually illustrates that it's not just a bunch of idiots running them.
Going through the information, its easy to see now why drug dealers live with their moms. The part about how they're really not that much different from aspiring actors or professional athletes does answer why they put up with the most dangerous "job" in America: the potential payoff.
It's also funny how the timing of events has so much to do with their impact on society. If the environment hadn't been right for the crack boom to happen, it may have turned out completely differently. Examples of this include the decrease in available life-time jobs and the relationships built between the Colombians and the black gang leaders.
This chapter reminded me a lot about the growing problem of crystal meth. in America, which seems to be cracks replacement. In my hometown of Panama City, you hear a lot about different meth labs being shut down or a people being arrested for dealing probably. The difference being that you don't even have to start off with an illegal drug to do it, all you need is some pseudophed, which is a lot more readily available than cocaine.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Chapter 2
I will never look at real estate agents the same way ever again. In chapter 2, Levitt takes the basic premise of incentives from chapter 1 and builds on it to show how information changes how people are driven by incentives. Basically, it's like the old adage we've all heard before: knowledge is power. This could be in the form of the real estate agent who knows information that buyers and sellers don't and pushes sales one way or another based on how they benefit more. "Who cares if the buyer gets $20 grand more, I'm only gonna see another $3o0." But, I gotta say, I'm definitely going to pay more attention to those ad terms like "fantastic, charming, and great neighborhood."
In contrast, the chapter mentions how the KKK was a made powerful by knowledge. However, just because it had become powerful due to its knowledge, didn't mean that it couldn't be brought down by that same knowledge. Stetson Kennedy and his KKK insider, John Brown, took every nugget of information they could get their hands on and spread it as quickly as possible to the radio; they even had Superman fighting the Klan (which I didn't know see coming). They had information coming out almost in real time with the Klan itself and were able to put the KKK under the public microscope.
Finally, the part about how people share information and they way they like to portray themselves was pretty entertaining. I like all the little facts and figures throughout the book and enjoy seeing how they tell the real story. The online dating example was pretty funny; there just happened to be a huge proportion of rich, good looking, tall, and thin people still on the market. But the part that I really enjoyed was how the men who did better were the ones who were looking for a relationship whereas the exact opposite was true for the ladies.
Anyway, everyone wants to guard certain information about themselves and make sure that they're seen in a favorable light. It's kind of like getting roommates... you don't really think that they're weird or disgusting or whatever before you move into together, but it's hard to hide all those idiosyncrasies when you're in closer quarters. I mean, every one's weird, some people are just better at hiding it than others. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
In contrast, the chapter mentions how the KKK was a made powerful by knowledge. However, just because it had become powerful due to its knowledge, didn't mean that it couldn't be brought down by that same knowledge. Stetson Kennedy and his KKK insider, John Brown, took every nugget of information they could get their hands on and spread it as quickly as possible to the radio; they even had Superman fighting the Klan (which I didn't know see coming). They had information coming out almost in real time with the Klan itself and were able to put the KKK under the public microscope.
Finally, the part about how people share information and they way they like to portray themselves was pretty entertaining. I like all the little facts and figures throughout the book and enjoy seeing how they tell the real story. The online dating example was pretty funny; there just happened to be a huge proportion of rich, good looking, tall, and thin people still on the market. But the part that I really enjoyed was how the men who did better were the ones who were looking for a relationship whereas the exact opposite was true for the ladies.
Anyway, everyone wants to guard certain information about themselves and make sure that they're seen in a favorable light. It's kind of like getting roommates... you don't really think that they're weird or disgusting or whatever before you move into together, but it's hard to hide all those idiosyncrasies when you're in closer quarters. I mean, every one's weird, some people are just better at hiding it than others. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Chapter 1
Right off the bat, this book is different from any other I have ever read. Obviously, one of the major points of this chapter (and, it seems, the entire book) is that people respond to incentives no matter what kind of position they're in. And no one is above cheating to expand on those incentives.
The two main examples are teachers and sumo wrestlers, two professions that seem about as honorable as you can get. Apparently, this is not the case. The studies mentioned in the chapter perfectly illustrated the lengths to which some will go to get the carrot being dangled in front of them. But, once explained, both examples made perfect sense. Take the sumo wrestler example. The wrestlers with the 8-6 wrestler literally had nothing to lose by throwing their match. On the other hand, the 7-7 wrestler had everything on the line. It's actually somewhat understandable that the matches were thrown the majority of the time given the circumstances.
The most disconcerting thing to me about these kinds of situations though is the fact that you hardly ever see anyone face the allegations straight up and acknowledge what they did. I'm not sure if any of you have heard this, but lately there have been a lot of allegations of match fixing going on in professional tennis. Dozens of tennis pros have been coming forward saying, "Oh yeah, I've been offered cash to lose matches, but I turned it down," but no one, not a single player has said that they have done this on purpose. It's kind of like steroids; everyone denies and denies and denies, even after the proof is authenticated, but hardly anyone admits what they've done. Not Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, or even Mark McGuire. I guess cheating isn't cheating if you don't get caught (and maybe not even if you do).
Back to the book though, so far the tone seems to be somewhat synical but everything really makes a lot of sense. Based on how engaging this book is, I'm definitely glad I chose it.
The two main examples are teachers and sumo wrestlers, two professions that seem about as honorable as you can get. Apparently, this is not the case. The studies mentioned in the chapter perfectly illustrated the lengths to which some will go to get the carrot being dangled in front of them. But, once explained, both examples made perfect sense. Take the sumo wrestler example. The wrestlers with the 8-6 wrestler literally had nothing to lose by throwing their match. On the other hand, the 7-7 wrestler had everything on the line. It's actually somewhat understandable that the matches were thrown the majority of the time given the circumstances.
The most disconcerting thing to me about these kinds of situations though is the fact that you hardly ever see anyone face the allegations straight up and acknowledge what they did. I'm not sure if any of you have heard this, but lately there have been a lot of allegations of match fixing going on in professional tennis. Dozens of tennis pros have been coming forward saying, "Oh yeah, I've been offered cash to lose matches, but I turned it down," but no one, not a single player has said that they have done this on purpose. It's kind of like steroids; everyone denies and denies and denies, even after the proof is authenticated, but hardly anyone admits what they've done. Not Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, or even Mark McGuire. I guess cheating isn't cheating if you don't get caught (and maybe not even if you do).
Back to the book though, so far the tone seems to be somewhat synical but everything really makes a lot of sense. Based on how engaging this book is, I'm definitely glad I chose it.
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