Bill Bennett, Freakonomics, & Aborting Black Babies.

[sexdrugsmoney]

US Radio host Bill Bennett recently created a controversy by saying that the US could reduce it's crime rate by aborting every black baby, citing the social sciences book Freakonomics, where the declining crime rate is apparently linked with a rise in abortions.

The abortion/crime issue was discussed briefly in this thread, and the book Freakonomics was again mentioned. Although I haven't read the book (though I should) I'd assume the authors are talking purely in socio-economics and that unlike Bennett, do make the statement to abort every black baby in the country.

Bennett's comment, which he claims was taken out of context, has cost him his radio show IIRC, and has spawned outrage and criticism with many people saying "why did he say this?" in what seems like emotionally charged politically correct programmed 'kneejerk' responses to a statement which comes across with much generality. (it ignores black people like David Williams who are well educated and avoid the criminal lifestyle)

The whole issue arose by a caller arguing that if all the babies in the past 30 years who were aborted were alive, their tax revenue would have assisted the Government in funding Social Security, to which Bennett made the reply that the caller was assuming "the aborted" would have been productive citizens.

This is Bennett's comment in context:

</font><blockquote><font class="small">En respuesta a:</font><hr />

I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. 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

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviously Bennett addresses:

- The impossibility of such an act. (both practically and legally)
- The ridiculousness of such an act. (treating 'Bourgeois Black Babies' as 'collateral damage')
&amp;
- The moral implications of such an act. (the humanity of the situation similar to Hitler's "solution" to the "Jewish problem")

I believe Bill Bennett is talking about children born into low socioeconomic environments (The "Barrios", Ghettos, Trailer Parks etc.) and that he has picked black people based on the statistics of black males (in particular) to crime and incarceration compared to other races such as Latinos and Whites. (and to a lesser extent Asians and Indians)

Ofcourse, I'm not going to assume Bennett secretly believes Black people are predisposed to crime more than these other races, though that is what many critics seem to believe he is trying to say.


So what does SMP have to do with this?

SMP is one of the rare places that morality can be removed for a moment to address the pure logic of the situation, and the hope is that members can treat each subject objectively.

Although in practice, we can never do this all the time as our biases and emotions manifest themselves in each of our posts to varying degrees, it is always the 'dream' that we can detach ourselves emotionally from an issue when assessing it and it's implications.

An issue I've wanted to see discussed in SMP for a while is the logic of humanity restricting breeding to certain people, who would be of at least a standard IQ (preferably above average) and naturally would not be exposed to a low socioeconomic environment.

This is a big issue, and instantly morals come into play. Everybody believes it their right to breed, yet is that logical?

We all know of China's "one child policy", where if a family has no more than one child many things like medical and education are subsidised by the Government, but having more than one child voids any subsidisation.

China's "one child policy" seems logical, if we contrast this to problems in Africa, it seems illogical (and selfish IMHO) for anyone to breed in some environments when self sustenance is a problem.

So I don't know really how to start this discussion as it is huge and I'm hoping everyone in SMP will participate, with that I throw it open to you for discussion.

Cheers,
SDM

Bennett's comments can be seen and heard here