Why is the murder rate going down? (page 2)

Seeker4

I think people often see what they want to see. So if you're a JW, you can watch the news and see what a horrible, violent society we live in. It's like when I went to visit my 80 year old uncle shortly before he died. His was a constant old man's lament of "I don't know what this world is coming too. Things are so awful." The Witnesses can be like that all the time.

The truth of the matter is, if you're not involved in illegal drugs and crime, your chances of getting murdered are extremely small. Get involved in crime and the odds increase astronomically.

I'm one of those people who sees life and society in general as overall really good and safe. I know there is bad shit out there, and I do my best to avoid it. Life is what it is, and once you accept that, it's a pretty wonderful time to be alive, if you're making wise choices about how to live.

S4

BurnTheShips

I'm one of those people who sees life and society in general as overall really good and safe. I know there is bad shit out there, and I do my best to avoid it. Life is what it is, and once you accept that, it's a pretty wonderful time to be alive, if you're making wise choices about how to live.

Gregor

I think it helps that when we have political discussions here on JWD we don't know where each other lives.

BizzyBee

I read somewhere, just so you know the credibility of the article, that attributed the drop in violent crime to legalized abortions. It is a politically incorrect relationship, but when you think about it, there is some logic to the reasoning.

Freakonomics - a best seller a few years ago. Anybody else read it?

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Timesjournalist Stephen J. Dubner that has been described as melding pop culture with economics. [1] As of 2007, it has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. [2]

Overview

The book is a collection of economic articles written by Levitt, translated into prose meant for a wide audience. Levitt, who in the book is ascribed the epithet "rogue economist", had already gained a reputation in academia for applying economic theory to diverse subjects not usually covered by "traditional" economists; however, he accepts the standard microeconomic model of rational utility-maximization. The book's topics include:

Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers (See below)
Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents
Chapter 3: The economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low earnings and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers
Chapter 4: The controversial role legalized abortion has played in reducing crime. (Levitt explored this topic in an earlier paper entitled "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.")
Chapter 5: The negligible effects of good parenting on education
Chapter 6: The socioeconomic patterns of naming children

Finally-Free

Why is the murder rate going down?

Because most people are idiots and not worth the effort it would take to kill them.

W