Ending of Freakanomics...

This chapter started off very interestingly but started to drag a little bit towards the middle. It dealt with names and how they correspond to a child’s life.

 

            In the previous chapters the authors wrote about how parents don’t really have influence on their child’s life and how conventional wisdom is generally wrong; this chapter was no different. They stated that there are certain trends among various different racial groups in name choices.

 

            I found it very true about both the most common black and white names they mentioned. I also very strongly agreed with some of the more outlandish sounding names that some black girls’ sport. Names that are very strongly black related are generally given to a child to ‘confirm’ them with their predominately black neighborhood. I believe this to make sense but sad. The book stated that if a black wanted to study calculus or ballet that they would be considered ‘acting white’; if pursuing what one desires leads to the wrong group, is it wrong?

 

            I think its somewhat tragic that maybe the reason I don’t see many blacks in higher level classes is not because they are not capable, but because it is not socially acceptable. What happened to bettering oneself and one’s own race? What happened to the ideals MLK taught? Why now do black discriminate amongst their own if one of them decides they like astrophysics instead of basketball? Is that such a bad thing? It’s a horrible waste of potential. If more blacks would pursue some of these desires and if it’s was viewed as okay to pursue them, maybe stereotypes would be abolished.

 

            The main theme of this chapter was that it does not depend on the name that someone has that determines success, moreover it depends on the type of parent who would name their child the name they receive. If a parent has lower education or is in a lower socioeconomic status, they are more likely to name their child a certain name, same holds true for higher education and social status. Upto a certain point, success is I guess predetermined. One must of course work hard in order to earn the things they want, but some people have better chances than others.

 

The epilogue to the book about the two paths to Harvard really ended the book well. The two paths were a black kid who was abandoned by his mom and beaten by his dad and a white kid who grew up rich in a nice neighborhood who ended up being the unibomber.

Life is too screwed up to put generalizations on it. 

-Bluey OUTTTTTTT

What Makes a Perfect Parent?....Idk but reading this chapter doesn't help

This chapter was a little grueling to get through and I had to slowly trudge along. I was looking for something a little more interesting after the last chapter being so statistically filled, I wanted something with more of a hook. I did not find what I was looking for. 

This chapter was about what makes a good parent but honestly 3/4 of it was so contradictory and confusing I had trouble staying awake or following the reasoning behind the authors. They started a paragraph with a reason and then ended it with a question contradicting it and then explained the contradiction in the next paragraph and it kept going back and forth back and forth for what seemed like forever. 

The last ten or so pages however did kind of break it down better. They spelled out the main factors for a child scoring well in their first few years in school and the correlation to the parents involvement.

What they found was that most factors that influence young kids to do better on their tests isn't what their parents do but what they are. For example if the parents are smart the kids too will be intelligent. I was kind of interested in this point because I've always noticed that some families are just all very intelligent and the kids follow the parents. Also it kind of did seem to be like well if your parents aren't smart you're kind of screwed aren't you kid? But the truth is, which they lightly touched upon is work ethic really matters, but I supposed not until you're older. 

I also thought it was interesting the correlation the book showed regarding adoption. It said that parents who put their children up for adoption had lower IQ's therefore their kids scored lower on their tests. It seemed that parents really do matter, but age? How does age matter?

One factor they also mentioned was that mothers who waited until they were 30 to have their first child were more likely to have children score higher on their tests. I always thought that mothers who had their kids as they got older had an increased chance of having a baby with a mental disability. I suppose that would be older than 30, but it totally does make sense that a mother would wait until she was 30 because then that could mean she was working on her career. The mother also could  have been a recovering drug addict and finally got clean and had a baby. A lot of these statistics are kind of silly I think.

Honestly these correlations are pretty stupid because the bottom line is that if parents have high IQ's then their kids will too. That's it. I was getting sick with how the book was dancing around that for so long. I understand it was to lead us into the traditional ways we do and then showing us the truth, it just annoys me. 

Thank you authors for your godly knowledge. You better have written the rest of the book much better because you are seriously lacking here. Come on now!

-Bluey OUTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Abortion=less crime?

This chapter discussed a lot about the crime rates in America during the late 80’s and the reason they decreased throughout the 90’s.

There were several reasons that were given in the beginning of the chapter and I could not tell which were the real reasons and which the media created. I liked how the chapter started though. I thought it was ironic that because the ruler in Romania banned abortion in the country all these unwanted babies were born who ultimately threw him out of power. The very people he virtually created hated him for their existence. It sounds like it should be in some type of movie, but it was real. I thought it was kind of a depressing and true take on life.

I personally happen to be pro-choice, as in I support a woman’s right to choose whether or not she wants to keep a baby. If a person doesn’t believe that they can give their child a good life, then they shouldn’t have a baby until they change that. I mean it is common for a parent to want the best for their child and want to give them whatever they need to succeed in life. If someone has a child that they do not feel the need to provide the best for, I do not see the child living a very good life. When a baby is unwanted he or she grows up in negligence from their parents which is no way to live, especially not when the child believes his parents hate him for something he did.

I can’t even imagine being a kid whose parents hate him and he doesn’t know why. That kind of guilt would be unbearable. What kind of parent would raise their child in that kind of environment?

I can understand and do believe that a rise in abortion would lead to a lower crime rate as was stated in the book. It makes sense. If a kid is wanted and grows up in a loving environment, it is more likely that he will be a law-abiding member of society. Of course there will be outliers, a person raised in the top 1% of the population can end up a crackhead just like someone in the lower 1% and someone in the bottom can move up to the top just as well, however it is not very likely for either to happen. Also not all people who do not want their children do not make horrible parents and grow to love their offspring, but more often than not they are not ideal for parenthood.

I believe that the number of abortions is directly connected to crime levels. Although the number of abortions are much higher than the number of homicides had those babies been born, society is better because of it. I do not believe that a fetus has any rights. It is the choice of the parent if the cell should ever grow into anything more, and that’s just the way it goes.

They only related the abortion rate to the crime level, but even though abortion numbers are higher than homicides as they said in the book, there are other consequences of not having abortions. Maybe all those babies when they grow up will not create havoc, but think about one kid being neglected by his mom who didn’t want him in the first place, then think about 15,000 more or 150,0000 more. That’s a lot of suffering. What about the car theft level attributed to these babies being born or robberies or child mortality rate or the rise in homeless people or kids? These are all factors the authors failed to mention in the chapter.

Overall this chapter was a little fact and number intensive and I hope the next one is a little more interesting as chapter 3 was.

 

-bluey!