The nanny state on the right


"Nanny State Makes Poor Babysitter for Americans"

Radley Balko's latest column explodes the myths used by some conservatives to expand the state's power.

For example: Teen pregnancy is down. According to the Department of Justice, juvenile crime, crimes against children, the incidence of rape, as well as overall crime, is down.

Divorce is down. Teens are waiting longer to have sex. High school dropout rates are down. Unemployment remains low. Over the past decade, the roverall rate of abortion has largely declined.

If Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction," Internet porn, and violent video games are indeed inducing a nationwide slouch toward Gomorra, it's difficult to discern from those statistics.

What's most intriguing is that all of these trends have been taking place since at least the mid-1990s--a time period during which technology has given us more freedom to indulge in sin and vice than ever before, and an era in which Americans have become markedly less judgmental.

Free markets and free choice win again.

Amazing how that works every single time it is tried, isn't it?

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - May 26, 2006 at 04:27 AM  Tag


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