Jonathan Gruber: Killing for Crime Control

Mona Charen has dredged up more Jonathan Gruber sludge, linking him to the Killing for Crime Control thesis made famous in the Freakonomics book and ensuing debate.

Referencing this 1998 article by Jonathan Gruber, et al, Freakonomics author Steven Levitt and colleague, John Donahue argued in a 2002 Quarterly Journal of Economics  article  that the availability of abortion had significant influence in lowering the crime rate.  This later was made available for public consumption in the 2005 Freakonomics chapter on abortion.

Besides connecting Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber with more of his macabre plans for social engineering, this underscores another leftist inconsistency.  Usually these people are arguing to mitigate penalties against established criminals, yet here you see them supporting the idea of aborting babies from groups considered  more likely to become social liabilities.  That’s the same as a death penalty exacted before a crime is even contemplated.

Gruber’s own conclusions from 1998: “Perhaps more importantly, these findings may also have implications for the lifelong prospects of the average child born after legalization. The children not born due to abortion availability would have grown up in adverse living circumstances that other studies have shown may be detrimental to later prospects.”

What other interesting ideas from the mind of Johnathan Gruber have made their way into the intrinsic design of Obamacare?