Mininum Wage and Maximum Rage

According to the March 1 edition of the Hartwell (Ga.) Sun , Georgia State Senator Nancy Schaefer blames illegal immigration on the millions of abortions that have resulted ultimately in a shortage of cheap American labor. “We could have used those people,” Schaefer reportedly said. Last year, "rogue economist" Steven D. Levitt argued in Freakonomics that the decline in the crime rate that began in the early 1990s could be attributed not to tougher gun laws or stricter law enforcement in general, but to legalized abortion. Thanks to Roe v. Wade in 1973, Levitt contends, millions of mothers were able to avoid giving birth to a generation of unwanted babies, the first of whom would have otherwise been hitting their criminal prime about the time Bill Clinton entered the White House. Citing consistent state-level correlations between high abortion rates and low crime rates, Levitt concludes that "Roe v. Wade was indeed the event that tipped the crime scale." (p. 141) Thus, according to Schaefer and Levitt, it would seem that South Dakota, where lawmakers have just declared abortion illegal, can look forward to an abundance of cheap, homegrown workers intent on killing each other off. I can see it now. From Rapid City to Sioux Falls, a sweatshop on one corner and a gunshop on the other.