Alysia Gwinn
Mr. Reuter
Economics
25 October 2016
Abortion v. The Economy
On top of abortion already being controversial, adding in how the economy is affected takes the topic to a whole different level. Topics that are usually looked at as typically a moral debate are overlooked in their economic standpoints. Some people say that abortion even caused the 2008 recession.
For instance, the United States has a steadily increasing debt of up to $16 trillion dollars. This $16 trillion has overcome the annual GDP for the nation meaning our government has spent too much money. Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973, and over 3,000 babies have been killed on a daily basis, totaling to nearly 50 million babies. Now think about what those 50 trillion lives could have done with the economy. Those lives, if not aborted, could have tremendously helped decrease government spending, about $4 billion every day. Maybe one of those babies could have grown up to find a cure to many of the diseases that we have today that are taking so many lives around the globe. Of the 10,000 individuals who retire daily, social security would be a lot better if those lives could have been able to contribute to the economy. According to Life News, “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Social Security Administration, Guttmacher Institute, and National Center for Health Statistics, if abortion had never been legalized in 1973, more than 17 million people would be employed, resulting in an additional $400 billion from those workers, with $11 billion contributed to Medicare and $47 million contributed to Social Security” (Behna). Adding these lost individuals to society would undoubtedly help the country, even though government spending should be lowered as well. Social security is going to continue to deplete, due to the baby-boomers retiring; the aborted babies would have helped with that.
In order to sustain a stable population size, at least 2.1 children would need to be added from each house. In the United States, the replacement level is at 2 exactly which isn’t even meeting the level needed to maintain the population size. So with the decreasing birth rate, more pressure is put on younger generations to support the elderly. And although the United States is not meeting that level, the population continues to grow a little each year due to immigration into the country and a higher life expectancy.
Overall, abortion being legalized in the 70’s could be the cause of all the debt, high government spending, and declining amount social security in the United States. Even with high immigration, low death rates, and almost a perfect replacement level, the United States still faces a lot of debt, putting a strain on the economy.
Cites
Behna, Mitch. "The Economic Effect of Abortion: Billions and Billions Lost | LifeNews.com."LifeNews.com. N.p., 16 July 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
Howse, Torm. "FundamentalError.com." - The Economic Truth About Abortion-On-Demand. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
Shaw, Jerry. "Abortion: 6 Impacts on the Economy." Newsmax. N.p., 16 Apr. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
See I think you did a pretty good job on this post, however you did not talk about the positive affects of abortion, and showed a lot of bias. You didn't talk about the shortages these people could create, and the fact that some of them may be free riders. All bias aside I thought it was a solid argument and was interesting to read
ReplyDeleteI agree here with James. This was an interesting thing to read. And on topic like this, it tends to get a bit bias, but I agree that abortion is not good, but sometimes it is necessary due to things like birth defects and medical issues too. But at the end of the day it is up to the mother of the child.
DeleteWith those 50 million "babies" (, each mother who made the decision because of either a financial situation that made them incapable of being able to care for another human being's life, an unwanted pregnancy due to rape, incest, or simply an unwanted and/or undesired pregnancy, a situation where the mother's life depended on the abortion of the fetus, or the variety of other reasons. 50 million lives in addition to the already whopping 7 billion people on this earth doesn't even seem rational. In addition, the replacement level in the U.S. is higher than just, 2.0... developed countries like the UK have a replacement level of 2.075. This means that our population is continuing to grow, which you said, which supports the claim that we in fact do NOT need any more people in our exponentially growing world. Abortion being legalized in the 70's has not only contributed to 50 million women making a decision about their body that will not in fact hurt the clump of cells, and will better themselves by making them able to financially stay afloat, physically become healthy, and/or live with mental stability. It's too broad of a statement to say that the sum of all women who have had an abortion are all positive or all negative--there are the few exceptions, with less than 5% of abortions being done in the third trimester. With that being said, the other 95% of abortions done have been done before the cells have formed vital organs, much less a fully functioning brain. Regardless, a teenager up to a fully mature woman should have the availability to put themselves and their financial, mental, and physical well being before their "fetus'". This is also not to say that having a child is a punishment for having sex--a child is not necessarily the only result of sex. Having Planned Parenthood and abortion in general as an option for women virtually has no way of creating debt for this country, seeing as there is only money being taken is as revenue from the client to the company, which in turn makes the population more stable. The more stable the population, the less kids that are being put up for adoption (which are being adopted at astonishingly low rates and ludicrous high prices), and the more money that is going into options for women who need it is an option to turn to are all reasons why abortion has contributed in a positive way to the national debt.
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job but I agree that you were bias with your view. Though most women that have abortions are over 25, the main reason that they have an abortion in the first place is that they couldn’t afford a baby.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know that having those children would reduce government spending? There's a relatively large chance that if those mothers had those children, they wouldn't be able to afford them, and they'd end up on welfare, which would increase government spending. Besides, abortion can be a positive thing. I agree that it shouldn't be used as a form of birth control, but some people just can't afford to have children. That fact notwithstanding, some potential mothers have abortions because they physically can't have a baby, and could die at childbirth.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this topic can get very bias and I can see both sides. In the economic aspect I agree that abortion affects the economy either way. The lives that were lost could have decreased government spending I also agree that social security would be better because of all the people retiring there would be more people, and there would be more people to contribute to the economy. However I am not saying if I necessarily agree or disagree with abortion, I am just looking at it from a economic standpoint.
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ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote this post, I was talking about how these abortions affected the economy. Specifically the ECONOMIC standpoint of it. I don't care why all those babies were aborted, the mothers reasons are their own. Also, you don't have to attack someones work because you don't agree with their 'bias' views. Like I said about those mothers choices, my opinion is my own, so attacking me for it was rude.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that legalizing abortion did not affect the 2008 recession, I would also argue that legalizing abortion has had a positive effect on the economy. If abortion had stayed illegal, the children that would have been aborted would most likely been given to a foster home or grown up in an unstable and/or poor home. More often than not, these children will not become a productive worker, causing a negative impact on the economy.
ReplyDeleteThe basic premise for your argument seems to be that if abortion hadn't been declared a constitutional right there wouldn't be abortion happening at all. However, this is untrue. Instead women would resort to self harm, back door abortions, and other means to avoid a pregnancy. Before abortion was legalized women died in order to not conceive. It's better the mother live than die as resources have already been invested in her and she may be a productive member of society. This is even happening today as access to abortion clinics and getting an abortion has been made much difficult due to draconian laws and regulations. In addition a fetus or zygote are not a babies. A fetus can't even survive outside the week until 20-24 weeks. Forcing the mother to give birth to a baby she doesn't want or can't care for costs money that would be better spent by the mother for other necessities. Children are also incredibly expensive. And if the mother doesn't have the means to take care of the child, she will likely use welfare which costs everyone else money. If she gives the child up, he/she will go into the foster-care system which also costs money. And maybe he/she will be adopted; maybe he/she won't be. The cost isn't just financial in this case, the child also pays. Poverty damages the brain; a traumatic childhood damages the brain. All this will make the life of the child worse than most of us know. Just because he/she wasn't aborted doesn't mean he/she will live a good life. If abortion had stayed illegal, it wouldn't have made us any better off than we are now. In many ways we would be worse off.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that people are willing to kill anything living is horrible. whether you feel a fetus is alive or dead doesn't matter that fetus is developing and could survive after growing inside of the mother. Now there are some valid reasons as to why people abort a baby. Sometimes its an accident, could be rape, could be they can't afford the baby. But this is no excuse this is why there are adoptions centers. There are some people that would like to have a baby but they are unable to make one and therefore they choose to adopt. If abortion continues none of those people that would like to adopt will be able to because everybody decided to kill their babies.
ReplyDeleteI am currently learning about populations in my environmental sciences class. According to Mr. Roberts, the average births per woman in the U.S. is currently 1.7, and the required amount of births per woman is 2, in order to replace both parents. Although the current births per woman seems extremely low, the U.S. has an added boost to it's overall population size: immigration. The U.S. was founded on immigration, roughly 13% of people living in the U.S. are immigrants, and the U.S. will continue to accept people. Abortion did not cause national debt
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about abortion I have never looked at the finical burden that it brings, but when I think about it that makes sense though people could make an argument from the other side. People could say that the babies that were aborted were going to be raised in an unhealthy, unsafe and uneducated area leaving them with little chance of success. These people could then look to the government for help and end up taking from them. Therefore increasing the deficit. Abortion is a topic that really nobody has found the right answer to, but I feel when deciding between life and death the finical look at things should not be in the picture. Because the thousands of lives ended are worth a lot more than the millions of dollars that could have been saved.
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