What caused the death of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Poverty? Dictatorship? Ignorance towards his people? What do you think? A little hint: In 1966,
one year after Ceaușescu had become the Communist dictator of
Romania, he made abortion illegal in order to increase the population.
By Olena Denysyuk
The reform had an effect: within one year of abortion ban, the Romanian
birth rate had doubled. The lives of these babies were miserable, being born by
poor and young mothers, who would otherwise have chosen abortion. These babies
were more likely to become criminals. On Christmas Day of 1989, Ceaușescu learned from
his mistakes the hard way. With a bullet to the head. From the people of his
nation, tired of living in poverty. People, who probably wouldn’t be born if
not for the abortion ban- the ban that gave him a bullet to the head- NOT the
poverty, NOT the ignorance. The brutal mistake of 1966, which he was not
prepared for.
This
is one of Freakonomics’ examples of novel thinking- by looking deeper,
finding the root of the cause, rather than focusing on generally accepted
truth. This is a case of how to think
out of the box.
So what is
Feakonomics about?
