Thursday, June 21, 2007

John Lott's "Freedomnomics" and the Gender Wars

This is a fascinating observation:

Perhaps the most startling claim that Lott makes is that women’s suffrage caused a dramatic increase in the size of government, because the “gender gap” reflects a genuine difference in how men and women—-especially single or divorced women—-see the appropriate role of government with respect to income security and education. He points to how state government expenditures changed in states as the percentage of women voting increased—and how the varying years in which different states granted women the vote confirms that this was not a coincidence.

I used to jest that 'after women got the vote, the US suffered through Prohibition, the Great Depression, WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.' (It was in jest, of course, because my wife and daughters are well-trained in the use of handguns...)

Now I can add The Scourge of Leviathan to the list.

Thanks, Dr. Lott!!!

HT: Clay Cramer

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Because of the respect I have for you and knowing you have daughters, I'm going to refrain from repeating an old joke. Think "bounty".

Nice post, BTWh