447. How Much Do We Really Care About Children?

Freakonomics Radio

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Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 32K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2021

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

They can’t vote or hire lobbyists. The policies we create to help them aren’t always so helpful. Consider the car seat: parents hate it, the safety data are unconvincing, and new evidence suggests an unintended consequence that is as anti-child as it gets.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Stephen Dubner.
0:03.0	You are about to hear our first new episode of 2021.
0:06.3	We have a big year planned for Freakonomics Radio and our whole little podcast network,
0:12.6	including occasional episodes of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, which has proved to be very popular.
0:19.3	Reading ahead is not at all a requirement, but if you would like to do so, the next book
0:24.0	we're doing is Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Dowdy.
0:28.7	She is a mortician and self-described funeral industry rabble rouser.
0:33.3	It is a fascinating book and a great episode.
0:36.1	You're going to love it.
0:37.3	And now on to today's episode.
0:46.7	What would you say if I told you there's a safety device that just about every parent
0:51.0	is required to buy, but many of them hate?
0:54.0	They are terrible.
0:55.6	I have a hate-hate relationship with this sucker.
0:59.3	They're horrible.
1:01.1	And that this safety device doesn't really seem to improve safety.
1:05.4	They were so shocked by the results that they thought there must have been a mistake.
1:09.1	What if I told you that this device designed to protect children had the unintended
1:13.3	consequence of causing fewer children to be born?
1:17.1	If you look at the whole time series, you get to about 145,000 fewer birds.
1:22.5	Once I told you all that, would you know what I'm talking about?
1:26.4	It is a simple two-word answer.
	...

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