Now for Some Actual Good News, Even About Teen Sex ( Really!)

Despite Oklahoma's high teen birth rate (see previous post), the libertarians at Reason magazine have looked at 2008 and found some good news.

Here are some of their numbers:

Violent crime is down again—1.4 percent nationally and 9.8 percent in big cities. That's on top of a steady decline since the early 90s.

Rape hit it all-time low since the government started keeping statistics. It's down more than 85 percent since the 1970s.

The juvenile murder rate has gone down 73 percent since 1993.Life expectancy hit a record high. Americans now live 78.1 years.

Since 1991, fewer teens are having sex, fewer are having sex with multiple partners, and more are using condoms when they do engage in intercourse.

Some of Reason's conclusions: America's moral decline is exaggerated. So, they say, is the decline of capitalism, which they argue has increased personal freedom:

The last 20 or so years in particular have seen incredible advances in technology that have given us a wealth of new choices, exponentially enhancing our personal and economic freedom. The worrywarts fret that our society can't handle that sort of freedom that prosperity and unlimited choices coupled with the absence of need will spell our ruin. This year's headlines aside, we seem to be handling it all pretty well.