Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
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- ISBN13: 9780061234002
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Which is more treacherous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?
These may not sound like predictable questions for an econo-mist to question. But Steven D. Levitt is not a predictable economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head.
Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning leader and journalist. They usually start with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new meadow of study contained in this book: freakonomics.
Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want, or need, especially when additional people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of . . . well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of battle finance. The telltale inscription of a cheating professor. The secrets of the Klu Klux Klan.
What unites all these tales is a belief that the modern world, despite a fantastic deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not indecipherable, and—if the right questions are questioned—is even more intriguing than we reflect. All it takes is a new way of looking.
Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it really does work. It is right that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and tales to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will factually redefine the way we view the modern world.
Amazon.com Review
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that meadow never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don’t need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing relations. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime excise to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade choice that preempted the being of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald’s, where the top bosses make fantastic money while scores of underlings make something not more than minimum wage. And in a section that may clock radio or relieve apprehensive parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don’t really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more treacherous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner’s 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, but briefly, away from what Levitt really has to say. Although maybe there’s a excellent economic reason for that too, and we’re just not getting it yet. –John Moe
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Let’s see. Since 1973, as the abortion rate goes up, the crime rate goes down. Do abortions, then, cause a decline in the crime rate? That is the authors’ aver. Since 1973, Americans have consumed more cola. Does cola consumption cause a decline in crime, as I am now arguing? Reflect about it. As people’s bellies are fully of the bubbly, they are more bouncy, not wanting to bop boys on their brains. Both the abortion rate and the cola rate correlate inversely with the crime rate. Which, if either one, has a strong, I mean a knock your stinky socks off strong, negative correlation with cut-rate crime? You see, many things correlate with cut-rate crime, but not all are strong enough to be truly vital. If one was ever scientifically fortunate enough to show a cause to cut-rate crime, that person might have a best selling book and become rich and appear on talk shows. Cause and effect. How, then, do we go about studying that? We have two proposed strong causes to the cut-rate crime rate: the increased abortion rate and the increased consumption of liquid candy. To test the two hypotheses, that either abortion or cola consumption causes a decline in crime, we would have to do an actual conduct experiment, not play silly games with correlational statistics. Let’s see. We’ll randomly assign 100 women to an experimental condition, where they have an abortion. We will randomly assign another 100 women to a control condition, where they will give birth to their children. Now we can compare the 100 children in the experimental group with the 100 children in the control group to see which group commits more crime. Whoops! I forgot. The 100 children in the experimental group are dead. How can they bop boys on the brain now? Does this mean that we can’t even chat about cause and effect here? Whooooo. How, then, can the authors talk about cause and effect for abortion and crime? Are their brains bopped?? No genuine science here.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Let’s see, what additional esoteric aspects of life can we consider as having some sort of “impact?” This leader is absolutely ridiculous as are his notions. It speaks volumes that he is boasted by such fools as Malcolm Gladwell. Volumes. Roe v. Wade having an impact? Can’t wait to see what sort of impact the new gun-totin’ laws here in Florida are going to have on crime. Then, maybe this leader can draft a “revised” edition of this book, with new indicies, which, of course, will all be eaten up by the rank and file. “Wow, oh, gosh, oh golly, oh gee, I never thought of that.” Let’s plug two really unrelated things, try to bridge some sort of relationship, no matter how strained, then call them related. By the way, if it’s the “hidden side” of things as the by-line suggests, how did this fool even find them? At any rate, this game is an ancient one and has been played several times before. Some may recall it by the name of “Six Degrees of…”, for instance, “Kevin Bacon.” There’s an thought, maybe Kevin Bacon has a hand in *this* as well.
Go on from this book people. Renovate some taste and quit funding the shoulder bag of janus snake-oil guys such as this.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Though many of the topics covered here are truly fascinating and eye-opening, the ill-conceived argument that abortion reduces crime makes me skeptical about the book as a whole. Levitt bases his argument on some previously debunked assumptions and fails to take into account a number of additional factors. It’s the economic equivalent of adage increased ice cream sales lead to increased crime. Fun to mull some of these things over, but c’mon, let’s not simplify things to the point where you mislead your uneducated readers.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
Everyone’s favorite parlor game, what effect did legalized abortion have on demographics, etc., is played at one point in this book. Another legendary theory is James Taranto’s “Roe effect”. The problem with this one is that Steve Sailer did a total debunking of it. I agree with an earlier post; if you find the earlier Slate archives, it appears no evisceration took place, but Slate left off Sailer’s final and devastating response; see Sailer’s blog. I can’t judge the leader included this contention in his book, but it’s been said he is proud.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
What gall to clam that everything is hidden! I see now that this is not the case. Even at home, I find things all over the house.
The economic disaster that is American economy, that is NOT hidden. So, I look at this book at local tiny bookstore. I see that there is an apple on the front so I reflect — cookbook! And for apples is the best.
Then no apples or recipes. Only things that are not right about the world around us.
My cave is dark, jah and I have Sterno, jah. But not for heat! Margaritas of Sterno with mint leafs like New Orleans. Well what was of New Orleans before Katrina made Bush look like a drinker of the STERNO!
My economy helps yours, so read this book. No peanut buuter.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5