Renowned economist, Steven D. Levitt, and well-known journalist, Stephen J. Dubner, in their collaboration of the book, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, write in a mostly inoffensive style about extremely controversial topics. Levitt’s and Dubner’s purpose is to inform readers of frequently disputed topics from a purely economic standpoint. They use second person to directly speak to their readers, an impartial tone to show an unusual perspective, and contrast to provide both sides of an argument. Levitt and Dubner’s ability to speak to the reader in a conversational tone by writing in second person is an amazing use of an inoffensive writing style. The authors inform their readers about how information concerning the Ku Klux Klan is released …show more content…
Their main focus is to engage and teach the ordinary person versatile concepts of economics in an inoffensive way. In doing so, they account for all manner of people who might be reading it, including drug dealers. That way, a drug dealer could read facts about their line of work and digest data concerning it, without feeling offended or attacked by the words the authors chose. Levitt and Dubner make their book an all inclusive reading because anyone can read it from any walk of life and not be offended in doing so. The authors utilize contrast in a seamless, conversational style. The pair write about how society today is doing its best to find ways to decrease the crime rate. They then go on to say that, “some people would argue that we don’t do a very good job” (18), and then immediately rebutt that comment by declaring, “but taking the long view, that is clearly not true” (18). The authors are exceedingly clever in their writing style with this because they show readers the opinions of some, and then prove that to be incorrect factually. They also provide evidence for why they, as economists, are correct in a graph
In The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison by Jeffery Reiman and Paul Leighton, four multifaceted issues are focused on and examined. These issues are the Unites States high crime rates, efforts in explaining the high crime rates, where the high crime rates originally came from, and the success attained at a high price. The initial key issue that Reiman and Leighton discuss is America’s high rising crime rates with the understanding of the people that believe policy and regulations are the causes of the decrease in crime. The many graphs throughout the chapter represent information that undoubtedly illustrates that specific policy and regulation may cause rates to become stagnate or strike a plateau. While the rule makers make it appear as though their organization is functioning. Later guns and gun control policy are discussed. With the stern enforcement of the gun policy, at the time, crime appeared to decline, or become stagnate resulting in a plateau effect that is illustrated in the graphs. Countless arrests were made with large quantities of people being imprisoned. Du...
In “The Devil and Tom Walker”, Irving reveals many aspects of the humanity especially how economic depression plays in the society. Some may disregard what really happens throughout the world because they ponder that the situation is “inapplicable” to their lives. Others are able to determine the problems of it but the Media/News Organizations seem to be more anxious about the people’s entertainments rather than talk about the economy. As declared by John Bellamy Foster, a professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and also editor of Monthly Review, the world economy is “experiencing by far its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” In some instances, research illustrates that money is not the problem in the economy instead the problem is the people that are corrupt, “never was sinner taken more unawares” (Irving 16). The economic problems that have been gradually increasing over the past few years in established economies throughout world just continue to intensify.
On the front cover of Freakonomics, the subheading reads, “A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,” which is the purpose of the book. The economist Steven Levitt and the author Stephen Dubner wrote this book using several rhetorical devices to achieve that purpose. A few of those devices, style, ethos, pathos, and logos, were prominent within the book and helped to convey the message and purpose well.
The world is an increasingly tricky, sticky place. Mysteries present themselves every day; and in every way, people are puzzled and intrigued and on the hunt for answers. Steven D. Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics with Stephen J. Dubner, is one such person. Devoting his professional life to cracking the mysteries of seemingly mundane, and sometimes trivial, economic in daily life, Levitt jumps from assumption to decision, connecting dots in sometimes genius, sometimes haphazard, ways, and forming conclusions that occasionally defy conventional thought. Freakanomics gifts readers with several ideas to chew on and challenges deeply rooted thoughts.
Through this, the authors effectively convince readers to dig deeper and find the truth behind reality. Another instance where the authors use juxtaposition is when they compare the Ku Klux Klan to real estate agents, showing how both have used informational asymmetry to their benefit. The Ku Klux Klan instilled fear into the population by having so called “information” that the public didn’t have: when they would attack. Because fear was implanted into the minds of the public, most of the Ku Klux Klan’s “threatened violence never [went] beyond the threat stage” (Levitt 53). By having an informational advantage, the Ku Klux Klan could voice threats without having to execute them because people would comply with them out of fear. Likewise, real estate agents essentially use the same informational asymmetry to their benefit. Because they are the so-called “expert” in their field, real estate agents will pressure sellers into accepting a lower offer on their house, so the agent can swiftly close a deal and collect commission. An agent will only gain slightly more from a seller selling at a higher price, “so her job is to convince you that a [lower] offer is a very good offer, even a generous offer” (Levitt 65). Because
This paper aims to present the book review of ‘Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything’ along with the main arguments, course applications and personal opinions.
Levitt, Steven D, and Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. New York: William Morrow, 2005. Print.
Revealing the hidden side of life in clarity, Freakonomics draws in all economists with unmentioned assumptions which are upheld with reasoned correlation, bonding subjects that unveil misconceptions, concluding on economic pattern limitations. Effectively, they lead their audience on their conviction route as smoothly as possible. Nice job on not screwing the map up. Allowing them to achieve their goals, this was to change people’s views. By the time a person puts down Freakonomics, they have been led to conviction about all their claims because Dubner & Levitt know that in order to change someone else’s way of thinking you must change your own.
Poverty is the most influential issue in the book “The other Wes Moore”. Wes Moore states “He'd realized very early in the game that the drug market was a simple supply and-demand equation. The demand was bottomless.Your money was determined
Some of the most prominent economists already involved in the issue are Jeffrey Miron and Mark Thornton. One strand of the discussion comes from Jeffrey Miron 2004. He discusses the current battle with the regulation and legalization of drugs in the United States and provides an analysis of the problems associated with prohibition. Miron offers a balanced, sophisticated and in-depth analysis of the true costs, benefits, and consequences of strictly enforcing drug prohibition. He argues that the effects of prohibition on drug use have been modest at best and have numerous highly unfavorable detrimental side effects. Specifically, prohibition is shown to directly increase violence, even when it deters drug use. Miron's analysis leads to the alarming discovery that the more resources given to the war on drugs, the higher the homicide rate. He provides a cost-benefit analysis on several alternatives to the war on drugs. His conclusion is indisputable. He proclaims that any of the numerous and widely discussed alternatives are likely to be a substantial improvement over the current policy of total
The third chapter of Freakonomics begins by introducing the idea that good questions can lead to unique answers, but only if the conventional wisdom can be overturned. Conventional wisdom is classified by John Galbraith as being simple, convenient, and comforting but not necessarily truthful (Levitt & Dubner, 2009). The piece then talks about trying to identify the situations where the conventional wisdom is false and usually triumphs. The piece provides some different examples that are usually taken at face value, like statistics concerning homelessness and the possibility of being victim of rape or attempted rape. The writers move on to talking about the police departments that painted a picture of crack dealers who had weapons and large sums of cash (Levitt & Dubner, 2009). That image infuriated law abiding citizens, but in reality drug dealers usually live in the projects and most still with their mothers.
Trend lines; are the rates in a data table either showing a negative slope or a positive one. In this instance, the trend lines of crimes like homicides, rapes, and shooting in the US are on a downwards slope (para. 6). However, trend lines on the subject are rarely researched because they are no competition for headlines. Headlines are what grasp the worlds attention, even if it’s not true. Headlines create audience awareness which promotes the reader to engage in the story. As a reader, the first thing my eyes are drawn to in an article is the headlines. Pinker and Mack use resources from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the FBI Uniform Crime Reports in order to get accurate data without using media and headlines. Bold, exciting, and even simple words convey the reader into buying the article just out of curiosity, that is how the media makes its profit, through casual wording and interesting
...us the risks. By showing how a person’s actions change through a change in the risk of getting caught, the punishment, or the earnings a criminal might earn from his activity, economists help show that criminals to try to maximize their utility whenever they are considering an illegal activity. The economic framework for crime has been expanded to apply to many different areas of economics relating to crime such as: gun control, gangs, illegal drug use and policy in order to get an established view of the economic facts in order to show correlations between individuals and the decisions they choose. Economics can and has been used to create models that explain areas of crime that psychologists, sociologists, and other studies are unable to address as economists have effectively with their models and offers an empirical and statistical approach that provides models
What is writing style? I started out thinking that writing style is a personal thing and that all writers have their own style. But, this way of thinking is really just a simple way to answer the question. After more careful thought, I realized that style is actually quite the opposite of personal and original. Style is a form of standardization. As writers, we all follow certain rules and guidelines to make our point. Style is these rules and guidelines.
“Compares one set of findings on one society with the same findings on another society” (Giddens 33). These questions are prominent to figure out the distinction between society and an individual. Crime is defined as any action that defies the laws established, or the deviance towards society that results in criminal behavior. Comparative researchers can look at the Theory of Broken Windows, and compare the society and see the difference, to gain a social insight. Philip Zimbardo created an experiment where two societies; the wealthy community and the poor community. In both communities the cars were vandalized because one unrepaired broken window is a sign that no one cares, so breaking more windows, and committing more serious crimes in a rational