Written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics is built upon three major philosophies: incentives are the fundamentals of life, experts on a subject use their knowledge as an advantage to serve their own wellbeing, and orthodox wisdom is wrong most of the time. This book goes into detail to explain the mindsets of humans, from school teachers to sumo wrestlers, through statistics. Levitt and Dubner claim that when the data is closely examined it can relate to more concepts than originally hypothesized. The style of this informative piece is very precise yet, at the same time, very concise and to the point. The tone carried throughout the book is informative and knowledgeable. The authors use distinct tactics to get points across
Until the mid 1800s, abortion was unrestricted and unregulated in the United States. The justifications for criminalizing it varied from state to state. One big reason was population control, which addressed fears that the population would be dominated by the children of newly ...
Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood by Kristen Luker, analyzes the historical and complex sociology of abortion. Luker focuses on three important factors: a historical overview of abortion, the pro-life and pro-choice views, and the direction the abortion debates are going (11, Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood p. 000). Abortion has always been seen as murder and with the idea that those who are already living have more rights. Back in the days, the laws didn’t give fetus personhood. Also, the laws against abortions weren’t strictly enforced upon anyone. In addition, abortion didn’t seem to be a huge problem, which explains why abortion was ignored in the past.
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.
Others, like Michat Brezezski and Maria Halber, have examined the studies first hand and found “the coefficients’ estimates in abortion-crime regressions [were] not computationally stable and, therefore, are unreliable” (Brezezski and Halber). These critics affirmed Levitt and Dubner’s research was wrong in more than its moral character through their analysis. Unfortunately, these critics did not understand the purpose of the book. They drew conclusions undermining the purpose of Freakonomics and instead focus on the specifics of each study.
The crimes that come along with crack dealers, users and other drug utilizers are horrendous. Murders, rape, abuse, assault, driving accidents and robbery are just some associated with crack, and any other drug. Owners of drug houses or who deal are often victims of personally robbery, and cant report it to the police due to the illegal activity their involved with. Who wants to wake up to a gun in their face, and watch all of their "hard earned" possessions be stolen?
While people think drug dealers earn a lot of money, it is actually only the people in the top of the pyramid who earn a lot of money. That is why most of the other drug dealers have to live with their moms.
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.
Freakonomics explores multiple circumstances and the difference between correlation and causation. A standout question that the authors delve into asks, “What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?” (15). The authors begin with the Chicago Public School system and standardized testing. The CPS (Chicago Public School system) placed elementary and secondary schools with low test scores on probation, who then “face[ed] the threat of being shut down” (22). As one can realize, some teachers would do everything in their power to avoid low test scores, even cheating. Fortunately for teachers, “teacher cheating is rarely looked for, hardly ever detected, and just about never punished” (23). Teachers in the CPS who received low test
Abortions have been performed for thousands of years. In the 1800s abortions began to be outlawed. The reasons for anti-abortion laws varied for each state. Some people did not want the world to be dominated by newly arrived immigrants. Abortion in the 1800s were very unsafe due to the fact that the doctors had a limited educations and hospitals were not common. The outlawing of abortions from 1880 to 1973 led to many woman attempting illgeal abortions. (add author). Almost two hundred women died from attempting illegal abortions in 1965. Between two hundred thousand and one million illegal abortions were given each year. In states where local laws restrict the availability of abortion, women tend to have the lowest level of education and income. Additionally, in those states, less money goes toawrds education, welfare, fostercare programs, and adoption services. (Anderson, 5).
One of the most obvious reasons why drugs are still around is because it is such a profitable business. In our society, marijuana, cocaine, xanax, and ecstasy are convenient and readily available to purchase almost anywhere you go. Those who sell drugs can make anywhere from five hundred to three thousand dollars a day. This income is tax-free and requires little to no labor efforts whatsoever. Those involved in this lucrative trade are taking somewhat of a risk, but because dealing drugs is so common in our society the chances of getting caught aren’t as high as expected. Drug trafficking alone serves for about 40 percent of all organized crime activity with this number increasing everyday as drugs become more and more popular. With the economy being so bad most find it easy to turn to selling drugs as an acceptable mean of income.
In chapter 4 of Freakonomics, “Where Have All the Criminals Gone?” Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner discuss and argue the possible reasons for the crime drop in the 1990’s, asking and focusing on the question “just where did all those criminals go” (108)? The authors open with a story about the abortion laws in Romania, transitioning into the many factors that could have affected the 1990’s crime drop in America. Some of these factors include the following; Strong economy, increase in police, gun-control laws, the aging of the population, and then their main argument, abortion. While reading this essay, I had difficulty with many things, first off, my emotions, followed by the overall organization.
Freakonomics tries to turn the scalpel of the analytical and statistical methods intrinsic to Economics onto questions that the authors feel do not have definitive answers. Mostly because no one thought to ask the questions that would allow us (the world at large, not Economics students) to solve the problems that would lead to the answers, the authors feel.
Freakonomics is book written to explain common man about hidden truth behind certain activities. Authors has tried to relate economics with day to day activity. It also guides individual about how to understand and interpret things correctly and behave accordingly. There are six chapters in book first is about how school teachers & sumo wrestlers cheat? Second chapter is about how real estate agents behave and manipulate their customers for their own benefits. Third chapter is about why crack dealers still live with their moms? This part explains entire working system of crack dealing gangs , working of criminal organization, etc. Fourth chapter deals with why crime rate in US has decreased and what are the exact factors of it.
Most people like to think of themselves as moral (often unequivocally so); however Levitt and Dubner argue in Freakonomics that there will always be a point where even the most righteous people will cheat to get ahead. This type of pessimistic statement seems to be inaccurate until backed up by situations ranging from the most immoral people to the supposedly most honorable. When enough is on the line, according to Levitt and Dubner there is no immunity to corruption. The most striking example is of teachers who cheat on standardized “high-stakes” testing to get bonuses or keep their job. With their livelihood on the line, those who supposedly preach about honesty and loyalty can be corrupted to do the very thing they advocate against. An intended