Freakonomics
By: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Author's Purpose
but Is there any proof?
#1: The Real-Estate Agent
#2: The Senate Member
#3: The Homeless Advocate
#4: The Government and its Police
- Innovative policing strategies
- Increased reliance on prisons
- Changes in crack and other drug markets
- Aging of the population
- Tougher gun control laws
- Strong economy
- Increased number of police
- All other explanations (increased use of capital punishment, concealed-weapons laws, gun buybacks, and others)" (pg. 121). By this chart, it makes it look like our government is doing such a good job at keeping our country from turning into criminals; however, the crime major crime drop of the 1990s was due to something across the nation. In 1973 a woman named Norma McCorvey, or better known as Jane Roe, was involved in the legalization of abortion in the United States in the court case of Roe vs. Wade. As a result, the troubled girls who would have been just as insufficient mothers were no longer having the children who grow up to be those 'troubled teens who robs the grocery stores'. No criminals being born means no crime happening later, which just so happened to be the era of the crime-drop. Therefore, the people taking all the credit (the police and other government officials) had hardly anything to do with it (pg. 6).
so what's this book all about?
Synopsis of 'Freakonomics'
As previously stated, the authors’ purpose is to show the reader all the hidden tricks that the people who handle your money use on you. Levitt and Dubner use different real-life comparisons and examples for each chapter. This allows the reader to grasp the deepness of their thoughts much easier. By using real-life examples, one can also pick up and notice these rising issues on their own accord. These range from sumo wrestlers and schoolteachers, to the Ku Klux Klan and real estate agents, to drug dealers and on through the crime-drop in the 1990s. However, this book does not only argue the points where people rip you off with their distortions of money realities. Towards the end of the book, they begin to discuss the relevance of the names parents give their children in correlation to their economic standing – without even the slightest knowledge of doing so – as well as the other odd myths of being a ‘perfect parent’. Freakonomics could be described as a mash-up of the vast illustrations of mind play whether an outside force, the persuasion or fear factor of someone else, or even yourself cause it. This bestselling book is well worth the read; it is interesting, informative, relatable (depending on certain aspects of one’s life), and all around a truly stimulating read.