Saralee says
What is the book Freakonomics (William Morrow) about? Authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner examine how and why the important factors (wealth, parents, education, information, television, etc.) affect and influence everyday life in the actual world. There are no morality and no values in this study, instead, the authors are interested in looking at how people actually behave as opposed to how people think they are supposed to behave. You know, what you actually do versus what your mother has told you to do.
Levitt teaches economics at the University of Chicago and Dubner is a reporter for The New York Times. Together they have written one of the most popular books for 20- and 30-year-olds and after reading it, I can understand why.
One of the reasons Freakonomics is so popular is the title of the chapters which include "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?" and "What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers have in Common?" There is a "hidden" answer for everything according to the authors, and most of the fun of this book is finding out why. I never thought about the economics of drug dealing and why these criminals live with their mother, nor did I care about business plans of many dope dealers. But the story that Levitt tells is fascinating.
A young sociology student at the University of Chicago goes to the projects to conduct a fairly stupid survey - you know, the kind where an irritating telemarketer calls and interrupts your supper and asks if you have a few minutes to answer some stupid questions. The student is basically kidnapped and held at risk by a gang of drug dealers; talks his way out of trouble; makes friends with the leader; and hangs out with them. One of the gang leaders, shortly before his own gang kills him, gives the student a stack of worn spiral notebooks that record four years of the gang's finances - a record of the drug buys, payoffs and bribes. The leader made $100,000 a year but everyone that worked for him was lucky to make minimum wage. So why did kids join the gang? Because of human nature and the hope that they could become the leader.
Larry's language
Freakonomics is about events in our lives influencing our behavior. Economist Levitt argues that most conventional wisdom is wrong, that experts bend the facts too often to suit their own agenda and that if you search for the hidden meaning in the data you will find correct answers.
Of course the answers here, and in life, are easy. They are: yes, no, maybe and I don't know yet. Levitt is widely regarded as a genius, and this book is brilliant because they do the hard work of figuring out the right questions to ask.
Levitt questions the financial reasons why drug dealers still live with their mothers and why student test scores go up when the law provides financial incentives for increased scores. Levitt puzzles out the reason why American crime rates dropped dramatically in the 1990s, and how that related to the rise and fall of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Levitt tackles questions about the effectiveness of school choice (no better test scores for those children choosing a school), the impact of more money in an election (not much), the risk of flying versus driving (no difference), the risk of your children playing at a swimming pool versus playing in a home with guns in them (don't go near the water), the impact of unusual names on a child (don't even ask), and the age-old nature versus nurture debate when it comes to parenting. What is the key to the best parenting? To be raised by an older, successful and well educated parent. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the keys are not reading at night, not the amount of television watching allowed, not a stay at home mom, not a two parent family, and not hard discipline.
Freakonomics asks the interesting questions and answers them with the use of data and regression analysis (explained in terms that even a nonscientist can understand). Is this the kind of book that can change your life? Yes. Will you like and agree with all the authors' conclusions? No. Will you understand everything in the book? Maybe. Will there be a sequel? I don't know yet, but I hope so.
Join us for our next Book Club discussion which will feature The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Doubleday) by Mark Haddon.
