Freakonomics Book Report

Book Report: Freakonomics Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, is an explanatory book that seeks to show the reader the truth behind economics through tying economic themes to pop culture ones. The almost guide-like book takes the reader on a trip that explains why people do the things they do and how it all relates, making comical connections like Sumo wrestlers to teachers. I found the book to be a delightfully enlightening piece of literature that taught me the ploys and tactics of the business world, like how real estate agents swindle their buyers, while keeping me interested through many short anecdotes that take away the bore of a typical, formulaic economics book. Over all, the book’s general casual tone and its ability to make serious matters easy to read and enjoy made the book a good read. Freakonomics is split up into six chapters, this first being on honesty and cheating. When exploring honesty and cheating, Levitt and Dubner expose the thing that Sumo wrestlers and teachers have in common, they both cheat, teachers by making their testing scores higher than they actually are and Sumo wrestlers by rigging matches; both doing so, so that they can get a nice pay and funding. In the following chapter, the economists foil the scheme that car dealerships and real estate agents have been using to steal from buyers for ages, complexly worded marketing and overly-done presentation. In the chapter on convenience and questioning, the book brings up the truths about drug-dealing, its relation to racial identity and poverty, and how to analyze all this. This chapter leads into the next one on crime, where Levitt and Dubner connect economical rises and downfalls to crime levels and what really brings them down. The final two chapters are on parenting, the first of the two focusing on raising a child and the last one on the effects of naming a child, both socially and, of course, economically. My overall opinion on Freakonomics is that it