Freakonomics, a collaborative product of economist Steven Levitt and writer Stephen Dubner, applies economic principles in analyzing a broad scope of dilemma's (often with controversial conclusions). The work begins with a general summation of what lies ahead in the book-grabbing the readers attention with a correlation of high abortion rates with lower crime rates. The authors then delve into their primary assumptions when analyzing a situation: that economics is the study of incentives, and that economics is a representation of reality regardless of conventional morality and thinking. Chapter one is made up of (primarily) two studies in cheating: sumo wrestlers and teachers.Based on empirical data, the authors conclude that both groups are willing to (and do) cheat to make themselves better off--in the case of the teacher, standardized test fraud is the means towards a higher pay, while competition fixing is a tool of the "honorable" sumo wrestlers. Chapter two surrounds the manipulation of information in the KKK, real-estate dealers, and online dating The Klan kept its organization through the control of who knew what, real estate dealers controlled description and price information to maximize profit, and online daters inflated their attributes to seem more attractive.
Tone: Scholarly
Rhetorical whatnot:
Allusion:"Remember Terry Malloy, the tormented former boxer played by Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront? As Malloy saw it, all his troubles stemmed from the one fight in which he took a dive. Otherwise, he could have had class; he could have been a contender."
Assault on logos: Charts on lynching, homicides, sumo statistics, etc.
Application: How can Freakonomics be applied to everyday occurrences?
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
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