Freakonomics Review

The non-fiction book Freakonomics by, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner covers social issues globally and nation wide. The topics they talk about are economics, class, gender, ethnic groups, parenting, crime and education. I believe the authors wrote their book with the purpose of trying to get readers to understand the way the world works. They want to point out how one factor can have a huge influence on others, their personal lives, and society.

In Chapter 3: “Why do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms,” The Chicago gang comparison to McDonalds was a bit shocking because they were both capitalistic “institutes,” whose leaders main concern was to make money not help. Suburban neighborhood have the tendency to speak about how suppress they feel, and how they are limited to low-income jobs like McDonalds that pay minimum wage. It was disturbing to find out street soldiers conforming to $3.30 an hour in comparison to $8.00 at fast food restaurant. I will be purchasing a copy of their Supper Freakonimcs books, due to topics such as abortion, cheating, incentives, violence, and parenting. I have already looked into the history of abortion and the reasons why women decide to abort, or keep their baby.  

The first three chapters of the book were very intriguing, because started comparing issues you never thought had any connection, but as one kept reading the structure added a non-linear style. When we covered the reasons why crime has decreased they gave us a list of reasons they convinced you on how it was the reason for reducing crime, then all of a sudden told it wasn’t. It was an annoying guessing game that kept having me change my annotations summaries. I felt that the authors did a great job with their choice of diction and explanation in concepts.

I would only recommend the first three chapters of the book to a person who is concerned about the way the world works, and feeds off of learning. The book had the tendency to be very one sides, they belittled African Americans a great deal. Some of the topics like abortion became very redundant, which at times make the book boring.