Summary Of Freakonomics

Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt, shows a different side to popular topics and changes your perspective of things you thought you already knew. He uses an informal tone as he shows you the facts and data of things that you thought you knew. He shows you things like how the KKK and real-estate agents are alike, what makes a perfect parent, and why drug dealers are still living with their moms in the most enjoyable way anybody can talk about those weird subjects and topics .With every point that Levitt makes he has enough evidence behind him to adequately support his points and back them up. Like how the crime rate dropped in the 90s mostly thanks to the Roe v. Wade case, a case in which the court held that a woman's right to an abortion fell within
the right to privacy granted in the Fourteenth Amendment. Disproving and proving story after story, Levitt manages to keep the reader entertained with stories correlated to the topic at hand. Levitt offered the reader truth and clarity for them to see things about the human race, rather than just writing a dull book about economics.
The author gives his own spin on the the topic as we explore the hidden side of everything. The book takes a novel approach to studying economics, so each chapter has its own topic and story on the topic. For example chapter 6, one of my favorite and most interesting chapters in the entire book, discusses whether or not the name parents give their child matters. With each chapter and topic accompanied by multiple concepts. The author tells the story about a New York City man named Robert Lane, who gave one of his sons the name "Winner”, and then named his other son, "Loser". And with names like “Loser” and “Winner”, you'd think it would be obvious to how their lives turned out, with each son becoming what their names already suggest. Well conflicting to what their names suggests, Loser Lane succeeds in life, ranking up in the New York City police department, where he’s nicknamed, “Lou”. Winner Lane, however, has been arrested almost three dozen times. So Winner became the real loser, and Loser became the real winner. In this single chapter, Levitt tells other stories on the same exact
topic. Levitt then presents the problem, does the name given to a child affect his life, or are the parents lives reflected in the name? The main thing I get from this specific chapter is that it doesn't matter what your parents name you, because names are only indicators, and not the reason for a person's outcome. Instead of just throwing facts at the reader, Levitt takes the time to break everything down so it makes sense. Making Freakonomics a great book to read, and worthy of the hype that surrounds it.