Super Freakonomics Report
To be completely honest, when I first signed up for the course entitled ‘AP Macroeconomics,’ I truly had no idea what the ‘macro’ in the word meant. Of course I knew the meaning of economics—it’s everywhere in these trying times of the economy, plus, it was a vocab word in middle school. Now that I’ve read Super Freakonomics, I have an understanding of what the prefix in the word actually means and I find it interesting, perhaps even a future career option, or major in college. This book made me think in different ways, ways that I never imagined to think of before; in one way, I may even say it changed my life in opening my mind to different outlooks on numerous topics such as prostitution and life insurance, to using seat belts and making
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sure your doctor has washed his hands before that checkup—even the way money affects human (or maybe monkeys) lifestyle. Even the little statistics that made me raise my eyebrows in confusion, shock such as it being safer to drive drunk than walk drunk, this book went everywhere. It made me keep wondering what all of this had to do with the AP class I’d be taking next year—but now I see. Before I read this book, my opinion on many of the issues taken into account were somewhat different and though my opinions may have remained the same in a way, my mind is now open to the other opinions or facts of others. This assignment is based on conveying my opinion of the issues brought up in this book, and I intend on it doing so. Like most women of this day and age, I do not stand for any sort of degradation or sexist remarks, attitudes, gestures of our gender. The first chapter in this novel is entitled, ‘How is a Street Prostitute like a Department-Store Santa?’ and the first time I read that, I had a feeling this book wasn’t going to exactly be what I thought it was—another boring AP Summer assignment book with a boring project due on the first day—well, I was definitely right, it was not boring. At first, I was confused as of how all of this would tie into macroeconomic, but to my surprise, it did indeed. Now as I said in the first sentence of this paragraph, it would be easy to assume that I am against prostitution, and you’re right, I am. It wasn’t until I read the last few pages of chapter 1 about a woman named Allie who happened to be a successful business woman who turned to prostitution for some extra money, and even when that was over, she went back to college to become an economist that my opinion may have shifted slightly. From this chapter I’ve learned that even prostitution involves much economics into the process of getting money and being intelligent to do so would help. Though my opinion of prostitution remains the same—it is wrong—I was surprised by the way women such as Allie handled through it, and was happy with the outcome. Chapter 2 also made my mind, my opinion wander such as through stories, facts, and statistics. It was entitled, ‘Why Should Suicide Bombers Buy Life Insurance?’ Think about it: who would believe a terrorist would spend money to buy life insurance if he was just to die just weeks later? Not many. And this is exactly why one should purchase life insurance to get the federal government off of his back; it would confuse the government into thinking there’s no way he could be a terrorist! It’d be a win, win, for the bad guy considering his family would also be receiving money after the business had been done. This chapter practically gives tips on how to be a good terrorist without anyone finding out about you. Terrorism is a scary thing that seems to be never ending in our world today, and though I wish it would end, perhaps even peace overcome it, it’s inevitable. This chapter does show a good point though, if one was to kill himself anyway, might as well be able to give his family money afterwards, correct? The economist whom was able to create a system to try and catch terrorists before they commit to anything, had good intentions, but even with 99 percent accuracy, it wasn’t good enough. That also astonished me… 99 percent? If it were me deciding whether or not to use this equipment, I’d believe this to be a huge accomplishment and those one percent of people who were accidently considered terrorists shouldn’t be offended—we’re only trying to make America safer—right? In all honesty, I’d love to consider myself an altruistic person, but then again, I think of the real reason I’m doing—helping out at an animal shelter, cleaning up our local nature preserve, volunteering around our community as a whole—I love helping others, but accomplishing all of these things gives me that warm, fuzzy, feeling inside because I chose to do it for the benefit of myself, not others.
So though I do enjoy helping others, is it truly to help them, or my own ego, mindset, conscience? In the third chapter entitled ‘Unbelievable Stories about Apathy and Altruism,’ the first story is about a woman brutally murdered by her apartment and no one around; none of the numerous witnesses did anything to help this woman, or to stop what was going on. This sickens me. If one was to even help out in this situation, I wouldn’t even consider it altruistic; I’d consider it a moral duty. Unfortunately, I do not believe in anyone being simply altruistic, as much as I want to, and it’s sad. Humans are selfish animals. In this chapter, the authors write about an experiment done in a lab to see if altruism actually did exist by playing a game with money (a person was given a certain amount of money in which they had to split with somebody else). The average amount of money given away was twenty percent of their own, and although the scientists believe this to be an example of altruism, I have to disagree. I believe the people did that since it wasn’t their own money to spend in the first place—they hadn’t earned the money themselves, they were just receiving it, so why not give some away? Also, it would make themselves feel a little bit better; getting free money, it’s only fair to share some, correct? Their conscience came into
play. ‘The Fix is in—and it’s Cheap and Simple’ was what the next chapter was entitled. Even the first few sentences in this chapter made me think differently; I’m usually saying how much I wished I lived in another decade—the sixties and seventies to be exact; it seemed more carefree, more fun and exciting with better music to top it all off. Reading the beginning of this chapter made me realize, yes, there may have been better music at that time, but would it really be so much better? Crime rate was extremely higher with income, education, transportation, health extremely lower. Perhaps this decade isn’t as bad as I thought it to be? The next part of this chapter brings in doctor’s who were obviously too lazy to help save a life, though they were seeing about 100 patients per shift. The reason I say this is because many doctor’s, mostly back then, didn’t wash their hands going from patient to patient and more than often brought germs with him to each and every next patient he saw. This caused more problems including the infamous puerperal fever—solely because doctor’s refused to wash their hands. Apparently they’d be spending more time over the sink than saving lives—boy, were they wrong. As soon as the idea spread to wash hands before each patient and some doctor’s began doing so, the fever began to decrease showing Semmelweis (the doctor who had figured out the problem spreading this disease) was right. A study even showed that bacteria on doctor’s hands are more than the bacteria in garbage, or bile. Even though the answer to fixing a huge dilemma such as a disease spreading was simply to washing hands, some doctor’s refused to do so; yet another example of not being altruistic, not paying attention to hygiene, and being lazy from human beings. Just remember next time you have to see a doctor, he has washed his hands. So, ‘What do Al Gore and Mount Pinatubo have in Common?’ No, this is not another ridiculous joke found on a Popsicle stick; it’s the name of Chapter 5 in Super Freakonomics. The answer, you ask? They’ve both attempted in ending global warming (even though Mount Pinatubo was slightly more natural and not planned out). Until I read these final pages of this novel, I always believed in global warming being the most important issue that should solved and quickly. I guess I really hadn’t known that much about it beside the outcome of animals losing their habitat and dying, becoming closer and closer to extinction. (I’m a sucker for animals.) I think it’s weird how we all know of the global issue of warming, but rarely ever hear of global cooling—I thought that was just a myth created by Fox News! Although this chapter talks about Al Gore, someone I’ve looked up to since I was a kid, as a person who doesn’t really know what he’s talking about and exaggerates as a fear tactic to help the environment, I actually still see global warming as an extreme importance that needs to be fixed. Thank goodness I’ve read this book though; now I know that it isn’t those extra miles I drove to take the long way home, it’s what I’ve been eating! Being enlightened with facts such as this (that meat production is the most extreme way to add to global warming), it has made me realize that eating so much red meat isn’t so necessary, and I’m becoming closer and closer to becoming a vegetarian. Over all, this novel definitely sits on the book shelf along with my other favorite books. I’d recommend it to anyone; I’d even consider re-reading it. Now, the epilogue of this novel really is what had me thinking, though. Those scientists who taught the monkeys how to use a money system to receive treats and such (even prostitution eventually) were genius. It really captured how the money system may be what causes so much corruption and crime in our society. After reading the last section of this book, I thought going back to olden times where the barter system was the way to receive the needs of living may actually be the way to go—but then again, you shouldn’t complain about the present because the past isn’t really all that better, right?
sure your doctor has washed his hands before that checkup—even the way money affects human (or maybe monkeys) lifestyle. Even the little statistics that made me raise my eyebrows in confusion, shock such as it being safer to drive drunk than walk drunk, this book went everywhere. It made me keep wondering what all of this had to do with the AP class I’d be taking next year—but now I see. Before I read this book, my opinion on many of the issues taken into account were somewhat different and though my opinions may have remained the same in a way, my mind is now open to the other opinions or facts of others. This assignment is based on conveying my opinion of the issues brought up in this book, and I intend on it doing so. Like most women of this day and age, I do not stand for any sort of degradation or sexist remarks, attitudes, gestures of our gender. The first chapter in this novel is entitled, ‘How is a Street Prostitute like a Department-Store Santa?’ and the first time I read that, I had a feeling this book wasn’t going to exactly be what I thought it was—another boring AP Summer assignment book with a boring project due on the first day—well, I was definitely right, it was not boring. At first, I was confused as of how all of this would tie into macroeconomic, but to my surprise, it did indeed. Now as I said in the first sentence of this paragraph, it would be easy to assume that I am against prostitution, and you’re right, I am. It wasn’t until I read the last few pages of chapter 1 about a woman named Allie who happened to be a successful business woman who turned to prostitution for some extra money, and even when that was over, she went back to college to become an economist that my opinion may have shifted slightly. From this chapter I’ve learned that even prostitution involves much economics into the process of getting money and being intelligent to do so would help. Though my opinion of prostitution remains the same—it is wrong—I was surprised by the way women such as Allie handled through it, and was happy with the outcome. Chapter 2 also made my mind, my opinion wander such as through stories, facts, and statistics. It was entitled, ‘Why Should Suicide Bombers Buy Life Insurance?’ Think about it: who would believe a terrorist would spend money to buy life insurance if he was just to die just weeks later? Not many. And this is exactly why one should purchase life insurance to get the federal government off of his back; it would confuse the government into thinking there’s no way he could be a terrorist! It’d be a win, win, for the bad guy considering his family would also be receiving money after the business had been done. This chapter practically gives tips on how to be a good terrorist without anyone finding out about you. Terrorism is a scary thing that seems to be never ending in our world today, and though I wish it would end, perhaps even peace overcome it, it’s inevitable. This chapter does show a good point though, if one was to kill himself anyway, might as well be able to give his family money afterwards, correct? The economist whom was able to create a system to try and catch terrorists before they commit to anything, had good intentions, but even with 99 percent accuracy, it wasn’t good enough. That also astonished me… 99 percent? If it were me deciding whether or not to use this equipment, I’d believe this to be a huge accomplishment and those one percent of people who were accidently considered terrorists shouldn’t be offended—we’re only trying to make America safer—right? In all honesty, I’d love to consider myself an altruistic person, but then again, I think of the real reason I’m doing—helping out at an animal shelter, cleaning up our local nature preserve, volunteering around our community as a whole—I love helping others, but accomplishing all of these things gives me that warm, fuzzy, feeling inside because I chose to do it for the benefit of myself, not others.
So though I do enjoy helping others, is it truly to help them, or my own ego, mindset, conscience? In the third chapter entitled ‘Unbelievable Stories about Apathy and Altruism,’ the first story is about a woman brutally murdered by her apartment and no one around; none of the numerous witnesses did anything to help this woman, or to stop what was going on. This sickens me. If one was to even help out in this situation, I wouldn’t even consider it altruistic; I’d consider it a moral duty. Unfortunately, I do not believe in anyone being simply altruistic, as much as I want to, and it’s sad. Humans are selfish animals. In this chapter, the authors write about an experiment done in a lab to see if altruism actually did exist by playing a game with money (a person was given a certain amount of money in which they had to split with somebody else). The average amount of money given away was twenty percent of their own, and although the scientists believe this to be an example of altruism, I have to disagree. I believe the people did that since it wasn’t their own money to spend in the first place—they hadn’t earned the money themselves, they were just receiving it, so why not give some away? Also, it would make themselves feel a little bit better; getting free money, it’s only fair to share some, correct? Their conscience came into
play. ‘The Fix is in—and it’s Cheap and Simple’ was what the next chapter was entitled. Even the first few sentences in this chapter made me think differently; I’m usually saying how much I wished I lived in another decade—the sixties and seventies to be exact; it seemed more carefree, more fun and exciting with better music to top it all off. Reading the beginning of this chapter made me realize, yes, there may have been better music at that time, but would it really be so much better? Crime rate was extremely higher with income, education, transportation, health extremely lower. Perhaps this decade isn’t as bad as I thought it to be? The next part of this chapter brings in doctor’s who were obviously too lazy to help save a life, though they were seeing about 100 patients per shift. The reason I say this is because many doctor’s, mostly back then, didn’t wash their hands going from patient to patient and more than often brought germs with him to each and every next patient he saw. This caused more problems including the infamous puerperal fever—solely because doctor’s refused to wash their hands. Apparently they’d be spending more time over the sink than saving lives—boy, were they wrong. As soon as the idea spread to wash hands before each patient and some doctor’s began doing so, the fever began to decrease showing Semmelweis (the doctor who had figured out the problem spreading this disease) was right. A study even showed that bacteria on doctor’s hands are more than the bacteria in garbage, or bile. Even though the answer to fixing a huge dilemma such as a disease spreading was simply to washing hands, some doctor’s refused to do so; yet another example of not being altruistic, not paying attention to hygiene, and being lazy from human beings. Just remember next time you have to see a doctor, he has washed his hands. So, ‘What do Al Gore and Mount Pinatubo have in Common?’ No, this is not another ridiculous joke found on a Popsicle stick; it’s the name of Chapter 5 in Super Freakonomics. The answer, you ask? They’ve both attempted in ending global warming (even though Mount Pinatubo was slightly more natural and not planned out). Until I read these final pages of this novel, I always believed in global warming being the most important issue that should solved and quickly. I guess I really hadn’t known that much about it beside the outcome of animals losing their habitat and dying, becoming closer and closer to extinction. (I’m a sucker for animals.) I think it’s weird how we all know of the global issue of warming, but rarely ever hear of global cooling—I thought that was just a myth created by Fox News! Although this chapter talks about Al Gore, someone I’ve looked up to since I was a kid, as a person who doesn’t really know what he’s talking about and exaggerates as a fear tactic to help the environment, I actually still see global warming as an extreme importance that needs to be fixed. Thank goodness I’ve read this book though; now I know that it isn’t those extra miles I drove to take the long way home, it’s what I’ve been eating! Being enlightened with facts such as this (that meat production is the most extreme way to add to global warming), it has made me realize that eating so much red meat isn’t so necessary, and I’m becoming closer and closer to becoming a vegetarian. Over all, this novel definitely sits on the book shelf along with my other favorite books. I’d recommend it to anyone; I’d even consider re-reading it. Now, the epilogue of this novel really is what had me thinking, though. Those scientists who taught the monkeys how to use a money system to receive treats and such (even prostitution eventually) were genius. It really captured how the money system may be what causes so much corruption and crime in our society. After reading the last section of this book, I thought going back to olden times where the barter system was the way to receive the needs of living may actually be the way to go—but then again, you shouldn’t complain about the present because the past isn’t really all that better, right?