Summary Of Freakonomics
Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything
Aydan Harrison
Arabia Mountain High School
Introduction
This paper will explore the book “Freakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner. In this book they teach you why drug dealers still live with their mothers, what do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common and many other ways of life in this crazy world. You will learn that the things we do here in the 21st century was based off of things they did in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Hidden Side of Everything
Before I start this paper I should first off tell you what economics is. Economics is the study of incentives-how people get what they want, or need. In the early 1990s crime was everywhere in the …show more content…
They persuade buyers buy using special language that makes the house seem of more value. Such words are Granite, State-of-the-Art, Corian, Maple, and Gourmet. These words will always help an agent get more money for the house which means more money in his pocket. They tend to stay away from words like Charming, fantastic, great neighborhood. These are no-no’s in an agent’s vocabulary. If he/she is caught using these words they might as well sell the house for cheap because they will get nothing for it. If there language is leaked into the world there sales advantages would fall away. Much like the KKK they had certain words or phrases they would use on the street to identify one another. Then came along Stetson Kennedy, he hated the KKK and would write anti-bigotry blogs about them. Then one day he decided to infiltrate the Klan, he did that by becoming one of their members and in turn when he got home he would email a radio talk show about all the phrases and slang he learned from the Klan. All of the kids around town eventually started using the slang and phrases so the Klan had to create new slang. Every time they would do that Kennedy would email the radio host. Eventually the Klan was disbanded because members left because they weren’t a secrecy anymore. So just like a real estate agent if there language was leaked they would eventually disappear …show more content…
In crack dealing there are foot soldiers who are basically like a McDonalds burger flipper who makes minimum wage, then you have the leader who is like a corporate America boss, who can pay his workers more but chooses not to. So that he can show that he’s still the boss and over everything. The foot soldiers were also working in bad work conditions, they faced violence or getting arrest if caught on the street corner. They had a 1 in 4 chance of being killed while selling the crack out on the street. If they were to be in a Texas jail awaiting death row you’d have a greater chance of surviving than out on the Chicago streets selling crack. Why do they still sell crack knowing they can die any minute? That’s the question everyone is trying to figure out. The most dramatic effect of legalized abortion, and one that would take years to reveal itself, was its impact on crime. In the 1990s, just a little while after Roe v. Wade the crime rate began to fall. Crime began to fall because abortion was legalized and it led to less unwontedness, and unwontedness leads to high crime and since there was less unwontedness that led to the crime rate dropping drastically. No one wanted to believe some silly theory that abortion lead to
Aydan Harrison
Arabia Mountain High School
Introduction
This paper will explore the book “Freakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner. In this book they teach you why drug dealers still live with their mothers, what do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common and many other ways of life in this crazy world. You will learn that the things we do here in the 21st century was based off of things they did in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Hidden Side of Everything
Before I start this paper I should first off tell you what economics is. Economics is the study of incentives-how people get what they want, or need. In the early 1990s crime was everywhere in the …show more content…
They persuade buyers buy using special language that makes the house seem of more value. Such words are Granite, State-of-the-Art, Corian, Maple, and Gourmet. These words will always help an agent get more money for the house which means more money in his pocket. They tend to stay away from words like Charming, fantastic, great neighborhood. These are no-no’s in an agent’s vocabulary. If he/she is caught using these words they might as well sell the house for cheap because they will get nothing for it. If there language is leaked into the world there sales advantages would fall away. Much like the KKK they had certain words or phrases they would use on the street to identify one another. Then came along Stetson Kennedy, he hated the KKK and would write anti-bigotry blogs about them. Then one day he decided to infiltrate the Klan, he did that by becoming one of their members and in turn when he got home he would email a radio talk show about all the phrases and slang he learned from the Klan. All of the kids around town eventually started using the slang and phrases so the Klan had to create new slang. Every time they would do that Kennedy would email the radio host. Eventually the Klan was disbanded because members left because they weren’t a secrecy anymore. So just like a real estate agent if there language was leaked they would eventually disappear …show more content…
In crack dealing there are foot soldiers who are basically like a McDonalds burger flipper who makes minimum wage, then you have the leader who is like a corporate America boss, who can pay his workers more but chooses not to. So that he can show that he’s still the boss and over everything. The foot soldiers were also working in bad work conditions, they faced violence or getting arrest if caught on the street corner. They had a 1 in 4 chance of being killed while selling the crack out on the street. If they were to be in a Texas jail awaiting death row you’d have a greater chance of surviving than out on the Chicago streets selling crack. Why do they still sell crack knowing they can die any minute? That’s the question everyone is trying to figure out. The most dramatic effect of legalized abortion, and one that would take years to reveal itself, was its impact on crime. In the 1990s, just a little while after Roe v. Wade the crime rate began to fall. Crime began to fall because abortion was legalized and it led to less unwontedness, and unwontedness leads to high crime and since there was less unwontedness that led to the crime rate dropping drastically. No one wanted to believe some silly theory that abortion lead to