"Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything"

"Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything"
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
William Morrow, $25.95





Be prepared to be thrown off balance from what you have generally accepted to be the norm. Economist Steven D. Levitt uses his reasoning to show that swimming pools are more dangerous than guns and the legalization of abortion was a reason for decreased crime in the early 1990s. More people die in car accidents than in airplane crashes, but is that because cars are more dangerous or because people spend more time in cars?

Are you thinking yet?

This book isn't for someone who is set in his ways, but it is for the person who is interested in expanding his mind and way of thinking. Levitt uses examples of everyday life to illustrate that what seems to be doesn't have to be.

Levitt shows that teachers and sumo wrestlers have similarities in the sense that they will cheat if it seems to help out others. That is, if they have a motive, they will do it, regardless of how unethical society has made cheating seem in their respective fields. And he has analyzed data and put the facts in simple language to show why. It's hard to accept something opposite of what you have been taught, but his reasoning shows it could be true.

Perhaps the best thing about "Freakonomics" is that it isn't written for economists or students of economics. Although it includes charts, those are merely for illustration and not for the understanding of the book overall. It is written in layman's terms using examples anyone can relate to. And if you don't understand the example he used, don't worry, he is about to explain it in a different way.

Levitt's intention isn't necessarily to make you change what you believe in and the things you know as "fact," but it will make you think. He doesn't say that others are wrong for the conclusions they have come to, but he says that it could be looked at in another way.

And that is just what our country needs. In a time where there is distrust in public figures and media outlets, people need to be taught to look at everything in a different way without just accepting what those in power say "just because." Those who are in agreement with The Powers That Be won't get much from this book, and that's a shame.

I'm not saying that "Freakonomics" is a new Bible, but it is worth a read. It might not change your mind, but it will at least open it.