Summary and Review of Superfreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
by This book summary and review of Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance was prepared by Ted Stephens while an Accounting major in the College of Business at Southeastern Louisiana University.
Executive Summary
This book is about two authors who picked a few topics and researched them. They proved how economics, is not just something we learned because we had to learn in it school. This book shows how economics in involved in every part of our lives. It showed how humans are not altruistic, but greedy people who respond to incentives. It showed how men respond better than women do. This book studied the economics of the prostitution ring in Chicago, and how it differed from the 1800-1900. It explained how the women’s movement lowered the income of said prostitutes. It explained to a pimps services are exponentially greater than a realtor is.
It also explained how, using algorithms banks can help the police find terrorist, why having your birthday at the beginning of the year, increases your potential for talent and to succeed. It takes statistics and shows you things you will not think was true, but is. For instance, more soldiers are killed in peacetime, than they do during war times.
It explains how humans are not apathic towards other humans needs, like the Genovese murder, but that the reporters are the problem. They changed the details and reported misinformation. The author also shows that cable TV leads to more crime.
The book explains and shows how huge problems that cause billions of dollars worth of damage, can be easily solved with simple and relatively cheap solutions. For instance, hurricanes cause millions of dollars, but with a simple tube thrown in the ocean can weaken the hurricane (will be explained more later)
Global warming is a problem that threatens to bring humanity to its feet. This book, explains how congress wants to propose trillions of dollars to stop it, when a simple solution to it is around the corner, that cost a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a, you get the point. Congress wants to cut out things that would impede our living confronts, while this solution would allow us to live how we live currently.
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