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Levitt And Dubner's Freakonomics

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Levitt and Dubner classify Freakonomics as a book having “no such unifying theme” (14), but all the unique topics discussed throughout the text connect back together in order to show the hidden side of human nature. The argument that the wide variety of topics and their abstract descriptions all link together draws the attention of a large audience and connects to issues that society is currently facing or has recently confronted. Freakonomics, organized as an argumentative piece, asserts that “commerce without morality,” or the conducting of business without a sense of what is right or wrong, is triggered by human actions that are led by incentives, causing changes in the economy. Levitt and Dubner do not explicitly state their argument, but through the use of ethos, pathos, …show more content…

The reader observes how, in this case, the incentives of money and success caused teachers to go against what is right and cheat. Bagels, a completely unrelated subject to teachers, is another topic that Levitt and Dubner present in the text in order to show that even rich individuals who may not have to worry about the incentive of money still conduct themselves in a erroneous manner and commit “white-collar crime” (46) by not paying for bagels in the workplace. There are many other topics even more diverse than school teachers and bagels that are discussed in Freakonomics, but even with this variability, the purpose Levitt and Dubner are proving is shown in each

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3. Purpose: As the authors put it, “the aim of this book is to explore the hidden side of…everything” (12). Instead of looking at economics as a cold, hard science, the authors aim to add the human touch by taking into consideration human tendencies when making economics arguments. Freakonomics is an unconventional book in that it brings multiples sides and arguments to old data to come to new

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869 Words | 4 Pages

This generates enormous revenue that is also used to support the institution. In response, he says, "I say, so what?" And continues by pointing out that given the sum of money lost and the amount of schooling involved, this cannot be confiscated. He attempts to convince his reader to agree with him by speaking in a way that makes

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1487 Words | 6 Pages

The book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner talks about many different things, including cheating teachers and sumo wrestlers, how abortion lowered crime rates, how a street crack gang works, and whether the way parents raise their children even matter. These topics seem to have nothing in common, but all of these topics were identified in the same way: an economist (Levitt) looked at school test scores, crime data, and all sorts of other information, looking at them in unconventional ways. Because of that, he has come to many interesting and unique conclusions that make complete sense. These findings were based on some simple ideas: the power of incentives, conventional wisdom is not always right, things may not have obvious causes, and experts often serve their own interests instead of the interests of others. Perhaps the most important idea in the book is, as Levitt and Dubner state, “Knowing what to measure and how to measure it makes a complicated world much less so” (14).

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698 Words | 3 Pages

The texts Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, explore the tensions between individual desires and social or institutional regulations. All three of the texts suggest that societies use regulations to protect individuals, from their own desires that may be harmful to them. The first example of this can be seen in the Goblin Market, with the character Laura. Laura’s desire to eat the goblin fruit, although forbidden, endangers her life and well being. Laura’s sister tries to prevent her from eating the fruit, yet Laura does not head this advice and eats the fruit anyway.

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

In America, people talk amongst themselves about wealthy and successful people and during the discussion many think of people who have been educated in a traditional schooling system. John Gatto argues in his article “Against School” that this traditional schooling is indeed not necessary to end up educated and successful. Through the use of rhetorical strategies, such as his personal experiences, expert testimony, and anecdotes, Gatto backs up and argues in points. Gatto begins his article by talking about his personal experiences as a teacher and how the education system let him down. Gatto states “The obligations to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people.”

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Freakonomics Essay Freakonomics is a mind bending, engaging and controversial look into a never before talked about side of economics. From relating the Ku Klux Klan to real estate agents and to why drug dealers are living with their moms Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner turn conventional wisdom on its head. As a whole I enjoyed the book, but there were some things that annoyed me and that I didn’t like and/or confused me. Freakonomics makes you think differently about topics you thought you already knew the answer to. To most with little knowledge of writing techniques they would not have noticed/comprehended the authors uses of rhetoric and tone but luckily from these past few years of English classes I was able to pick up and see

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1017 Words | 5 Pages

Freakonomics is somewhat random grab bag of topics. The unifying theme of this book for me was finding ways to ask questions so that one's available statistics and data can provide an answer, time after time they used available statistics to provide some time of reasoning or answers to the question being asked. Some of these efforts were more successful than others. Some of the questions Levitt and Dubner study felt unnecessary, that no one really cares about. But there are also some good subjects.

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959 Words | 4 Pages

When you get on a plane to leave for vacation, you never think about the people who have gotten us to that point. Flying has evolved over the past one hundred years and Charles Lindbergh was one of the people who helped make it what it is today. On February 4, 1902, Charles Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan. He and his family moved to Minnesota when their house in Detroit burned down.

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In other words, public discussion of education heavily revolves around a student’s economic readiness. In his excerpt from Why School?, Rose argues that because of this heavy focus on economics, we have lost focus on “ the traditional purposes of education—intellectual, civic, and moral

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1027 Words | 5 Pages

The Problem of “Ethical Capitalism”: A Book Review of The Inequality Trap: Fighting Capitalism Instead of Poverty by William Watson This book review will define the problem of “ethical capitalism” and economic inequality in America in The Inequality Trap: Fighting Capitalism Instead of Poverty by William Watson. Watson’s (2015) evaluation of the current economic crisis in the United States is based on the current findings of Thomas Piketty’s study on the exponentially growing problem of economic inequality in the United States. This study provides a platform for Watson’s (2015) criticism of an “anti-capitalist focus on inequality, which should focus more on the ethical premise of “good” and “bad” inequality in this type of economic system.

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495 Words | 2 Pages

Thesis: Although some may argue that adversity is essential for uncovering innate talent, it is impossible for adversity alone to accomplish this; solely relying on adversity to bring out a certain character is a detrimental move that can ultimately lead to immoral decisions and negative impacts on both mental and physical states. In Freakonomics, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt delve into schools from a teacher’s point of view, in which teachers are constantly under the pressure to secure both their jobs and reputations through corrupt methods. “If the entire school does poorly, federal funding can be withheld; if the school is put on probation, the teacher stands to be fired.” (p. 23)

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Instead, these characters speak of a new morality that is centered around the act of making money and values human ability. Today our moral attitude

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881 Words | 4 Pages

Putting a price on the good things in life can corrupt them. That's because markets don't only allocate goods; they also express and promote certain attitudes toward the goods being exchanged. Paying kids to read books might get them to read more, but also teach them to regard reading as a chore rather than a source of intrinsic satisfaction. Auctioning seats in the freshman class to the highest bidders might raise revenue but also erode the integrity of the college and the value of its diploma," (Sandel 44). Sandel is basically saying that putting everything up for sale ruins the emotional and sentimental value.

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953 Words | 4 Pages

When taking a look into Jean Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, readers are apprised of the hidden agendas many schools have. In this article, Anyon focuses on the curriculum and student-teacher interaction from five New Jersey elementary schools located in different communities with different levels of socioeconomic status. Anyon attempts to find evidence of the differences in student work in schools in wealthy communities versus those in poor communities, in an effort to bolster the argument that public schools in society provide different forms of knowledge. Through her researcher, she was able to determine that working class schools limited students; the students were given steps to follow and they were graded based on how well they followed directions—this level of education was preparing students for the labor force as blue collar workers. In addition, the affluent professional school and the middle-class school focused on attaining the correct answer, but allowed individuals to have a choice of appropriate method and material.

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1909 Words | 8 Pages

The wealthier one gets, it seems, the more one rationalizes their decisions and actions. The more one stains their morality little by little until they no longer need to choose what’s right and wrong but what benefits them. Whether it’s right or wrong is then irrelevant. From people to companies, wealth is the source of

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