Is Freakonomics worth the hype? Yes and no. My quick recommendation is to definitely buy it if you’re the type of person who actually enjoys it when academic economists (ghost) write books for the layperson; you’ll certainly be glad that you read it. However, the book probably won’t live up to your expectations. Its main virtue is a collection of statistics that will probably surprise you. It will not alter the way you view the world. Full Article
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/3625/more-fun-than-truth/
More Fun Than Truth
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Just a question: at the end of the article, the importance of a persons name is discussed. Now, I dont want to buy the book, but if anybody could give me the answer to whether my name should be a success or not, I would very much appreciate it.
Well, there is King David in the Bible.
David: I think it said that you will be a total failure. I read the section on illegal drugs (crack cocaine) and it seemed to me to have no economic content. It described the history of where crack came from, but provided no economic cause for how and why it came to be. It more or less just happened. Based on that the title seems to be appropriate. Its not economics, its just freaky.
I seem to remember Milton Friedman made the claim that the drug war was the cause of crack’s rise. Drugs were becoming too expensive, but people want a cheap but intense high. Crack did just that.
“The typical economist believes the world has not yet invented a problem that he cannot fix if given a free hand to design the proper incentive scheme. His solution may not always be pretty—it may involve coercion or exorbitant penalties or the violation of civil liberties—but the original problem, rest assured, will be fixed.”
I think this is a completely accurate description of the arrogance of most economists, who think that other people’s lives are variables for them to manipulate to obtain the desired outcome. Even more presumptuous than their belief that their interventions in the free market can “fix” the usually non-existence (or mis-diagnosed) problem they see, is their presumption that they have the right to engage in such interventions.
On names:
Levitt & Fryer have a paper on the causes & consequences of distinctly black names that should be available from NBER working papers.
I found the comments about factors impacting a child’s development interesting. Most likely, the statistics that were cited and used were exclusively from children who were in the government school (indoctrination) system. It would be fascinating to find out how home schooled students turn out, and determine those factors.
I hardly know economists who would agree they are wrong. Enough of the anecdotes and the Rothbards and Hayeks..we need more Stephen Levitts! Overall – BAD REVIEW by Robert Murphy.
I read a short article about Levitt and his new book in the Washington Post’s free daily mini-newspaper, the Washington Express. It struck me as totally inane and unoriginal. For instance, he is quoted as saying, “Most of economics is actually about individual human behavior.” Oh, really?! Man, if only an entire school of economics had been founded on that insight over a century ago, the world of economics (and politics) would be in such better shape!
The article also says, “With co-author Stephen Dubner, he details some eyebrow-raising findings. A child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming pool than be killed by a gun, for example.” Wow! I’ve only heard that statistic about 100 times!
What I got out of the article was that you could probably learn more by spending an hour at Mises.org than wasting your time or money on that book.
Perhaps Roe vs Wade had immediate impact on crime because it took pressure off a personality type ill equipped to deal with parenting.
Also, a sad part of crime statistics is what unwanting parents do to their unwanted offspring.
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