Back in my college days, economics was one of the careers I considered. I even graduated with a minor in the subject despite excelling in little more than the fundamental supply and demand graphs from my very first Macroeconomics 101 class. But that’s okay. “Economics,” someone once said, “is the science that makes astrology look respectful.” So the other topics can fade from memory. Those supply and demand graphs covered a lot of ground, and I still shift the curves around in my head when I’m thinking of some news event’s impact.
While an economics book didn’t sound appealing, a freakonomics book caught my attention. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything [LibraryThing / WorldCat] was written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Levitt is the economist mentioned in the title and he likes to apply economic theory to unorthodox topics. Half the book is entertaining and informative. The other half is dry and deals with some uncomfortable subjects. Unfortunately, the two halves are thoroughly wedded, thus preventing me from reading three enjoyable chapters and skipping the rest.
Very interesting, for instance, was Levitt’s analysis of how realtors don’t really have the same goals as you even if you hired them. So was the chapter delving into the investigation of teachers helping students cheat on standardized tests. He also has a fascinating example of how people behave properly (i.e., parents picking up their daycare kids on time) if they think doing otherwise would be shameful; and they are more likely to behave improperly (being late) if the shame is replaced by a small financial penalty. His tale of buying bagels on the honor system at the office is a case study in ethical relativism when anonymity is a factor. The stories and examples drive home the point that individual motivations are at the heart of understanding what really happens in any circumstance. Economics, sometimes disturbingly, shows us how we really are and why we do what we do.
Speaking of disturbing… The chapter on the secret ceremonies and codes of the Ku Klux Klan dug deeper into that society than I cared to go, but the story had a wildly amusing and just ending. There’s also the theory, alarming but curiously possible (the way Levitt tells it), that legalized abortion cut the crime rate in the 1990s. He also spent too much time (for my taste) on the economics of crack gangs. Ditto for the endless race-based boy and girl names discussion in the final chapter. Through it all, though, Levitt had a knack for posing strange questions (the ‘freak’ in freakonomics), arguing why one thing causes another, and presenting examples to back the theories. It was a mildly challenging read, but I didn’t need to draw a single supply and demand chart. Not bad for economics.
