Superfreakonomics is the sequel to Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s wildly popular and successful Freakonomics, a bestseller of wacky facts explaining the economic advantages and disadvantages of human behaviors, ranging from drug dealing to naming. of a baby Superfreakonomics, like its predecessor, is difficult to pin down to a single topic or topic. He rambles nicely through a variety of topics, revealing the economic causes, unintended consequences, and solutions for prostitution, terrorism, health care costs, apathy and altruism, child safety, and climate change. Explore the economics of eating kangaroo meat (hint: it has to do with flatulence!), sex change operations, and chemotherapy.
The book overturns conventional wisdom and provides readers with doses of fascinating facts that are sure to add color to any cocktail party conversation. Which is more dangerous, drunk driving or drunk walking? Why was horse manure a major problem in New York City at the turn of the last century? Why should suicide bombers buy life insurance, even though life insurance policies don’t pay for suicide? Why did traffic deaths increase in the three months after the 9/11 attacks? How did the 9/11 attacks highlight a problem that led to a revolutionary advance in medicine? You will find the answers in Superfreakonomics.
This book answers questions that no one ever stopped to ask, especially, for some strange reason, questions about sex, gender differences, and prostitution. Why are there 35 million fewer women than men in India? Why do men in India have a low success rate with condoms? Is a Chicago prostitute more likely to be arrested by a cop or have sex with a cop? Can monkeys be taught to pay for sex?
Superfreakonomics is not all trivia. It will tell you which types of cancer chemotherapy works for and which ones it is completely ineffective for. In fact, it will make you think twice about what goes on in the hospital, the doctor’s office, and the emergency room. It also tells the truth about child safety seats.
Most people remember the story of the Kitty Genovese murder. She was brutally murdered by a mugger in her Queens, New York neighborhood as 38 neighbors looked on; none called the police. At least that’s the story the newspapers reported, the story that subsequently appeared in dozens of sociology texts over the next decade. There is only one problem. The story is not completely true. Levitt and Dubner recount what really happened, along with some startling findings about altruism and self-interest.
Levitt and Dubner also show how cheap and simple solutions can sometimes be found or invented for costly and complex problems like hurricanes, global warming, and infection rates in hospitals. Anyone who reads this book will no doubt say, “Wow, I never knew that!” or “I never thought of it that way!”
Superfreakonomics is intriguing, fun, informative, and thought-provoking all at once. It gives a new perspective to the topics that are grabbing today’s headlines. Read Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics and find out how uninformed our politicians and government leaders really are! Now that I’ve read it, I understand why these two books have such a huge following! I have joined the following, much to my delight.