Superfreakonomics is the sequel to Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s wildly popular and successful Freakonomics, a bestseller of outrageous facts explaining the economic advantages and disadvantages of human behaviors ranging from drug dealing to choosing a baby’s name. Superfreakonomics, like its predecessor, is difficult to pin down on a single topic or theme. He graciously rambles 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 grants readers a host of fascinating facts that are sure to add color to any cocktail party conversation. What is more dangerous: driving or walking drunk? Why was horse manure a major problem in New York City at the beginning of the last century? Why should suicide bombers buy life insurance, even though life insurance policies don’t pay in the event of suicide? Why did traffic fatalities increase in the three months after the September 11 attacks? How did the September 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 the types of cancer for which chemotherapy works and those for which it is totally ineffective. In fact, it will make you think twice about what happens 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 murder of Kitty Genovese. She was brutally murdered by an assailant in her Queens, New York neighborhood, while 38 neighbors watched; no one 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 entirely true. Levitt and Dubner recount what really happened, along with some surprising findings about altruism and self-interest.
Levitt and Dubner also show how cheap and simple solutions can sometimes be found or invented to costly and complex problems like hurricanes, global warming, and infection rates in hospitals. Anyone who reads this book is sure to say, “Wow, I never knew that!” or “I’ve never thought about it that way!”
Superfreakonomics is intriguing, fun, informative, and thought-provoking at the same time. Bring a fresh perspective to today’s headlines. Read Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics and find out how misinformed our politicians and government leaders really are! Now that I have read it, I understand why these two books have so many followers. I joined the following, much to my delight.