1st Chunk of Freaknomics

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubners 2005 book, Freakonomics, offers practical solutions to infamously ignored contentions and approaches quotidian issues through economic theoretics, humorous analyzations, and speculations. Freakonomics begins with a succinct introduction about the purpose and the revolving issues that will be encountered in further pages, and gives the reader details about the authors; Steven D. Levitt is an economist and Stephen J. Dubner is a journalist and writer. Freakonomics revolves around the conception of incentives in regard towards the mentality and social structure of modern society, driven by self-interests and benefits. Chapter 1 addresses the speculation in a study made on school teachers and sumo wrestlers and honorable behavior. This study revealed that school teachers, in an atmosphere of standardized testing, result to cheating in behalf of a higher pay, by illegally attaining a higher student performance score. Sumo wrestlers, mean while, wrestlers assured their victories and the preceding glory through schematically designed combats and bribing. Chapter 2 conjectures the comparison of a real estate agent and a Ku Klux Klan supremacist and their method of incorporating their ideals through manipulation of client’s and victim’s lack of knowledge and exposure of to their respective occupation. A client an be easily drained out of their money, for a house not worth the pay, although their real estate agent will assure that the price is th e best in the market. Levitt and Dubner simply grasp the reality of everyday problems and ensemble it around economics and it's science.


Tone: alarming, disbelieving

Style: Euphemastic, Pretentious

Rhetorical Strategies:

Appeal to Logic: Dunbar and Levitt utilize statistics to approach the issue of incetives with more precition and support. By reveling the test scores and their patterns, allow Dunbar and Levitt establish credibility and in fact it does show that some teachers cheat. Also, since this book relates to economics (the title), stats and digital and calculated information is needed to embrace the main arguments. Further more, the authors include more data; chart on test scores (p34), KKK lynching on blacks (p61) and even phrases that become explicitly useful in attaining the audiences attention.

Allusion: Dunbar and Levitt tend to utilize refences and comparisons to known people, largly in chapter 2 to emphasize, their knowledge of the Ku Klux Klan and acheive credibility. They reference Hitler and Mussoini's actions in relevance to the crimes committed by the KKK on African-American. From mentioning Ulysses S. Grant and Civil War in relevance to the formation of this white supremacist group to the Jim Crom laws.

Questions?

Does the child care study apply to other countries, knowing that it was made in Israel? Can it detail the child care system in the United States or even South America? (they different societies)

Can you mention another way by which the realtor and the KKK supremacist comply with their methods to achieve their goals on their victims?

Why does Dunbar and LEvitt utilize consistent dashes to exemplify on their ideas?