Chunk 2 of Freakonomics

Chunk two (chapter 3 and 4) of Frekonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner asks why drug dealers still live with their mom's and where have all the criminals gone. Like previously, Levitt and Dubner encounter these problems with an economists perspective of analyzing the problems many solutions and sources at a fast-paced tone with the use of moderately sophisticated language. To solve why drug dealers still live with their moms Levitt and Dubner offer a detailed glimpse into the economics of a drug-dealing street gang; through the eyes of Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist. When Venkatesh remarkabley receives a copy of all the financial records kept by the gang he shares it with Levitt. With extensive analysis of the data, Levitt debunks the common perspective that all crack dealers are wealthy and live lavish lives. He refutes this common misconception, by informing the general public that only the few top of the food chain make money while the actual 'foot soldiers'(drug dealers) make less than half of the minimum wage. Levitt states the like the college football player who lifts weights to better his chances of playing in the NFL, people who become crack-dealers have the same ambition to climb the latter to more pay. In chapter four Levitt concludes that the 1973 legalization of abortion is the source of the rapid decline in the crime rate. Recognizing the volatility of this argument, Levitt and Dubner approach the problem from numerous perspectives, methodically proving that their is no correlation between each of the solutions to the surprising crime drop. For instance, in detailed analysis, they demonstrate that factors such as improved policing strategies, stricter gun control, new prisons, an aging population, and a number of other possible explanations simply do not relate to the dramatic violent crime drop because they either don't occur chronologically or with disproving crime data. Hence forward, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner show how "..conventional wisdom is often found to be a web of fabrication, self interest,and convenience.." and how some solutions should not be overlooked because the abstract answer may be the right answer after sorting out the facts from the fiction.

Tone: not too formal, straight-forward, persuasive

Rhetorical devices:

1. Allusion: when describing how cocaine impacted the American population harsher than the Jim Crow laws, to amplify the severity of the problem.
2. Statistics: making Levitt's argument more credible and believable. For instance, when he included data of how the crime rate decreased when abortions increased.
3. Logical appeal: when disproving all popular solutions with counter arguments and credible data to prove that their(Levitt and Dubner) solution is correct.

Questions:

• Do you think the legalization of abortion was the source of the dramatic drop in crime?.
• Why does present culture depict drug-dealing as a well-respected and wealthy career in the media, when there is a one in four chance of death, and the pay is half of minimum wage?

Chunk 1 of Frekonomics (Incentives and Information)

Freakonomics, authored by the collaboration of Stephen J. Dubner, writer for the New Yorker and New York times, and Steven D. Levitt, an economics teacher in the University of Chicago, refute the common misinterpretation of today's economic issues with a more 'below the surface' analysis of the conundumn. Levit and Dubner urges the general public to use an econmists perspective when confronting problems. With simple,vulgar language Levitt and Dubner address some of the most intriguing issues with a series of economic based questions. For instance, in chapter one, the authors define the jist of economics as the study of incentives by asking what sumo wrestlers and school techers have in common. Levitt does this by describing how incentives are a "means of urging people to do more of a good thing than a bad thing", with reaserch on the rigging of high stake stanardized tests,conducted by teachers for more pay; sumo wrestling in Japan, with the 'qiud pro quo' deal. In both circumstances an incentive drives one to cheat in order to gain money. Another topic addressed in the first chunk was how the Ku Klux Klan is like a group of real-estate agents. The pupose trying to be conveyed, in this case, was how ..."nothing is more powerful than information, especially when its power is abused". Levit and Dubner apostrophized this purpose by describing how the exploitation of information single-handedly crippled the white-supremacist KKK and can prevent one from commiting a bad deal when puchasing or selling propety by serarching the 'blue book' value of the property online first, before consulting with a corrupt real estate agent. In both circumstances, the KKK and the real estate agent manipulate their victim because of their prey's ignorance. Stevin Levitt and Stephen Dubner attack intriguing issues with an economists prespective, showing how economics is not merely the dry, uninteresting study of financial trends and maket economy, but can be used as a tool to deal with everyday problems.

Tone: formal, persuasive,informative
Rhetorical strategies:

1. statistics-making an argument more credable
2. logical tone- when dicussing how the most practical awnser is not always the best awnser to the source of some problems.
3. humor/comparison- when relating two completly different fields with each other(sumo wrestlers and teachers)

Questions:

• Why don't the people educate themselves from ignorant feeding predators(i.e. corrupt real estate agents)?
• If the KKK's group has multiplied rapidly over the years then why is there a decrese in lynchings?