Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, is about applying economic questions to normal everyday life. Steven Levitt - the economist - first applied his questioning to school teachers and sumo wrestlers. He claims that everyone wants to take the advantage, to take the upper hand. Levitt found a series of answers from a classroom. According to Levitt, there are teachers who help their students cheat to gain a bonus for an increase in class testing or getting that promotion he/she wanted. According to Levitt, sumo wrestlers enjoy staying at the top of the food chain, so they work together to stay there. Levitt claims that they switch off wins in order to all stay at the top. The entire first chapter compared the sumo wrestlers and the school teachers and ends concluding that they cheat in order to keep the advantage. The KKK was an organization that was based at first in terrorism and later in secrecy. They take advantage of others' ignorance. Real estate agents sell houses at a certain price and they, according to Levitt, settle for less because they don't gain as much at a higher price. A chart in the second chapter displays the decrease in the lynching of blacks over the years. This shows that it is working. The Real Estate Agent would sell their house at a higher price because they are the ones that gain the most. In the second chapter, Levitt compares the KKK to real estate agents and concludes that they both take advantage of others' ignorance.
Tone: excited and fast, the author placed the information in much the same way that one puts known information and makes connections that are important to them.
Rhetorical Strategies: 1. The use of statistics (the lynching chart)
2. The author uses the logical appeal as the information itself appears to be the workings inside of a person's mind.
Question: Why does the finnancial system work against the ignorant? How can a person use this knoledge and find a way to take advantage of the cheaters without blackmail?
Friday, February 15, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
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