Freakonomics

Freakonomics
By Stephen D. Levitt

Very interesting. And thought-provoking, of course. That's what this book is meant to do, make people think. The links that the author makes are extremely interesting and those that you'd never think of, like sumo wrestlers and teachers (who knew they had so much alike!?). Much has been made of one chapter, about how legalizing abortion cut the crime rate. I like that the author presents his findings on this theory, relates the statistics, then turns and gives the other side. He talks about brilliant people who have come out of hard circumstances. He mentions the ridiculousness of killing a child on the chance it will become a criminal. And he realizes that some people (more than half the country, last poll I read) believe killing a child is worse than that child becoming a pick-pocket or a drug dealer. Yes, he says, the crime rate has gone down. But he acknowledges that some people don't like the cost of that downward turn.
9/10