Freakanomics Chapter 4

This chapter talks about the sharp decline in both violent and nonviolent crimes during the 1990’s. In the years previous to 1990 crime had risen eighty percent leading most experts to believe that the United States would continue seeing an increase in crime. However this was not the case, crime levels had fallen back to where they were forty years ago during the 1960’s.This shocked almost everyone and led to question asked by the author in this chapter which was “where have all the criminal gone?”Most articles cited different reasons such as strong economy and tougher gun control laws as their reasons for the decline in crime. I would have thought the decline in the crime rate was due to the stronger economy since more people have jobs and money they would be less likely to rob and steal. However the date proved that the stronger economy did not have any impact on the decreasing crime rate. The author then credits a few changes in the 1990’s that greatly impacted the crime rate.

The first was the increased reliance on prison. More criminals began going to jail as well as serving longer sentences. It would only make sense that if more criminals were being locked up for their crimes, others would be more cautious and shy away from doing anything illegal. Another change was the increased number of police and new policing strategies. With more police on the streets the criminal’s chance at a successful crime dropped and with the new strategies, cops were in better shape, with better equipment and a new way of thinking. They stopped every single crime believing that if you stop small crimes then larger crimes would not occur.

The main reason the author cites as to why the crime rate dropped was abortion being legalized in the United States. Before when women could not have abortions they ignored their child and didn’t provide good homes, which would lead the child to having a higher chance of becoming a criminal. After the Roe vs. Wade case made abortion legal, the abortion number hit 1.6 million in 1980. So these kids that would have come from broken homes and were more likely to become criminals had suddenly disappeared, which meant the crime rate would drop. The author also compared U.S. states abortion rate to their criminal rate and discovered that the states with the highest abortion rates and had the sharpest declines in crime.

Freakonomics Chapter 3

This was another interesting chapter and I just find it interesting
how the authors can take such simple questions and turn them into
mind-blowing research articles that give us a different perspective
on how we view everyday life. In this chapter, it discusses the life
of Sudhir Ventakesh, a college student who goes into the poorest
communities of Chicago to ask a simple questioner but ends up living
with a drug dealing gang so he can understand how the gang is run from
the bottom to the top.

What I found most shocking from Sudhirs research is how a gang is run
just like any other typical business. I already knew that a gang is
made up of a leader and their workers but I didn’t expect gangs to have
such an advance way of keeping financial records. Then when he breaks down
the data it reveals why drug dealers still live with their moms. They live
with their moms because they don’t have a choice. I know that I and many
others were shocked when we found out that drug dealers only make $3.30
an hour which is also lower than minimum wage. It is also a very minimal
gain when you take into account that drug dealers have the most dangerous
job in America, one in every four drug dealers is killed.

Another thing I found interesting was how crack cocaine had such a
negative impact of the black community. Between World War II and the
Crack boom blacks were making so much progress, then the crack boom
happened and basically reversed and sent back all the progress made
by African-Americans.

After learning all the facts, it makes me feels sorry for what drug
dealers in poor communities must go through to just survive as well as
make me grateful for what I have. Most kids that become drug dealers in
these poor communities are surrounded by the negative influence of drugs
their entire life. So instead of wanting to college, they believe their
true goal in life is to become the leader of gang which is only done by
selling drugs and earning your way up the ladder to the top.

Freakanomics Chapter 2

The reading was interesting but at the same time somewhat
difficult to read since we’re talking about a group in the Ku
Klux Klan that was responsible for the many murders and terrorism
of blacks and basically anybody, no matter their race, that stood
in their way. The beginning of the chapter explains how the Klan
was created and what their motives and purpose was. I just find it
interesting that six grown men, four of which were lawyers, would
act immature and reckless by pulling pranks at nights and basically
leading to the uprising of the KKK. Also when many people think of
the Klan they believe that blacks were the only targets. In fact the
Klan targeted whites that went against their beliefs, communists,
immigrants and everyone else in the Klan’s way. I also found it shocking
that the government would not take action even though they knew about
the events taking place around the country.

The author then goes into explaining her main point of how the
KKK and real estate agents are alike. Just as the KKK created fear
for many people, real estate agents are just as capable of instilling
the same fear into us. People find it scary when they have to sell
their house since it is likely their biggest financial investment, not
to forget the emotional attachment people create with their houses. So
when it comes to selling our homes, we would hope real-estate agents
would try to get us the best deal possible. However from the examples in
the book we can tell two things; that the homeowners are losing a great
deal of money whereas the loss to the agent is minimum and real-estate
agents are actually trying to sell your house for less so they don’t have
to work as hard while their pay is basically the same. It’s just unfortunate
for the seller because that is a lot of extra money that go towards their
new house or bills. It’s clear from the first two chapters of the book we
can’t even trust the two people we should with our dearest possessions.
We can’t trust cheating teachers to educate our kids and we can’t trust
real-estate agents with our biggest financial investment in our houses.

Freakanomics chapter 1

This chapter was definitely the most interesting reading of the
entire semester. It was interesting how the author compared teachers
to sumo wrestlers in the terms of lying and cheating. The first real
topic the author dives into is incentives and how there are both good
and bad incentives everyone must choose.

When we apply incentives to teachers, students are now at a loss because
the teachers are not teaching them everything they need to know; instead
they are teaching students to the incentive they need to reach. This is
exactly what state tests that decide whether or not a high school student
can graduate accomplishes. Most teachers are only teaching what students
need to know for the test and nothing more, which is why many teachers
and students oppose standardized state tests. However I don’t believe
state tests are necessarily bad if it did not have such a major impact
on the outcome of a student. If state tests did not decide whether or
not a student can graduate and only served as a measuring stick to where
the student has come in their education, teachers can then freely pursue
their style of teaching, which would enhance their student’s education at
the same time. Also if a student was to score bad in a particular section,
for example math, the school then provides this student with extra help.

Another point that was interesting is how sumo-wrestlers take care of each
other and would even go as far as to murder two people that were going to
bust their underground business just to protect the secrecy of the
business. Basically what I took from this chapter was economics can
effect ones morals beliefs. Also the final point that was made which
was 87% of people are honest is outright ridiculous, if teachers which
are the people parents as well as society trust for educating the future
of our country and sumo-wrestlers who are not viewed as harmful people
are some of the most dishonest people we know, then why would other
ordinary people be more honest.