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.