SUPERFREAKONOMICS: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
William Morrow
Economics/Popular Culture
ISBN: 9780060889579
Following up on their entertaining and thought-provoking book on economics for non-economists, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner repeat their successful formula with this sequel. The theme throughout both titles is that people are more likely to follow a lifestyle or activity if there’s a positive “what’s in it for me” outcome. “Incentive” is the key word, whether it’s doing something outwardly altruistic or, conversely, not doing something that would have a negative outcome. Some of it is heartening, some discouraging:
“Most giving is, as economists call it, impure altruism or warm-glow altruism,” they write. “You give not only because you want to help, but because it makes you look good, or feel good, or perhaps feel less bad.”
Wow. Where’s the love?
Levitt, the economist, and Dubner, the writer, work well together. They ponder on a series of seemingly general questions that takes the reader on an ever-expanding journey as ancillary factors come into play in an almost stream-of-consciousness manner. What starts out as unrelated material soon comes together like a well-knitted sweater.
Simply glancing at the table of contents tells a sequence of stories in itself: “Chapter 2: Why Should Suicide Bombers Buy Life Insurance? In which we discuss compelling aspects of birth and death, though primarily death” (to be sure, there is a lot of death here, caused by terrorists or Mother Nature or egotistical doctors who believe they can do no wrong). The description continues: “The worst month to have a baby,” which extends to “The natal roulette effects of horses, too” and how their planned parenthood can affect the pool of thoroughbreds available for races like the Kentucky Derby. >From there, the chapter migrates to the accuracy of the alphabet as a predictor of a child’s success (A is better than Z when it comes to surnames), which in turn leads to a declaration of why better athletes are born earlier in the year. The tangential threads linking one topic to the next might appear bizarre, but one “a-ha moment” follows another, and many of the ideas seem like common sense once you finish each anecdote.
Of particular “use” is the section of the health industry, how the simplest practice of personal hygiene can be heralded as saving millions of lives, and how the quality of a doctor should be measured (hint: the answer can’t be found in a magazine article rating the best ones). On the other hand, the chapter on global “cooling” is soul-sucking when the writers declare that even if every world citizen stopped environmentally bad behavior (which will never happen --- back to altruism or the lack thereof), the earth may still be in a predicament from which it can never recover.
While the stories are fascinating, some of the background and methodology can go on a little long. Still, it’s a small price to pay for such a refreshing book. I’m already looking forward to the third installment. In the meantime, I’ll mosey on over to the Freakonomics blog at NYTimes.com to get, well, my “freak-on.”
--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan (RonK232@comcast.net)
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