Quote: “(And you thought that no. pencil was for the children to change their answers.)” pg 25 of Freakonomics

Analysis: This quote taken from Freakonomics shows the criticalness of the authors’ characters. These two men dig to find the solution to the problem no matter how ugly the truth may be like in this quote. This shows their determination and willingness to discover the truth behind everything. This truly shows “the hidden side if everything” and how these authors pan to rub your nose in the truth whether you like it or not. They are determined to show people the truth and in turn cure their ignorance. I love what this author is attempting to do based on his character, and in this quote he comes off as ridged and rugged but sincere. This sincerity is what shows his honesty on the topics that he discusses with the reader.

“Everyone is good at heart,” is a common saying that proposes a universal meaning and a significance about mankind. Individuals tend to focus on the negative aspects rather than the positive aspects of someone’s character; we judge people based on their actions and mistakes rather than their achievements and personality. I firmly believe that everyone is a good person no matter who you are because everyone has a little good in them, even if the good is shadowed behind the bad. For example, an economist, Paul Feldman, elicits the same notion when he states, “people are generally good even without enforcement.” Paul came to this conclusion based on his experiment with bagels. His results prove that people are trustworthy and normally do the right thing when others are not around, implying that people are good samaritans. However, there are always a selective amount of  people who are selfish and ruthless, devoting to an evil life. Thus, mankind proves its goodness in countless weighs, out numbering the evil conspiracies, portraying an ubiquitous essence. 

Authors Levitt and Dubner make the overall theme of their book, Freakonomics, very obvious; the world of economics is based entirely on human morals. A quote from the novel that perfectly demonstrates this theme would be this: “Whatever the incentive, whatever the situation, dishonest people will try to gain an advantage by whatever means necessary.” This is a widely accepted truth among people, and no one understands this better than an economist. This first chapter spends a lot of time discussing incentives. The anecdote given of the daycare and their late-pickup fee perfectly exemplifies the theme of this novel. After the anecdote, the author(s) analyze the situation and discuss how the late fee (the incentive in this case) allows a parent to “buy” their guilt away; therefore, this incentive, like many, has the opposite of the intended effect because it provides an affordable loophole for the moral guilt of this. responsibility

In Freakonomics, the authors use a lot of pathos by relating to us and sometimes guilt tripping us. In the following quote, the author explains how we all learn good and bad incentives. Everyone is born an empty slate but is shaped drastically by their enviorment which changes some of their incentives. Even people born into “good” households will steal a chip, but our parents sometimes give us good incentives to get better grades or to not get in trouble at school. The incentives we experience everyday is what makes us human and it is up to us whether we fall into the temptation of a bad incentive.

“Opponents, meanwhile, worry that certain students will be unfairly penalized if they don’t happen to test well, and that teachers may concentrate on the test topics at the exclusion of more important lessons.” (pg. 23)

The No Child Left Behind law, signed by President Bush in 2002, is a corrupted system at its best. The concept is to use state standardized testing to determine the progress, or lack thereof, for education. At first it would not have seemed like a negative thing; after all, a way to ensure that a child was learning all of the appropriate material for his or her grade was the goal. What ended up happening was the teacher “teaching to the test.” This is done by taking past questions from the test and teaching the students in the direction that the questions were tailored. From my own personal experience, I can say that every teacher I’ve had up to this year did that very thing. Well some might say that the students are passing, so what’s so wrong about the process? While this process teaches toward one aspect, most teachers miss another aspect of teaching entirely. The life lessons and experience intended to be provided by the teacher are taken away. In school, we are supposed to be taught the importance of how to treat someone and use common knowledge to make it in life. We are now a product of what does the government want me to think and expect me to learn, and how do I get that by any means necessary? This is the corruption of the system, and it took less than 16 years to come to it.

The novel  Freakonomics contains many contradictions and seemingly absurd reasonings, but then uses so much supporting evidence that it begins to make sense. The above quotation is an example of such reasonings. To elaborate, the author first describes how cheating is present in several areas, then starkly contrasts this idea by trying to prove that most people will not cheat. In addition to this, he contrasts his ideas with an interesting and outlandish metaphor, bagels. He uses the example that eighty-seven percent of people, while no one is watching them, will pay for their bagels. If he directly states that the bagels correlate to all human endeavors, it probably wouldn’t make much sense. Because he provides such elaborate and in depth evidence and discussions, you are more likely to agree with his conclusions. Thus, his unique style of using at first preposterous ideas seem rational after his use of many examples and logic.

Analysis:
Through this quote the authors are using an appeal to pathos and logos in order to connect with their readers while also sending a message to them. By mentioning “a bullet” as an incentive, the authors are evoking a sense of pathos because many of their readers have probably heard of someone or they have known someone who has been shot (and possibly killed) due to a person threatening to shoot that someone if they didn’t listen. It could also evoke some pathos and logos from people who have been in the military because they personally know how much “astonishing power” a bullet can have in certain situations. On another note, by mentioning “a lever” as an incentive, the authors are evoking a sense of logos (possibly pathos) from people who may think philosophically or who have studied past philosophers. This is due to the fact that one of the greatest philosophers of all time, Aristotle, once said, “Give me a lever, and I’ll move the world,” which is a policy that many “philosophers” today still follow. Finally, by mentioning “a key” as an incentive, the authors are able to appeal to just about everyone through logos and/or pathos. In a logical sense, keys are used to open doors and other “locked things” all of the time, which means that it would make sense for keys to have astonishing power, such as the keys for a nuclear launch device. In an emotional sense, keys are used to open up people’s “softer sides” to the people around them almost every day, which is the “key” to most people’s happiness. Through all of these different ways of appealing to their audience, the authors are showing a clear message about incentives; it doesn’t matter how small or inconvenient they seem at the start, it’s how influential they are in the end that matters.

Analysis: Authors often imagery when describing an event or situation in order to make the reader fully feel and understand the topic being discussed. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner states, “...and even soaping up their hardest-to-reach body parts,” when describing how being part of the elite of sumo wrestlers is everything to these people. If not in the elite, sumo wrestlers are treated as little as dirt. The authors put this quote in the novel so that the reader can fully picture the harsh differences between the elite and non-elite. Without the quote, the reader might not understand the full extend of why sumo wrestlers fought so hard to make it into the elite, even if it meant for some of them to start cheating in their matches. 

Quote: “(For even more fun, compare that first-date conversation with the same person during your tenth year of marriage).” 

First impressions and first ambitions are temporary; they eventually die off. Consider the following analogy: “(For even more fun, compare that first-date conversation with the same person during your tenth year of marriage).” If you have never been out on a date or have never had an interview of some sort, this quote may seem far-fetching, but in reality, it is surprisingly true. For example, When you go on a date with someone for the first time, you are well-dressed and tend to describe and perceive yourself in a different way because the first impression is vital. On the seventh date, you will not care as much about your appearance and how you are being perceived because you are not conformable with the guy. So, in terms of the quote, the conversations are eccentric and first, but eventually, the excitement mellows down, resulting in casual conversation.  The reasoning behind this is not only because people’s reputations are on the line, but also because people want to be accepted by the other individuals. Once they are accepted, they bring out their true inner-self. Thus, this analogy portrays the short-lived epiphanies that everyone endures at some point, which supports the author’s claim about a real estate agents (how they describe the conditions of a house in word form). 

Analysis:
Terrorist- A person or organization that uses violence and intimidation against civilians to pursue their political aims. Our country has been fighting to end terrorism for as long as I can remember. However long this nation fights terrorists, they keep coming back or just keep re-organizing themselves. Also, terrorism is not just carried out by groups from the Middle East or another foreign area, it is demonstrated by our own civilians, our own neighbors, or even our own work colleagues as well. 9/11 and the World Trade Towers, Boston Marathon bombing, Florida Pulse Nightclub shooting, Pickup truck rampage in New York, and a mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert are just a fraction of terrorist events that happened in America since 2001. Why do these things keep happening? One of the problems is that the nation never knows when an attack will occur. Yes, the FBI occasionally figures out plans of terrorism and they stop the event from happening, but that hardly makes up for all of the others that have unfolded. We just don’t know what a person or group is planning to do until it’s too late. In Freakonomics, it states, “Once that information falls into the wrong hands (or, depending on your point of view, the right hands), much of the group’s advantage disappears.” “That information,” refers to any and all plans terrorists make before they carry out their event of violence. This quote means that the knowledge of what these people are going to do is the ultimate weapon to fight against terrorism. As long as we know what their plans are, the country can stop terrorists from attacking the innocent civilians. The only advantage people with plans to harm others is the element of surprise; take that advantage away and we could have a safer, more loving society. 

This quote shows the one trait all of humans possess,  the ability to think of only one’s self. People will be fair to other people to a point but there comes a time where they need to look out for their own incentives. People use the internet to copy songs illegally or to copy movies illegally because they care about their money and not the actors and artists that depends on the money from the albums and movies. Even though lying is considered morally wrong, we all use the information we get from our phones and computers to better look out for ourselves, not caring about how it may affect others.

Levitt has so far established a light sarcastic tone throughout the novel;this chapter has been no exception. Not only is this chapter comparing the Ku Klux Klan to a real estate agents and life insurance policies, but also manages to poke fun at each group in the process. In the quote, “Before long, John Brown was invited to join the Klavaliers, the Klan’s secret police and flog squad,” it seems as if Levitt is using the Ku Klux Klan’s terminology to mock the group. Though he could easily have described to jobs of each person, he instead decided to use their made up terms and phrases (all beginning with Kl-). This appears to create a slight mocking tone toward the Ku Klux Klan. Levitt also uses the secrecy and instability of the Ku Klux Klan to mock real estate agents and their business strategies. He discussed how the Ku Klux Klan’s intimidation factor was compromised when Stenson Kennedy began to leak inside secrets; he compared this to the loss to the dramatic drop in the cost of life insurance. In the end, Levitt uses his sarcastic tone to mock the way in which this release of information has impair the way in which these groups and businesses function.

Analysis: In Freakonomics, a logical work of nonfiction that explores the hidden meaning behind everyday happenings, authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner carefully describe the world on an economical viewpoint. Statistics are heavily laced throughout the novel, creating deeper depth and attachment to certain situations. Not only do people and places have descriptions by the addition of numbers or graphs, but they also are given the appeal to ethos. The author describes,  “Imagine now instead of running a daycare in Haifa, you are running the Chicago Public Schools, a system that educates 400,000 students each year” (pg. 22). This throws the reader a curveball, challenging them to imagine themselves in the situation, appealing to their own interests and thoughts, and finally finishing with statistics on Chicago Public Schools. It later talks about school testing, a very controversial topic in today’s society, ultimately bringing an opinion out of the reader. Overall, statistics and ethos in this book prove to be much more than just numbers in a chart; they relate to people and the journeys they have been through. 

“Within five minutes, zooming market had tanked. Such are the marvels that can be conjured by an agent in search of the next deal.”

The authors of Freakonomics often describe their topics with a sarcastic and humorous tone. The quote above is an excellent example of such. The use of words like “marvels” and “conjured” are words used to describe wonderous things, but are really just describing the lies that real estate agents tell. Additionally, this sarcastic language conveys how comical the situation is. For example, “Within five minutes” the market completely reversed according to a real estate agent. Obviously this is a ridiculous statement, and therefore makes the readers both think and laugh about such statements. Combined, these examples demonstrate the sarcasm and comedic tone present throughout the novel.

This is an exemplification of the author’s tone. At first glance we see the very essence of what this book’s goal was--to create a modern feel--, but as we progress through the sentence, we see his attempt to make his subject comical. The hyperbole in this sentence serves this purpose. The authors try to use perspective to give readers a sort of “a-ha” moment.

The above quote is typical of the authors’ styles. They are not only very factual, always using data to support theories, but also they use diction to convey such a factual and straightforward tone. For example they not only provide possible explanations, but provide statistics to back them up, such as “...roughly forty thousand… .” In addition, they always attempt to show both sides of an argument, or at least respond to questions which many would have on their opinion. Also, the diction used helps to establish a the idea that the authors know what they are talking about. For instance, there is no use of the word maybe in the quotation, but there is a “true.” Words such as this are used to indicate to the reader the authors have, hopefully, done research and pondered their ideas. All these details in tandem assist in demonstrating the authors’ knowledge on their subject, which is presented very elaborately and factually.