Friday, October 30, 2009
Super Freakonomics
The book ‘Super Freakonomics’ just came out. Just like the first one, the second has been controversial. The biggest controversy is the chapter on Global Warming. Steven Levitt (the author that is an economist) went on the daily show recently. This discussion summarizes this controversy.
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Interesting. Steven Levitt proposes simple solutions to stop global warming, but people are so dedicated to their morals and look too far into expensive and time consuming solutions to see the clear picture. I'm almost interested to see how Levitt's umbrealla idea would work =]
ReplyDeleteBecause 'Super Freaknomics' strips morality from the page, I'm curious to see what Levitt's ideas are to other economic issues.
Laine Radell
ReplyDeleteThis book is great so far. I really like how Levitt strips the issues of their moral controversies and focuses on solely the issue. The chapter on prostitution is very interesting. Levitt, with the help of a first-hand "escort" examines the economics behind the "trade" and it makes sense. My final presentation deals with the introduction of an organ market into the economy and Levitt provides "The Iranian Kidney Experiment" as a comparison. I feel that Levitt is acquring unnecessary criticism--his ideas, though absurd and sometimes ridiculous make sense! I am looking forward to reading the book in its entiretyn :)
I think that he takes a smart approach in stripping away morality from economic issues because many things could have solutions without those moral boundaries in the way. I think that instead as a country we focus on expensive and ineffective things that aren't working when there are actual solutions that can be tried.
ReplyDeleteSteven Levitt, professor of economics and cowriter of the book Superfreakonomics is a very intelligent man. During the interview, Stewart brings up global warming which is one of the many issues that Levitt writes about in the book. Levitt mentions "put moralism away" for he prefers to concoct a reasonable, and smart economic solution for this issue. Levitt also factors in human nature as well. I am now interested to read Superfreakonomics after watching this short clip, because I would like to see how Levitt addresses other world issues.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the more interesting results now are other "experts" who are commenting on Levitt's theories and cost calculations. Sometimes it's difficult to believe/support either side of the debate.
ReplyDeleteMorality and Economic issues do not go along with each other. In fact, they tend to stretch out many issues that could be solved a lot quicker. If we eliminated moral issues and just focused on fixing the problems that we currently have, I guarantee we would have a lot less problems in the world. Steve Levitt, who proposes many basic solutions to help stop global warming, has created much attention. Levitt's umbrella idea seems very interesting and I would like to see if it works.
ReplyDeleteI think that his ideas, that were just suggestions on how to decrease Global Warming, were goo ideas that I think no one really thought of. The Umbrella idea was different, but it made sense in an odd way, and also NO ONE (that I heard of) has come up with this idea. And to be honest, I do not fully understand how his ideas for global warming caused such controversy. It made reasonable sense to me.
ReplyDeleteIf we gave up thinking and talking and started doing the world would be in better place. If we work togetther there would be less problems in the world.
ReplyDelete