Freakonomics AOW #9

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner mainly dealt with the fact that all of our lives are dictated by economics.  Every structure in our lives is dictated by similar incentives that structure businesses and other corporations.  The book showed me the hidden side to some worldly puzzles.  For example, the book talked about how the true reason behind the drastic crime drop in 2000 was because of the legalization of abortion.  Dubner and Levitt explain that the mothers who got impregnated  by accident, on average, did not have the physical means or the will to take care of a child, so the child grew up into a life of crime because it was necessary to get by.  Also, they mentioned that sumo wrestlers and school teachers have the same incentive for cheating and are very similar in that they are rewarded in the long-run for it.  Levitt and Dubner effectively use ethos and logos in their book.  They bring logos by stating and examining statistics that they found.  For example, on pages 193 to 206 there were many lists of popular low-education and high-education boy and girl names in past years.  Also, following these lists there was a detailed analysis of the data.  These statistics combined with the sophisticated diction the authors use make up the ethos for these authors.  These analyses lack imagery in literal terms but do effectively paint the picture in one's mind of what the data means.  Overall, this book was effective in its purpose to explain the importance of economics to the common person through mainly their use of statistics and the analyses that went along with them.