Goal # 70 - Book # 4 - Freakonomics - By Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

I'd heard a lot of things about this book for years. I always thought it wouldn't interest me because I don't know a thing about economics and I'm more of a autobigraphy/fiction book reader. For whatever reason, I decided that I'd give it a try and it turns out that I really enjoyed the book.

The authors write the material in a way that keeps me engaged and entertained. There is no text book reading here. They take seemingly random and awkward questions and answer them in an "economists" way. From their perspective, although at first glance it may seem skewed, all questions can be answered in relation to how it affects the economy.

One of the questions that they got a lot of negative publicity was "What caused the drop in crime in the late 90's-00's?" And basically, in a very short form answer, they said the drop in crime was due to the fact that Roe vs. Wade was passed in the 70's so people who previously were not getting abortions because it was expensive and illegal, were now having them at an alarming rate. They also stated that statistically, criminals tend to be of the Hispanic and African American nationalities, so once abortion became a viable option for these women, they aborted the fetuses that statistically would grow up to be criminals. When the 90's came around, there were less people in their 20's to become criminals.

That is a very brief taste of the book. All in all, I really enjoyed it and may even add the next one in the series, Superfreakonomics to my book list.

Live. Laugh. Love.