pridėti nuoroda
I really loved this book. I'm a huge fan of people that buck the system and do things that are unconventional and against the grain.
Professor La... (show more)
More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics
Steven Landsburg's writings are living proof that economics need not be "the dismal science." Readers of The Armchair Economist and his columns in Slate magazine know that he can make economics not only fun but fascinating, as he searches for the reasons behind the odd facts we face in our daily lives. In More Sex Is Safer Sex, he brings his witty and razor-sharp analysis to the many ways that our individually rational decisions can combine into some truly weird collective results -- and he p... (show more)
Steven Landsburg's writings are living proof that economics need not be "the dismal science." Readers of The Armchair Economist and his columns in Slate magazine know that he can make economics not only fun but fascinating, as he searches for the reasons behind the odd facts we face in our daily lives. In More Sex Is Safer Sex, he brings his witty and razor-sharp analysis to the many ways that our individually rational decisions can combine into some truly weird collective results -- and he proposes hilarious and serious ways to fix just about everything.
When you stand up at the ballpark in order to see better, you make a rational decision. When everyone else does it too, the results, of course, are lousy. But this is just the tip of the iceberg of individual sanity and collective madness. Did you know that some people may actually increase the spread of sexually transmitted diseases when they avoid casual sex? Do you know why tall people earn more money than shorter competitors? (Hint: it isn't just unfair, unconscious prejudice.) Do you know why it makes no sense for you to give charitable donations to more than one organization?
Landsburg's solutions to the many ways that modern life is unfair or inefficient are both jaw-dropping and maddeningly defensible. We should encourage people to cut in line at water fountains on hot days. We should let firefighters keep any property they rescue from burning houses. We should encourage more people to act like Scrooge, because misers are just as generous as philanthropists.
Best of all are Landsburg's commonsense solutions to the political problems that plague our democracy. We should charge penalties to jurors if they convict a felon who is later exonerated. We should let everyone vote in two congressional districts: their own, and any other one of their choice. While we're at it, we should redraw the districts according to the alphabetical lists of all voters, rather than by geography. We should pay FDA commissioners with shares of pharmaceutical company stocks, and pay our president with a diversified portfolio of real estate from across the country.
Why do parents of sons stay married more often than parents who have only daughters? Why does early motherhood not only correlate with lower income, but actually cause it? Why do we execute murderers but not the authors of vicious computer viruses? The lesson of this fascinating, fun, and endlessly provocative book is twofold: many apparently very odd behaviors have logical explanations, and many apparently logical behaviors make no sense whatsoever. (show less)
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Reviews (See all 90) Write a reviewfor this
It's a hit!
No, it's a flop!
If you liked Freakonomics, you will probably like this book as well. I personally got little value added from either. At least this one comes with ... (show more)
If you liked Freakonomics, you will probably like this book as well. I personally got little value added from either. At least this one comes with a more scandalous title so raises a few eyebrows when you read it on the metro. (show less)
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Of the 16 chapters in this book, I would only recommend reading 1, 5, 12, 13, 14 and 15. The reason for my recommendation is that Landis' book is more rhetoric than economic findings.
His reasoning is deeply flawed in many instances and he himself freely admits he does not have the solution to most of the economic problems he writes about. I feel his work is slightly self-indulgent.
In terms of value to the reader, Landis' work does encourage economic thought, but not as much as comparabl... (show more)
Of the 16 chapters in this book, I would only recommend reading 1, 5, 12, 13, 14 and 15. The reason for my recommendation is that Landis' book is more rhetoric than economic findings.
His reasoning is deeply flawed in many instances and he himself freely admits he does not have the solution to most of the economic problems he writes about. I feel his work is slightly self-indulgent.
In terms of value to the reader, Landis' work does encourage economic thought, but not as much as comparable works such as 'The Undercover Economist' by Tim Harford and the original 'Freakonomics'.
So if you are looking for a book in everyday economics I recommend that you bypass Landis in favor of Harford, but if you must read it save yourself a lot of time (and patience) and just read chapters 1, 5, 12, 13, 14 and 15, which still aren't proven economically but are at least logical and stimulating. (show less)
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This is a Freakonomics wannabe. It's essentially 300 pages of supposedly wacky, non sequitur, economic tidbits from a Libertarian angle. Unfortunately, the logical arguments are rife with inconsistencies and blatant flaws, making it a tortuous read.
One example, out of (literally) hundreds of inconsistencies is the author's 'solution' to the patent system. Between advocating the destruction of Social Security, etc, to save some money, he says government should buy every patent issu... (show more)
This is a Freakonomics wannabe. It's essentially 300 pages of supposedly wacky, non sequitur, economic tidbits from a Libertarian angle. Unfortunately, the logical arguments are rife with inconsistencies and blatant flaws, making it a tortuous read.
One example, out of (literally) hundreds of inconsistencies is the author's 'solution' to the patent system. Between advocating the destruction of Social Security, etc, to save some money, he says government should buy every patent issued for 'market price'....that way it would be in public domain for the benefit of everyone.
That's a dumb idea to begin with, but the real dumb part is the way he thinks we can do this for cheap. 1) Landsberg offers that the government can then 'license' the patent (hence: it is not in public domain, defeating the purpose) or 2) government could buy them through a bidding system with private people and only buy half or even 10%, at the ultimate auction price in a private market (flipping a coin whether to buy or not at the end)......great, but again, it would then NOT be in the public domain, since 50 to 90% would be privately held, again defeating the purpose.
Even the tidbit behind the attention seeking title of the book is nonsense, that reaches its point assuming the search for sexual partners is a zero sum game. It's just not witty or logical or all that fun to read, like the rest of the book.
To summarize -- this book fails on every level. From the "HEY EVERYBODY LOOK AT ME" title to the horribly mangled logic throughout.
Just save your time - avoid this. (show less)
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