Freakonomics position paper Essay

Freakonomics is an pick look at debunking around(a) of the schematic scholarship as far as our ideas ab forth life in general and economics in particular go. It is an irreverent and funny book about some of the truths that we ready to be self-evident. It is one of the books in the new genre of non-fiction that attempts to principal some of the academic theories that all of us take for granted. There be opposite books like Black Swan, Undercover Economist and Tipping aim that have tried to explain social phenomena in terms of leaving beyond the academic dogma.The topic for this essay is the Perfect parent system that deals with some of the myths concerning baby bird rearing and safety that parents use in rescue up their children. The essay looks at the chapter in detail along with the actual presented and then attempts to support the claims as well as present some criticism of the same. However, Freakonomics can also fall into the trap that it has laid for established theories. For instance, chapter five that deals with a Perfect Parent hypodissertation can advantageously be debunked by theories that contradict the authors claims. Usage of Data and otherwiseFreakonomics relies to a great extent on statistical enjoin to debunk many of the truths and offers some information to prove some counter-intuitive truths. As the authors state, they want to expose the confidential array of everything. Towards this, the authors take on many established certainties and prove that we often flow to overestimate the potential venture in say, flying and under-estimate the risk associated with cause when statistical evidence clearly shows that more people pass in road accidents than air accidents. The book is definitely an attempt to look for the hidden connections as can be seen from the linkage of abortion to the low crime.The recitation of Roe. vs. Wade and the resulting decrease in crime is a good display case of this. While it makes sense to blame everything on our inability to measure risk or use quantitative analysis in everyday life, the lay remains that with the abundance of theories being floated on a daily basis, in that respect is no one correct way to lead a life, allow alone parenting. While the purpose of this essay is non to debunk Freakonomics, nonwithstanding we should remain cautious about information overload . This is one mark that would make us derive some meaning out of the electric current age.Chapter Five The Perfect parent hypothesis The chapter deals with the question What makes a better parent? It deals with the statistical evidence to prove that though there is correlativity between parents who are highly educated, claws not from single homes and their test heaps, it is not enough to establish a cause and effect scenario between devil sets of factors The data also proves that foul children doing badly at school most probably means that they are from a low income household instead tha n that they are black. An example of this would be the success of black golfer tiger Woods.Having an upbringing that was virtually elitist, the success of Tiger Woods proves the above hypothesis. Though the authors have not quoted this as an example, they stock-still state that the data from the ELCS scores is highly encouraging for anyone who wants to have a shot at the black smock hypothesis of doing badly/well at school The other set of data that the authors present relates to the child safety seats that change in millions compared to having a child in a rear seat. This is what they bode the outrage reduction for the obsessive parenting.This can be compared to the example of a terrorist attack like 9/11 that can be seen in terms of sensational value as compared to the number of people who die from gun shot wounds. Countering the authors claims in Chapter Five The main criticisms against chapter five are Overgeneralization Attempt to dazzle Usage of anecdote when the autho rs make claims based on data The authors contention that good parenting as the experts claim may not hold the key and their frank admission that many of the outcomes of a childs personality cannot be measured kind of stand out against their other claims.The last point refers to the black kid who had to fend for himself at the age of twelve and the white kid who has all the advantages. The black kid turned out to be Levitts co-author while the white kid turned out to be the Unabomber. The point being make here is when the authors use so much data, what is the point of using anecdotes. The authors repeatedly try to discourage the anecdotal evidence and instead concentrate on statistics to prove their point. So, this is one trap that the authors laid for themselves .Also, the temptation to dazzle with truths sometimes is overarching and can be avoided. Conventional wisdom The books as well as the chapter fives thesis is all about how conventional wisdom can often lead us wrong. And it is here that the authors score their best. Often, we take the truths handed down to us as the norm and though learned studies have tried correcting the myths, the authors deserve credit for putting out the evidence in a fashion as understood by everybody. close Though we have taken one truth as our thesis and provided views on both sides i. e. to support as well as debunk, nonetheless the book is an entertaining read and is a serious attempt to foil past the scholarly daze that most of the academic journals and mainstream research provide. At times, the book might seem to be like a diarist explaining economics but the reason for this is that the authors are trying to put their point across to laypeople.