“Freakonomics: A Red Economist Explores the Dark Side of Everything,” is a best-selling book by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dunbar. Levitt describes the book as an effort to "strip away a layer or two from the surface of modern life and see what's going on underneath." It does this by taking two seemingly unrelated events and putting them together. From comparing teachers to sumo wrestlers to wondering why crack dealers still live with their mothers, Levitt and Dunbar manage to put a spin on conventional wisdom by examining them from very different angles. Unlike most books, this book has no central idea. In fact, in the first chapter, Levitt makes it clear that this is intentional. The main concern was to get people to question ideas and thoughts that are commonly believed to be true. One of the main fundamentals of this book is that "incentives are the cornerstone of modern life" and that the study of economics is the study of incentives: how people get what they want or what they need, especially when others want or need what they want. same thing. Freakonomics reveals how incentives, motivations and risks play a major role in everyday events in our society. In the first chapter, the authors ask "What do sumo wrestlers and teachers have in common?" » Levitt starts with daycare, leaves your children at daycare a few minutes more than you pay for cheating, and would fine parents who prevent him from picking up their children late. One daycare thought this would be the case and imposed a fine. Instead of the last pickups falling, they flew away. Levitt goes on to explain that this is because the economic incentive is not comparable to the countervailing moral incentive that has now been removed. With the fine, the parents were told that I...... middle of paper...... because of what it says about the child's parents. The last thing they noticed is that when a name becomes popular among the rich in about a decade, it will no longer be popular among the rich, but popular among the middle classes and the middle class names will move down to the names lower classes. Overall, the authors determine that the name doesn't really matter. Overall, Freakemonomics was easy to read, even for people who don't read a lot about economics. They are able to use basic economics to interpret just about anything that happens in modern society. It integrated all areas of economics in an interesting way and provided plenty of data to support the author's ideas. Whether you agree with the authors or not, they have given many unconventional ideas that will make you question what you have always considered conventional wisdom..