147 of 185 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, June 2, 2007
This review is from: More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics (Hardcover)
I was expecting something thoughtful and thought-provoking, like Freakonomics or Blink, but instead I found lots of half-baked suggestions that seem intended to shock rather than enlighten.
Here's an example. Landsburg argues that the big barrier for people getting their first loan is that banks don't believe they will pay, so he argues that "If the government wants to provide meaningful assistance to first-time home buyers, it should probably consider capital punishment for late mortgage payments." That would prove their intent to pay, and make banks feel safer. Does he really believe this? It's hard to tell, because he throws out many of his crazy ideas with little support or comment.
Another suggestion is that Congressmen should be assigned to constituents alphabetically, one representing names starting Aa-Am, another An-Be, and so on, because that would create less incentive for bridges to nowhere. What kind of legislation can you pass to unfairly advantage people whose names start with B? But he completely ignores the issue of representing constituents with common interests, or how a congressman could go about meeting people spread evenly over the whole country. Perhaps there's a nugget of a good idea, but given that he ignores any potential downsides, you can't really tell.
At first these crazy suggestions were amusing, but as they kept coming, I wondered: Is he serious or just screwing around? The crazy unsupported ideas made me skeptical of the ones he seems to be trying to defend more seriously, because it seems he's more interested in shocking people than in reach seriously supportable truths.
In the end, I felt that I hadn't learned much -- just watched a smart guy ramble about with little serious intent.
Dave
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21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Read, August 24, 2007
This review is from: More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics (Hardcover)
Once again, I was initially drawn to this book by its unique title - what a brilliant marketing ploy! But after reading "Freakonomics" last year, I was curious about what this economist had to say about the little (and big) things in life. I found some of his topics to be extremely insightful (such as How to Fix the Justice System and the link between having daughters and the divorce rate), while others had me scratching my head. However, Landsburg does point out in the beginning that "this book will give you new insights about how the world works. Sometimes it might outrage you. I hope it also makes you smile." He doesn't expect everyone to agree with him, just to look at things in a whole new way. It certainly made me do just that.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It made me think and had a big impact, May 3, 2009
Surprisingly even with that title, this is a book about economics. This was probably one of the best books I have read in a long time.
The book title comes from the theory that if people who are not infected with an STD were to have more sex everyone would be safer. Note that it's not them that would be safer but the population in general. Therefore since the individual risk is all borne by the person who decides whether or not to have sex, people have less sex and partners than would be "good" for society.
Interesting stuff and just the tip of the iceberg. I've read Steven Landsberg's columns for years on Slate and some of the chapters in the book are expanded versions of his Slate articles. Go and read them but do NOT feel like you are getting ripped off. While many of the ideas were explored in Slate they were not as fleshed out, the math wasn't included and there was not as much exploration of related ideas.
This book was completely mindbending and was so good that I stayed up until 5:30 to finish it. I didn't quite make it and stopped three pages short but the point is I haven't had a pageturner like this in my lap in months. Go and read it now you won't be sorry.
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