Synopses & Reviews
Economics is no longer the "dismal science" dreaded by college freshmen. In recent years, a band of economists has broken away from the charts and graphs of college textbooks, and begun to explain ordinary behavior in plain and often entertaining English. Steve Landsburg was one of the first of the new breed, in his book
The Armchair Economist and long-running "Everyday Economics" column in
Slate magazine. Now he is back, and more provocative than ever.
In More Sex is Safer Sex, Landsburg shows how the rational behavior of each one of us -- when combined together -- produces the often bizarre, seemingly irrational behavior of crowds. We all stand up at the ballpark, so none of us can see. We avoid casual sex, from fear of disease, and we thereby make sex more dangerous. Things really get interesting when Landsburg suggests ways to change the rules, and game the system. Why not charge juries if a convicted felon is exonerated? Why not have each member of Congress represent a national subset of voters, chosen alphabetically? Why not solve the ""overpopulation"" problem by having more children, who will help think of ways to improve our use of resources?
More Sex is Safer Sex will make you laugh and argue -- and it will make you think about the world around you in new and unforgettable ways.
Review
"Long before the 'pop economists' there was Steven Landsburg, writing funny, jargon-free, shocking, and true essays on our material circumstances. But Landsburg knows something that other authors of bestsellers on the subject don't. He knows everything. Economics is not the study of money; it's the study of value. Everything is determined by our values. The science of everything is what economics is. And here, in More Sex, what the reader will find is -- everything." -- P. J. O'Rourke
Review
"Steve Landsburg proves once again that he is better than anyone else at making economics interesting to noneconomists. Landsburg is provocative and playful in his mission to demonstrate how an understanding of economics will change the way you live your daily life. I loved this book." -- Steven D. Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics
Review
"Steve Landsburg is one of my favorite economics writers, and his new book is no exception. While I don't always agree with him, he usually gets me thinking, and he always entertains." -- Greg Mankiw, former Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and author of Principles of Economics
Synopsis
A witty and razor-sharp look at the many ways our individually rational decisions can combine into some truly weird collective results--and some hilarious and serious ways to fix just about everything.
Economics is no longer the "dismal science" dreaded by college freshmen. In recent years, a band of economists has broken away from the charts and graphs of college textbooks, and begun to explain ordinary behavior in plain and often entertaining English. Steve Landsburg was one of the first of the new breed, in his book The Armchair Economist and long-running "Everyday Economics" column in Slate magazine. Now he is back, and more provocative than ever.
In More Sex Is Safer Sex, Landsburg shows how the rational behavior of each one of us--when combined together--produces the often bizarre, seemingly irrational behavior of crowds. We all stand up at the ballpark, so none of us can see. We avoid casual sex, from fear of disease, and we thereby make sex more dangerous. Things really get interesting when Landsburg suggests ways to change the rules, and game the system. Why not charge juries if a convicted felon is exonerated? Why not have each member of Congress represent a national subset of voters, chosen alphabetically? Why not solve the "overpopulation" problem by having more children, who will help think of ways to improve our use of resources?
More Sex Is Safer Sex will make you laugh and argue--and it will make you think about the world around you in new and unforgettable ways.
About the Author
Steven E. Landsburg is a Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester. He is the author of The Armchair Economist, Fair Play, More Sex is Safer Sex, The Big Questions, two textbooks in economics, a forthcoming textbook on general relativity and cosmology, and over 30 journal articles in mathematics, economics and philosophy. His current research is in the area of quantum game theory. He blogs daily at <>. For over ten years, he wrote the monthly "Everyday Economics" column in Slate magazine, and has written regularly for Forbes and occasionally for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He appeared as a commentator on the PBS/Turner Broadcasting series "Damn Right", and has made over 200 appearances on radio and television broadcasts over the past few years.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Preface: Unconventional Wisdom
PART I: The Communal Stream
1. More Sex Is Safer Sex
Addendum
2. Be Fruitful and Multiply
3. What I Like about Scrooge
4. Who's the Fairest of Them All?
5. Children at Work
PART II: How to Fix Everything
6. How to Fix Politics
7. How to Fix the Justice System
8. How to Fix Everything Else
How to Fight Fires
How to Fight Crime
How to Prevent Accidents
How to Fight Pollution
How to Solve the Kidney Shortage
How to Fight Grade Inflation
How to Shorten Waiting Lines
PART III: Everyday Economics
9. Go Figure
10. Oh No! It's a Girl!
11. The High Price of Motherhood
PART IV: The Big Questions
12. Giving Your All
A Defense of Pure Reason
13. The Central Banker of the Soul
14. How to Read the News
Racial Profiling
Disaster Relief
The Sack of Baghdad
Global Warming, Local Crowding
My Barnes and Noble Trade Deficit
An Outsourcing Fable
The New Racism
15. Matters of Life and Death
16. Things That Make Me Squirm
Appendix
Index