Superfreakonomics

This is as entertaining as any other fiction or non-fiction book you will read all year.  It is a fascinating look at the “Why” behind human action. The book includes discussions on why women choose prostitution, how to cool the earth, why don't more doctors was their hands, should we implement a pay-per-kidney program in the US, and much more.

Many reviews out there have already explained the different ideas in the book, so I will just highlight two of my favorites. The first is the discussion on altruism. This is a fascinating look at why humans give, if they really give at all, and how likely it is that one human being will help another. While some may find the economic approach to questions like this cold, the facts speak for themselves and the authors merely highlight what some people don't want to know – by and large, humanity is not naturally altruistic.

The other chapter that was interesting, mainly because of the debate over the airwaves as to its validity, is the chapter on proposed global warming solutions. The uproar over the simple solutions proposed by intelligent scientists exposes the motivations behind much of the environmental hype machine that is in place today. The authors affirm global warming is real, but they are willing to look at radical (cheap) solutions to help solve it.

All in all, this is a pretty good book, though it does fall short of the high standard set by their first book, Freakonomics.  Recommended.