When I first read the introduction, before reading the rest of the book, it said to me that the book was going to touch on some very touchy issues, to look at the root of some of society's problems however awkward it may be. Once I realized the necessity of posting on the intro, I read it again after finishiong the book. I realized someting: introductions shoud be read at the end of books. Authors write them after writing the peice, so why shouldn't they be read after reading the peice? After the second time I saw the introduction as an explanation for why the authors decided to write about these issues. It really tied the book up for me.
The laid the book out into two themes. First was the abortion preventing crime theory. They wrote about this first in the intro for a reason. It seems that this is the crown jewel of the book, the part the authors are most proud of. As I wrote in my earlier posting, I don't agree with it but it does seem logical. Second, they wrote about the main theme of the book: incentives. Thius is what the book was ultimately about. The reale state agents, the doctors, the mechanics, assymetric information, the fact that people are driven by incentives. That all makes perfect sense to me. How does the abortion thing fit in with that? Are they trying to say that something as unpleasant as abortion (most pro-choicers don't like the actual act) has positive outcomes thus giving society an incentive to maintain it? Or did they just put in a concept in with something completely unrelated to sell more books? In the intro it sounded like to me they had no relation whatsoever. All in all though it was a good book--it made me think. Most books today don't do that for me.
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The book didn't have as much symmetry as other books I read. The topics were very much unto themselves, but there are themes in the book. Information communicated or not communicated is important, it can create incentives for good behavior and bad behavior.It can take away mystery or leave them with a lemon.Information can create hysteria or quell it. The information we project (our names) can diacta people's perception of us. But we really nee dto get a good education so we can decipher information and realize when an abortion theory on crime is ridiculous or when a statistic is irrational. Education is the most important thing in society. It dictates who you are and who might be and how successful you'll be in life you choose.
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