FREAKONOMICS: CHAPTER 1 :) :) :)

I have to say that this was the most interesting reading the whole semester! And after reading several others blogs I can see that I am not the only one who thought this!

I found the opening of this chapter to really grab my attention when it talked about day care, and how they started charging parents $3 every time they picked up their child late. And the thing that got me, is more and more parents continued to pay the $3! I thought for sure that it would have went down. This just showed me how much parents do not realize how important it is for them to be on time for their children, and to me it seemed as if they cared less about their children since they would rather spend extra money they be with them on time. It made me really start to think about incentives, and the three basics of them: economic, social, and moral.

The second thing that really grabbed my attention was when they got on the topic of who all cheats. I like in this when he states, "Cheating may or may not be human nature, but it is certainly a prominent feature in just about every human endeavor. Cheating is a primordial economic act: getting more for less." This to me is VERRRYYY true! I enjoyed the different examples of "cheaters" and the different scenarios in which cheating can occur. Even though sometimes one cheating may seem more wrong than the other, they really are ALL the same. This book really boggles my brain and I like it! It was really cool how they talked about teaching and how it deals with cheating because I am going to school to become a teacher. I liked how they showed the different examples of cheating and how they described to you the differences and how to look for the pattern that they marked in bold.

When they go into the topic of athletes with cheating, it really made me think because in high school I played several sports. And it really raised a good question in my mind-is it better to cheat to win or cheat to lose? I never thought about cheating to lose until after reading this chapter, but since it's not winning, it's hard to think that it is wrong, even though it is.

I also enjoyed how they talked about cheating and stealing. In class we talked about if we would walk by money on the ground would be pick it up if it wasn't ours? Or would be steal and cheat more if we wouldn't get caught and didn't have consequences? Well honestly, I would be lying if I sat here and said that my answer would be no. Not meaning that I definetly would all the time, but it would definetly give me more to think about, which I think it would give many other people the same thoughts as it did to me.

This first chapter REALLY got me into this book..a lot more than I thought it was. I am honestly not one who enjoys reading and does it often, so I was worried about having to read this book, but it is VERY good to read. It makes me think about a lot of things how I never thought about them a lot, and I cannot wait to read the rest!

Steph :]