Daniel

Daniel Conway
 * How does economics drive history/create change?**

Monday 3 (A Day)-p. 40 Entry 1: The first thing that needs to be looked at is on page 22-25. This is the passage about the teachers cheating on standardized tests. I feel this needs to be looked over and instpected during our discussion mainly because i feel that it is something that is definitly needed to become aware of in our society and that we need to discuse its important. Another thing that we need to look at is on page 3 & 4 and it talks about the abortions' affects on the crime rate of the 1990's through the present time. We need to look back at this during class and see if we can understand why this one event had such a HUGE affect on society and the crime rate. it really sets the tone for what the rest of the book is going to be about. We should also look on page 16, paragraph 1. this is the paragraph that talks about the fine introduced to the parents if they were late. I think this is funny because it shows that with the fine, the late parents actually went up.this is very important because it shows exactly what the author is saying about the way the world revolves. Summary: The book starts off with a little discussion into the crime rates of the late 1900's. it talks about how one particular women became pregnant on accident and appealed to the law of the Nation that she should be able to get an abortion. Once the law was finally passed that abortions were leagal, women around the world started to have them regularly. this meant that many women in the low life, poor women with no job, would be able to get rid of their child relativly cheap.this meant that a whole generation of crime people were wipped out because their mothers got abortions. The book then talks about how day-cares that induce a penalty for late pick-ups actually saw an increase in late parents after the induction of the penatly. There were a few reasons given for why this was the case, including moral and economic reasons. The book then talks about how school teachers actually can cheat on standarized tests inorder for their students to do better on the exam, inturn making the teachers get increases in pay and promotions, therefore making it worthwhile for the teachers to give the answers to their students, aka cheating.
 * Passage Master -**Daniel
 * Discussion Response: we thought it was very interesting because we can see the insentives that were given to the people, in this case the teachers, to get what they need in order to continue to live and earn money, even if itincludes cheating. because they were given bonuses and promotions if their students were to get bettter grades on the standerdized tests.this meant that it made sense for the teachers to cheat in order for them to succed.
 * Discussion Response: We were able to relate the fact that the women back in the 1970's started to get abortions once the law was passed the crime rate began to drope 20 years later in the 1990's because a whole genereation of potential criminals had been wipped out because their mother had gotten abortions. This had a huge affect on society and when crime rate began to fall, our economy began to go back up becuase of the fact that people didnt have to worry about the crime as much anymore
 * Discussion Response: We discussed this and realized that the people came late because they realized that a small, $3 fee was worth paying it everyday in order to let themselves be late everyday to pick up their child from the day care center. We realized that the parents thought it was easier to pay the small fee for being late rather than come on time, considering this fee eliminated the only reason many parents would try to come to get their kid on time, moral obligation. now, sense they had to pay, they thought that they didnt need to worry about coming to pick up their kid, considering they were paying a small fee for extra time.

Wednesday 5 (C Day)-p. 60 Connecting: I connected the KKK terrrisom through present day in present day terrorism because present day terrorists also have to worry about the economy and the fact tha they dont actually have to kill that many people to get their point across, they just have to act like they are going to kill people. We learned about the KKK's killings when reading this book last night, and we found out that they used incentives of the "violence" to create panic. We also learned that there are incentives about stealing bagels and incentives about incentive for Sumo wrestlers to cheat in Sumo wrestling. So what is the incentive?
 * Connector & Researcher**-Daniel

Research:

Summary: In this section, we read about summo restlers, the KKK, and bagel's. At the begining, we finished the section on cheating Sumo wrestlers, in order to see if sumo wrestling was rigged. Which, although there may be "agreements" between wrestlers in order to do a "you let me win now and ill let you win next time" sort of thing, so that they can stay in the competition. Next we read about a bagel salesman who was at the top teir of a cooperation, who brought in bagels every friday morning for his coworkers, when he retired, he decided to sell bagels for a living, and, in doing so, produced a very affective social freakonomics expierement. He realized a few things about cheating people, including how there is a larger chance of a cheating person in a larger office than a smaller office, and how many people ripped him off versus how many people paid for their bagels. We then read about the KKK and how their beliefs and violence spread through the 20th century. We learned that the amount of KKK killings were very low, however, the fact that the information about random killings spread so quickly had given the impression there had been more killings.We can see that economics does drive history for a few reasons. First, we see that through economic incentives, such as money for bagels, money bribes for Sumo wrestlers, and other money relates activities. the fact that the money for bagels creates change in the history can be seen through the social ramifications of stealing even something as small as a bagel, or something larger, like fraud or the like. This means that the social and economic ramafications do drive people to do different things and act in different ways than they would otherwise. Also the KKK were affected by the economy because they had to function as a society and therefore the economy affected them which changed history as well.

Thursday 6 (D Day)-p. 80 Summary: Tonights reading finished the topic of the KKK. The author illastrated some similarities between the infamous KKK and Real Estate agents for a few reasons. First, the author explained to us that Real Estate Agents had access to information that, like the members of the KKK, were able to be used to hurt or help their clients. Second, they both are extreem experts in their particular fields, or else they wouldnt be there.The book then divulged into discrimination and, specificly, the TV sho //The Weakest link//. The book showed that older women, asians, latinos, and other minorities were more likely to get booted off the show because of their race. This just goes to show that those people on the shows could have been great minds who might have changed the world or something if they had not have been booted because of their race. This shows us that economy does drive change and history because both the KKK and the Rewal Estate Agents needed economy inorder to do buisness, and the people on the show who got booted might have been able to change the world if they had not been booted.
 * Passage Master-**Daniel

Passage Master:
 * 1) page 77, paragraph 2: We should take a look at this and talk about why this would be the case, this is important because the people who had gotten booted because of their race might have actually been really smart or something and been able to change the world.
 * Discussion Response: Because of descrimination agains the latinos the biased opnion is that Latinos are going to be manual labor and are not necessarily the smart people and therefore, because of the objective of the show itself to get rid of people and to get money, therefore in order to earn the most money you can, you need to have people left who are able to answer the questions correctly and earn more money for the pot. Therefore, discrimination against elderly, latinos and such means that they are less likely to get fare on the show because people think they are "less smart" for whatever reason.
 * 1) page 69, parapraph 2: We need to look at this and discuss why this is the case, and whether it is always the case, or just sometimes. Is the book jumping to conclusions here? or not...
 * Discussion Response: All economcics are usumptions... abortions are the other stuff we learned. the book is try to draw a conclusion towards to information given. It is their job, but is it a little extreeme. they need to get the job done fast and get the money and since they are the ones who know what they are talking about, they are able to make more money and get the money out of the client.There is no rights anwer... all economics is jumping to cunclusions.

Friday 7 (E Day)-p. 100 Summary: At the end of chapter 2, we learned about a man by the name of David Duke who was a racist candidit for election. He one his election for senator in 1990 and one his election by nearly 20% more votes than expected. This was because people had social //incentives// to not vote for him and therefore told the poles that they would vote for the other candidit, however, when the time came to actually vote they voted for him, the only reason they had lied about it was because they didnt want society to view them as people who voted for a racist. In chapter 2 entitled //Why do Drug Dealers Still live with their Moms?// We learned about the harsh and unforgiving world of drugs. An Indian college student by the name of Adhir Vankedish went to live with the drug dealers of Chicago for almost 6 years, in this time he learned to eat like them and sleep like them and deal like them. He learned all of the tricks of the trade by a gang boss named J.T, who, had himslef been a buisnees major in college and therefore new all of the ups and downs of the market. He therefore ordered a record to be kept of all the transactions made by the gang for all reasons, and then gave this data from the past 4 years to Vankedish who then began to use the data to correlate evidence of the drug dealers salaries to answer the question //why do drug dealers still live with their moms?// This is very simple. Because they had no choice. They lived with theit familes because unles you are a top dog, like J.T. who made nearly $100,000 a year, you were likely to make just over $3 an hour and therefore not have enough money to spend on a house/appartment. This mean that the common preception of drug dealing being a very profitable buisness was, in fact, not true for the vast majority of gang/drug members. Only the top dogs made any thing at all really!
 * Discussion Director**-Daniel

Discusion director:
 * 1) Why did the people lie at the poles
 * 2) Why did they not earn that much money?
 * 3) Why did they provide money for the familes. Why did the familes cope with just $3 an hour?
 * 4) Have you every thought about the potential money in drug dealing
 * 5) How are they able to deal with that danger + the police? Wouldnt the families get mad at the gang?
 * 6) how was the gang bosses able to make SOOOO much more than their subordinites without mutainy?

Monday 10 (F Day)-p.120 Summary: This section started with how crack cocaine was similar to the nylon stockings. this was simple, the cheaper something is, the easier it is to sell. no matter what the product is, especially something like crack cocaine that is so dangerous not only physically but also detrimental to a persons reputaion, will sell better if the price is lower, because people have more //incentives// to buy it when it is cheap; it becomes worthwhile. Before crack was invented, cocaine could only be sold in its pure form, which was insanly expensive and the high that was provided by the drug didnt last long, therefore it was not worth it for drugies to buy it. But with the invention of crack, the price of cocain went down because of the way crack is different from cocaine; it utilizes only a small portion of cocaine and instead other ingredients to make up the rest, and therefore people had more //incentives// to buy it because it wasnt as expensive, however, the high still didnt last long, but now, because of the lower price, it was stil worth it to buy the drug. This meant that the economy of the drug affected and changed history because it meant that more people would be buying and selling the drug and therefore more criminals on the street and more people using drugs. In the next chapter a story is told about a Romainian leader who made abortion illegal in order to run up the population of Romania. However, he was killed by the children themselves. At the same time as his murder, the crime rate in America went down dramatically, and no one, even speciaists, could figure out why this had happened. Some were able to give speculations or thoughts, but no oned seemed to be able to tell for sure... why?
 * Connector & Researcher**-Daniel

Conection: i connected the abortion laws of Romainia and the drop in crime after those laws were passed to the abortion laws in america and the drop in criminal activities after that occured.Also, i connected the fact that people will buy the crack because of the lower price even though it is not very affective to modern times were people will buy products such as TV's, computers, and such mainly because of the price instead of the quality of the product.

Research: i found these charts that explain both the drop in drug sales over the years and the crimainal activities that are shown to have dropped after the Romainian Assasination and the influx in drug trafficing after the invention of crack.

Tuesday 11 (A Day)-p. 140-160 Summary:Two politicians by the name of Guiliani and Bratton both came into political positions just as this time in the previous section when the crime rate began to fall. However, Bratton was forced to resign after alligations by Guiliani and other politicians. A few different reasons were given by the authors as to why the crime rate had fallen so dirastically. the reasons were //innovative policing stratagies, increased number of police, strick gun laws,// and //changes in the crack market.// The book asked the question if the more guns were better for crime rather than strickter gun laws. There are a few examples of this sich thing happeining, one of which could be if a gas station owner was being robbed, they might pull a gun on the attacking criminal in order to defend both themslves and their store. Even thought he had no intention of shooting the man, many people in the USA thought that this was unexeptable and therefore the gun laws needed to be raised, however, some people also thought that the more guns that were sold, the less violence there actually was going to be, becuase people would be able to defend themselves. The next chapter of the book was about risks vs. reward. A man by the name of Peter Sandman has created a theory; risk = hazard + outrage. As he says that children are more likely to fall into a swimming pool in theor back yard rather than be killed by a gun shot on the street. This poses the question //Are parents even needed//. The obvious answer to this could be yes. However, the book dives into the topic of whether or not the parent actually //influences// the childs life very much. A test given in Chicago showef that parents had very little affect over their childs test scores with family interatction, but the parents own education did affect the childs test scores. This section shows us that econominics can drive change in the drug wars because the economy first was so high that the drugs were cheap and the //incentives// to buy them were high, but then the economy made the drug dealers have to deal with the police and such a lot more and therefore the //incentives// to sell drugs went down and therefore the drug dealing it self went down.
 * Passage Master -**Daniel

Passage Master:
 * 1) Page 152: "Risk = Hazard + outrage". We should take a look at this and discuse whether or not we all think this is true and how it affect society and in what ways. Is Peter Sandman right when he says that his fast food mamager client should use "rage reduction" and that his eviromentalists should use "outrage increase" **Even if there is no real hazard people will want to stay away from things, such as people with guns and they might not stay away from things were they want to go to they maybe should stay away. Like the pool for instance that is more dangerous (more people die per year in a pool than a shooting) situation that the person with the guns... usually.**
 * 2) Page 145: "what is the value of a fetits" I think that we should definitly look over this and see whether or not a fetitis is worth this, or, possibly, a human life is worth this and whether or not this even had the slightest effect on the crime rate of that time period at all anyway.**Like the legalized abortion, it really doesnt help the world to legalize it because even if they count as 1/100 of a person they count for a very small amount of the criminal personel in the world.**
 * 3) Page 140: "Should there be an increase in Gun laws or a decrease" What do you think the affect of guns laws had. Do you think that the gun laws should be raised that way no one can own a gun or do you think that they should be lowered and then the more people who have guns the fewer crimes there are going to be because criminals wont be able to get away with it anymore because victims would be able to defend themselves.

Thursday 13 (C Day)-p. 180 Summary: In this section we read about schooling of students. We learned about the different affects of good schooling versus bad schooling and whether or not the good schools were really that much better than the bad schools. We saw that the students who came from weathlier families didnt have necesarily a better education and werent necesarily smarter. Yes, they might have gone to better schools, but we saw that black students who went to lower ranked schools actually worked harder though they didnt have the grades to prove it. The book goes to show us that the amount of books in the childs home affects their smartness not because that means they read more, but because that means that the parents of the student are probably more educated and now the importance of good education and they are also more likely to be wealthier because they have more books.
 * How does economics drive history/create change?**
 * Discussion Director:**-Daniel

Essential Question: Economy drives change in a few ways. We can see that black students are less likely to get into a better school than white students because f the fact that they have usually a lesser begining education, probably because they didnt have the money to buy themselves into a better school at the begining, just escilading from there. Also, we see that students who have a larger number of books in their home (therefore, their parents make more money and can afford better education) have a better education and test better on standardized tests. We see that black and white students who come from the same income housholds, have the same oportunities and education, but more black students and other minorities come from low-income, low-educated households, and therefore have a lower education and sometimes the parents were either very young when they had the child OR did not have a job at the time of the childs schooling, therefore limiting there school choices.Also, schools that are better funded produce higher educated students which then therefore have higher economic opportunities which then therefore change future economic success of those students, as seen in the graph below. However, what is seen is that white students who end up in those same lesser schools do poorly as well, not just blacks, however, typically, blacks are more likely to end up in those schools.

Discussion Director:
 * 1) how much do you think the economy plays into the students (black/white)
 * 2) how many black or other minority students do you know who have gone to college whom have had a very low probable exeptance? (does this reflect what the book is saying)
 * 3) does the amount of books a family owns really affect the child academically
 * 4) how does the school affect the student and how does the parent affect the student?

Outside Research (Not job): I researched the amount of black kids that get into better private colleges versus the number of white students who get into colleges of their choice.I also found this chart here that shows exactly what the book was talking about when it said the high-income verse low-income school children and black versus white students getting into a privalaged college.

Friday 14 (D Day)-p. 200 Summary: In this passage we learned about names. There were many names given by the book, from "whitest" male and female to "blackest", and from high-income housholds to low ones. The facts behind the naming of the child was very interesting, for instance many parents name the children "smart" because of the fact that many somehow think that will make their child seem/become smarter and appear more intriguing to potential bosses. After the high-income housholds start naming their children certain names, those names then start to be used by lower-income households, because their parents are trying to give them a head start, a head start that is truly non-existent. Parents have many different //incentives// to give their childs different names, from religious, ethnic, cultural, or community based names, to idols, hero's, or even just names of succesful people. However, interestingly enough, celebrity names were not all that common, along with Asian and Middle Eastern names.
 * How does economics drive history/create change?**
 * Connecter & Researcher-**Daniel

Essential Question: The economy effects change in the names of people, as suprising as that sounds. If the economy is high and in really good condition, parents might name their children names of people who are either very well educated or very rich people, because they think that might make their child do better in school. However when the economy goes down, names change from those educated and famous people to a more "smart" sounding names. Parents might name their child a name that sounds smart to impress bosses, teachers, or even themselves, giving themselves potential, but mostly false, hope that their child will somehow be majically smarter.Therefore, we can see that as the economy changes, the most common names changes too.

Research:I researched the most common names in the United Sates to discover if what we learned in the book about namesn was really true. I found these charts that explain names in the United States. I found one for both last names and first names.

Connecting: I connected the names given in the book to the names that we have here at Fredericksburg Academy. There are 16 of the 20 "whitest" girl names given by the book at Fredericksburg academy that i know, personally. of the twenty "blackest" girls names, i know the top 2 most common are at FA. From "whitest" boys, i know a suprising 7, and from the "blackest" guy names i know 0 that attend FA.

Tuesday 18 (F Day)-p. 220 Summary: In this section we read the epilogue and the begining of the bonus material. The epilogue is really just a refresure on the books overall meaning; the incentives in life. The epilogue is entitled //Two Paths to Harvard// and gives the examples that prove that common sense and conventional wisdom dont always work, such as the fact that a poor black boy, beaten and disciminated against as a child, became a economisist and attended Harvard, and a white boy who had a great childhood, provalaged and weathly, who also atteneded Harvard, is known for other things;Ted Kaczynski. In the bonus material, we learned about the critics of Staven Levitt, namely Daniel Hamermesh, who dont appreciate the work by Steven Levitt. He says that Levitt's work makes sense, however, he disputes the findings that the abortion helped drop the crime rate, and such. He says that he doesnt believe a word of the essays written by Steven Levitt.
 * How does economics drive history/create change?**
 * Passage Master-** Daniel

Essential Question: This answers the essential question in a few ways. First, we see that the economy creates change in peoples personalities, including the way they act. Such as the fact that somepeople can be changed by the economy in a good way, like the Black boy from Daytona Beach who was beaten and not privlaged, who went to become and economisist, while it makes some poeple worse, like Ted Kaczynksi, who became a criminal after he had money and privlages. Also, Steven Levitt himself creates change through economy. He can see the lies and all the little things under the surface. We can see how his discisions about economy, such as the paper on the abortion affects on crime fall, affect change in the world.

Passages:
 * 1) page 211, paragreaph 2&3. I think we need to take a look at this and discuse why this might have happened. Why would a boy who was taught so well go so wrong, and why did an abused boy become so successful.**There will always be people who have the will to overcome adversity, if people are determined, than they are able to overcome anything.**
 * 2) page 216: i think we need to look at this part about the homeless man. He says that he didnt give the homeless man any money while he was sitting in his car because he had noticed, somehow, that the homeless man had nicer head phones than his own.**because if they are asking for money than they need food and shelter, not head phones and such. If they are going to spend it all on bad stuff, why give them money.**
 * 3) Page 219: I think we should look at this part when it talks about people who are critizising him. Why are they doing this? He seems to know what he is talking about and these people, like Daniel Hamermesh, are criticising him and saying "i dont believe a word of it" when in reality, they dont know anymore on the topic than he does, maybe less.**there are always people who are going to disagree. he thinks that Levitt just found the data and thought that was what caused it, but in reality it really could have been any number of factors. Also, Levitt's ideas are so trivial, "unless your Japanese and weight 500 pounds."**

Wednesday 19 (D Day)-p. 240 Summary:This section was one of the last in the book, and therefore was hard to write a summary on. Steven Levitt describes how his life in college went. It began when he was at college and was considered by the other students and even his teachers as a zero, especially after he asked a fellow student what the formula on the board meant, his answer "your screwed". However, he eventually applied for a position in the Society of Fellows. Levitt had convinced himself that he was going to fail the dinner because he thought he was not going to be able talk with the other scolars about anything. He however passed with flying colors, and impressed the other order members greatly. The book then went into John F. Kennedy and the KKK. The book asked the question if Kennedy took more credit than he deserved. The book also talked about poles and elections, and how economists dont usually vote.
 * How does economics drive history/create change?**
 * Discussion Director**-Daniel

Essential Question:This is a hard section to answer this question. The only real thing that we can see is that the economy drove change in the life of Steven Levitt and the fact that a man who was not very smart in the field was able to become very successful in a field that was very math heavy. This was because the economy let him be able to run his life the way he wanted. Also, the economy drove change in the way that elections may have been different if some people had gone and voted. Elections are never 100% accurated because many people often do not vote, therefore elections would have turned out if more people wold have came and therefore history would be diffferent. If the economy is good, then people are more likely to come and vote. If the economy is low, people are less likely to come and vote. Also, incentives make people want to come and vote more, such as a reward like icecream and such.

Discusion:
 * 1) Why might the teachers and students of the college think of Steven Levitt as a failure who would not have any future at economics?
 * 2) Do you guys think that Levitt is this "Con-Man" as discribed by his peers, including the man who worked with him on the essay about the drug dealers gang.
 * 3) Why were the Members of the Society of Fellows so impressed with Steven Levitt's interview?
 * 4) What are some incentives to get people to come and vote?

Thursday 20 (A Day)-p. 260 (done!) Summary:In this final section, we learned about safety in cars. In in late February of 2001, Dale Earnhart Sr. was killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500 when he was hit in the rear end by Sterling Marlin, another driver, the car suddenly made a sharp right up the banking and slammed into the wall. One of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history was dead insantly (his son went on to finish second in the race). This was a wake up call to NASCAR which made the sanctioning body create many, many new safer functions. This included the required Hans Device (neck/shoulder restraint) and the new SAFER barrier, designed by the University of Chicago. The book talks about the relation between deaths in NASCAR sense Earnhardts death, 0, and those on the street, 185,000. The books penultamit segment talked about gift cards. The book shared that roughly only 25% of gift cards bought by any given person are ever used, therefore, gift cards are not nesseccarily the best gifts to get people, unless you knoe they are going to use it.
 * How does economics drive history/create change?**
 * Connecter&Researcher -**Daniel

Essential Question:The essential question can be seen in this section in a few ways. It can first be seen by the way that the economy affected motorsports, and again how motorsports affected the economy. After the death of many drivers around the motorsports community during 2000 and 2001, many innovations in safety technology were introduced into the racing world, all of which cost huge amounts of money. This meant that the economy was good enough to allow these safety inovations to be introduced, saving many lives. The fact that the economy is also helped by the motorsports world is also seen in this book, as those inovations created have been bought by many millions of race drivers around the world, helping the economy. Therefore, the economy sparked change in the motorsports community, and the motorsports community helped the economy prosper.

Connecting:I connected this to everyday life. The book asks the questions if it would be worth it to wear the 5 point (now 6 point) saftey harness eveywhere you drive, or put on a helmet and hans devide everywhere you go (which would also cost more because in order for the Hands device to work, it must be connected to a roll cage, wihich is about $5,000 dollars alone. Also, i connected this section to my own life, because i will one day become a race car driver myself, and these inventions of safety will become and interacut part of my life.

Researching: The SAFER barrier is used at ALL of NASCAR's tracks now! The barrier is made out of re-enforced concrete that is backed with foam bricks that absorb almost 75% more of the impact that the origional concrete barrier, saving lives! Also, The Hans Device is used by all drivers around the world, not only in NASCAR.