FAIR PLAY

Rating:
Summary: an unbalanced seesaw
Review: An interesting, thought-provoking book. In that he is trying to make the process of formation of economic thought easily accesible by all, it is a success. However, he too often oversimplifies, using circutous metaphors and radical leaps in logic to support his point. His extreme is as unworkable as any other. The world is inherently unfair. To attempt to change gov. on such a premise is like trying to balance two boxes perfectly evenly on a tilted seesaw. Like these boxes, Landsburg's argument has a tendency to fall.

Rating:
Summary: Economic enlightenment for the layperson, with flaws
Review: I agree that "Fair Play" is an entertaining read, and generally somewhat worthwhile; although you'd do better to read Robert Kiyosaki's financial books. "Fair Play" approaches a subject we Americans are grossly under-educated in from a plain-english, down-to-earth perspective. Nearly everyone can stand to be enlightened by this book. The author does have his faults, however; and they usually stem from his desire to force-feed economic theory, at the expense of all other logic, into every area of sociology. At one point, he tries to adjudge the number of forests to be saved by their price of admission!?? At another point, he starts off with a discussion of our responsibility to future generations, and somehow arrives at the idea that even un-conceived humans should have legal rights. Chapter 13, in which he takes a stab at explaining away environmental issues using pure economic theory, contains so many single-minded leaps of logic that it actually discredits the author, and the book. Thank goodness economists are not the caretakers of our environment, or the earth would be paved over, and unlivable!

Chapter 9 on the "perfect tax," which disgusted a previous reviewer, I found to be a sarcastic exercise in futility. I found it somewhat amusing and illustrative. I don't think Landsburg was being serious, because a truly serious discussion of the "perfect tax" would have to include the concept of consumption taxes.

On the positive side, of which there is plenty, here is a quick example of the kind of economic enlightenment this book can provide: "$1,000 invested seventy years ago would be worth about $13,000 today if invested in bonds, or about $850,000 if invested in stocks." And paraphrasing: bondholding is 25 times more conservative than any other type of risk-related behavior... this "is a paradox that economists call the equity premium puzzle." Again, on balance, an admirable, though flawed, attempt at delivering economic knowledge to the layperson.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: I probably would have liked this book better had the author not adopted such a smug attitude of moral and intellectual superiority. I also feel sorry for his daughter if he truly interacts with her as he claims.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: I probably would have liked this book better had the author not adopted such a smug attitude of moral and intellectual superiority. I also feel sorry for his daughter if he truly interacts with her as he claims.

Rating:
Summary: No-nonsense Economics
Review: Most important lesson: always be skeptical and critical of everything you read, hear, or see. Always apply logic and common sense to draw your own conclusions. AC.CHB

Rating:
Summary: A different perspective on Economics
Review: Much of this book will make you say "Hmmmm... I never thought about it like that. He does have a point."

Chapter 17: "The Arithmetic of Conservation" was particularly enlightening.

Although some of Landsburg's analysis is great, I only give him 3 stars because much of the book contains a contradiction - Landsburg claims that there is no right and wrong - no good or bad, but at the same time, he is advocating a system! For an economist of this caliber, I was disgusted with Chapter 9: "The Perfect Tax".

Rating:
Summary: A different perspective on Economics
Review: Much of this book will make you say "Hmmmm... I never thought about it like that. He does have a point."

Chapter 17: "The Arithmetic of Conservation" was particularly enlightening.

Although some of Landsburg's analysis is great, I only give him 3 stars because much of the book contains a contradiction - Landsburg claims that there is no right and wrong - no good or bad, but at the same time, he is advocating a system! For an economist of this caliber, I was disgusted with Chapter 9: "The Perfect Tax".

Rating:
Summary: best book ever written on economics and everyday life
Review: Numerous books have been written on applying economics to everyday life, but Steve Landsburg's latest book employs a paradigm that puts it head and shoulders above the rest. His interactions with his daughter Cayley put a fascinating spin on things as her experiences and actions are filtered through the eyes of an economist. Landsburg points out again and again how we hold adults to a different, and lower, standard than we hold children, how we tell things to other adults that we would never say to a child and that adults accept excuses and reasoning from other adults that we would never accept from children.

Landsburg sometimes departs from the father-daughter paradigm to discuss issues that don't always fit in the with the rest of the book, but are fascinating none-the-less. Landsburg has a talent for making you think about an issue in novel ways. His analysis of minimum wage laws is clever and principled and nothing like you've ever heard before. Landsburg sheds the same critical light on everything from affirmative action to the rights of the unconceived.

But this is more than a book about economics. It's about what principles we want to use to guide our lives. It's about families. It's about a lot of other things too, but it's especially about fun. If you don't laugh out loud several times while reading this book, you need to have your head examined. Only the most determined curmudgeon could read this without cracking a smile at least once.

Rating:
Summary: A "must read" for people who like to use their brains.
Review: Steven Landsburg is extraordinarily gifted both as an economist and as a writer. He proves what many economists lazily deny: that economics can be made accessible to those untutored in the subject. Not only will non-economists learn oodles from this spirited book, so too will economists. The only nit I have to pick is Landsburg's analysis of minimum-wage legislation. I find his analysis of such legislation unpersuasive (though clever). The rest of the book is a genuine intellectual delight.