Dont have all too much to say about Freakonomics, I enjoyed it but wasn't as interested as I was while reading Sachs, Easterly et al. While it does encourage me to apply economic analysis to questions in my everyday life, I was already aware that economics can explain many interesting phenomena. If anything, it has once again emphasized my need to take econometrics and stats.

Anyways, there is one point in particular that I would like to evaluate. If parents' levels of education are indicators of our own intelligence, and our names can be indicators of our parents' levels of education, what are the moral implications of such studies on society? How aware is society, consciously or unconsciously, of such relations? Should they be the basis for overt, covert or no discrimination? Should I start putting R Florian Heilmayr on my resumes hoping that my middle name will elicit a positive response from employers? This is a single issue I have with the majority of levitt and dubner's analysis. It seems that they overemphasize the rationality and predictability of humanity. Although the majority of economics rests on such ideas, calling for everyone to apply economic analysis to everyday questions would seem to oversimplify the world around us. Furthermore, I fear that there could be some moral and sociological results which might not be the most appetizing to all of us PPEers. I don't advocate hiding information for utilitarian reasons, but wonder about some of the practical repercussions. Just some quick ideas which we could evaluate more carefully tomorrow.