Freedomnomics

the long version

Are free market economies really based on fleecing the consumer? Is everyone from corporate CEOs to your local car salesman really looking to make a buck at your expense? Here, economist John R. Lott, Jr., answers these and other common economic questions, bravely confronting the profound distrust of the market that the bestselling book Freakonomics has helped to popularize. Using clear and hard-hitting examples, Lott shows how free markets liberate the best, most creative, and most generous aspects of our society--while efforts to constrain economic liberty, no matter how well-intentioned, invariably lead to increased poverty and injustice. Lott reveals: how the free market creates incentives for people to behave honestly; how political campaign restrictions keep incumbents in power; why legalized abortion leads to family breakdown, which creates more crime; why affirmative action in police departments leads to higher crime rates; and how secret ballots reduce voter participation.--From publisher description.