With all the good pop economics book coming out, I really beginning to choosing to study political science rather than the Dismal Science.
More Sex is Safer Sex treads the same path as Freakonomics, The Wisdom of Crowds, and The Undercover Economist, all of which do a better or more entertaining job of tying economic principles into everyday life. Steven E. Landsburg revels in coming up with unorthodox solutions to problems—truly charitable people should only give to ONE charity, racial profiling ISN’T a terrible thing, and the titular solution of encouraging certain people to have more sex to prevent spreading STIs.
All of these are thought-provoking, though I think Landsburg drops the ball in his explanation his solutions. I can see that there’s solid math behind his arguments, but after reading through them, many, especially the section on charity, still weren’t completely clear to me. Perhaps this is a personal failing, but I haven’t had this problem with the other pop economics books I mentioned. One section that was quite clear to me was his tirade against xenophobia, calling it the new racism.
Also, Landsburg’s most common way of remedying problems is either having the government tax or subsidize good behaviors, but in the last section, titled “Things that make me squirm,” he references a chart that shows that economic openness leads to a stronger economy. Thus, subsidies that encourage the behavior he wants would hurt the economy as a whole. This puts a kink in many of his solutions that he doesn’t iron out.