Freakonomics
Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms? Alexis Campbell
POLS 1
Summary
John Kenneth Galbraith came up with the term “conventional wisdom” which means “the enemy of the truth.” Conventional wisdom is not always true but tends to be simple. An example of conventional wisdom is advertising. Listerine convinced people that bad breath was a disease and that the only way to cure themselves from this disease was to use listerine. Another way that challenged conventional wisdom were the statistics that showed that the majority of crack dealers still lived with their mothers. During the “Crack Epidemic” in the 1980s, a sociology Ph.D. named Sudhir Venkatesh set out to study poverty in Chicago. …show more content…
He met a man named Steven Levitt who was intrigued by his work. Levitt was most interested by how much the gangs kept track of their doings. It was almost impossible to tell the difference between how the gang was ran and how the Mcdonald's Franchise was. J.T. was a manager and had a board. He paid his board 20% to be able to sell crack. He had different types of employees for different jobs and paid his board a monthly fee. J.T. had an annual salary of around 100,000 dollars. Most of his employees could not say the same though. His lowest employee's, foot soldiers, transported the crack to the users. Foot soldiers did not even make enough money to live on their own so they lived with their moms. Foot soldiers had a one in four chance of being killed. They took that job because they wanted to move up on the scale. They had trouble trying to get an education or a good-paying job. This was their only chance of “success.” Many people start out as foot soldiers and are willing to do that job so J.T. does not pay them much. Most foot soldiers quit after they came to the conclusion that they would never move up. J.T. always found new workers to replace …show more content…
By the 1980s, crack cocaine was huge due to the drug epidemic. The government started to tighten down on crack dealers and give them longer, harsher sentences. This only allowed them to make connections in jail so when other inmates got out, they were able to sell crack even more efficiently. The epidemic strengthened gangs because it became very profitable to become a gangster. Before, gangs would break apart because they could not afford to pay for their families, during the epidemic, gangsters made enough money to support their children and wives. This devastated neighborhoods and increased the gap between Blacks and Whites. Most criminologists predicted that the crime rate would increase but it actually decreased in the
Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms? Alexis Campbell
POLS 1
Summary
John Kenneth Galbraith came up with the term “conventional wisdom” which means “the enemy of the truth.” Conventional wisdom is not always true but tends to be simple. An example of conventional wisdom is advertising. Listerine convinced people that bad breath was a disease and that the only way to cure themselves from this disease was to use listerine. Another way that challenged conventional wisdom were the statistics that showed that the majority of crack dealers still lived with their mothers. During the “Crack Epidemic” in the 1980s, a sociology Ph.D. named Sudhir Venkatesh set out to study poverty in Chicago. …show more content…
He met a man named Steven Levitt who was intrigued by his work. Levitt was most interested by how much the gangs kept track of their doings. It was almost impossible to tell the difference between how the gang was ran and how the Mcdonald's Franchise was. J.T. was a manager and had a board. He paid his board 20% to be able to sell crack. He had different types of employees for different jobs and paid his board a monthly fee. J.T. had an annual salary of around 100,000 dollars. Most of his employees could not say the same though. His lowest employee's, foot soldiers, transported the crack to the users. Foot soldiers did not even make enough money to live on their own so they lived with their moms. Foot soldiers had a one in four chance of being killed. They took that job because they wanted to move up on the scale. They had trouble trying to get an education or a good-paying job. This was their only chance of “success.” Many people start out as foot soldiers and are willing to do that job so J.T. does not pay them much. Most foot soldiers quit after they came to the conclusion that they would never move up. J.T. always found new workers to replace …show more content…
By the 1980s, crack cocaine was huge due to the drug epidemic. The government started to tighten down on crack dealers and give them longer, harsher sentences. This only allowed them to make connections in jail so when other inmates got out, they were able to sell crack even more efficiently. The epidemic strengthened gangs because it became very profitable to become a gangster. Before, gangs would break apart because they could not afford to pay for their families, during the epidemic, gangsters made enough money to support their children and wives. This devastated neighborhoods and increased the gap between Blacks and Whites. Most criminologists predicted that the crime rate would increase but it actually decreased in the