In chapter 3 of “FREAKONOMICS: Why Do Drug Dealers Live with Their Moms?” our author take a look into the reason why so many drug dealers still live at home with their moms. To provide a more in depth look into the gang lifestyle, our author recalls the experience of Sudhir Venkatesh with the black disciples. Venkatesh was born in India born, upstate New York native who held a degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in in sociology. His first assignment nearly lead to his death, as his graduate advisor sent him out into Chicago poorest black neighbor hoods. During his search for participants to help him complete a survey, he stumbled upon a Black Gangster Disciple Nation members who were in the midst of a turf war. Sudhir a random man had stumbled
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the gang’s leader, eventually opened up to Sudhir and promised him unrestricted access to the gang’s operations as long as J.T. retained veto power over any and all information released to the public. After practically moving into the housing projects, years of squatting from random house to random house trying to learn the lifestyle of these underprivileged black Americans, he had seemingly assimilated himself into the gang lifestyle. His biggest break though was when a member of the gang named Booty, who was being accused by the gang of bringing upon a federal indictment on the gang, gave him the gangs black book. This black book contained a complete record of four years’ worth of financial records, ranging from sales, wages, dues and death benefits paid out to the families of murdered members. For the first time, priceless financial data had fallen into an economist …show more content…
The answer is that most drug dealers make less than minimum wage, just about $3:30 an hour according to Venkatesh. They simply can’t afford to move out on their own unless they are at the top of the gang’s hierarchy. It’s not that the gangs don’t have the money to pay their members moreover it is that just like an American business, particularly McDonalds. The leader of the gangs make most of the earnings, will leaving the others to struggle by Just like a capitalist enterprise CEO. What we learned was that if “we were to hold a McDonald’s organizational chart and a black disciple chart side by side, you could hardly tell the difference.” (Pg. 87) In other words a gang essentially works like a standard capitalist enterprise, where you need to be at the top of the chain to make good money. For example, the top 120 men in the Black Disciples gang represented just 2.2 percent of gang membership but took home well over 50% of the earnings. Just like the top executives in McDonalds, the gang’s leaders made nearly as much as he paid his entire gang in wages every
the gang’s leader, eventually opened up to Sudhir and promised him unrestricted access to the gang’s operations as long as J.T. retained veto power over any and all information released to the public. After practically moving into the housing projects, years of squatting from random house to random house trying to learn the lifestyle of these underprivileged black Americans, he had seemingly assimilated himself into the gang lifestyle. His biggest break though was when a member of the gang named Booty, who was being accused by the gang of bringing upon a federal indictment on the gang, gave him the gangs black book. This black book contained a complete record of four years’ worth of financial records, ranging from sales, wages, dues and death benefits paid out to the families of murdered members. For the first time, priceless financial data had fallen into an economist …show more content…
The answer is that most drug dealers make less than minimum wage, just about $3:30 an hour according to Venkatesh. They simply can’t afford to move out on their own unless they are at the top of the gang’s hierarchy. It’s not that the gangs don’t have the money to pay their members moreover it is that just like an American business, particularly McDonalds. The leader of the gangs make most of the earnings, will leaving the others to struggle by Just like a capitalist enterprise CEO. What we learned was that if “we were to hold a McDonald’s organizational chart and a black disciple chart side by side, you could hardly tell the difference.” (Pg. 87) In other words a gang essentially works like a standard capitalist enterprise, where you need to be at the top of the chain to make good money. For example, the top 120 men in the Black Disciples gang represented just 2.2 percent of gang membership but took home well over 50% of the earnings. Just like the top executives in McDonalds, the gang’s leaders made nearly as much as he paid his entire gang in wages every