ipl-logo

Summary Of The Third Chapter Of Freakonomics

867 Words4 Pages

In the third chapter of Freakonomics, the question that is asked is “Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?” The first phrase that is brought up in this chapter is “conventional wisdom,” and economist named John Kenneth Galbraith goes into detail and describes this phrase as a type of information, this type of information reinforces one person’s type of interest and well-being. Conventional wisdom is described at convenient and comforting, but it does not always have to be that. It takes a lot for people to even begin to doubt that conventional wisdom is not true. In the rest of the chapter Levitt tries to dispute the different points of conventional wisdom. Levitt compares conventional wisdom to drug dealing which is one of the highest …show more content…

This survey allowed Venkatesh to come to know some members of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation while he was becoming more involved with the gang Venkatesh became more intrigued with what the gang was doing. The leader of one section of the gang is J.T., he was a college graduate that held a business background, J.T. was then called the perfect candidate because of his background. In the next six years Venkatesh got to know the ins and outs of how the gangsters operate, he basically lived with them. After the gang began to trust Venkatesh more with their secrets, he was given clearance to access to notebooks that were full of information about the financial transactions the gang has …show more content…

Since all dealers do not make big money, it shows that with any capitalist enterprise, you have to be at the top to make money. On the other hand, with higher men like J.T. that controls other people's wages, he pays the foot soldiers a very low wage to show them who's boss. The foot soldiers risked their lives everyday, there was a 1-4 chance of the foot soldiers being killed. Even though the danger of selling the crack was all too real, the dealers still took the

Show More
Related
280 Words | 2 Pages

This is a summary taken from “Saying Yes” by Jacob Sullum; Chapter 8; “Body and Soul”. An ever-present theme in Sullum’s book is what he calls “voodoo pharmacology”—the idea, promoted in large part by the government, that certain drugs have the power to hijack people and enslave them in an inescapable prison of craving and compulsion. Sullum seeks to show that this idea is a myth, that only a tiny percentage of illegal-drug users become addicts, whereas the vast majority of people who use illegal drugs live normal, productive, loving lives. The book is filled with valuable insights derived from deconstructing government statistics about drugs and drug use. Sullum shows how even the most vilified drugs, such as heroin and crack cocaine, are

Read More
1319 Words | 6 Pages

A primary reason which provoked Dude to get involved in drug trading was the ludicrous amount of money he could make from such a young age. At age fourteen Dude was selling dope, making $1500 a week, this led to irresponsible and hedonistic spending. This hedonistic spending gave meaning to Dude’s life, pleasures such as food, females, and the mall, were all major focuses of his life. Dude recalls spending $400 a week on overpriced rent and $50 on food even when he wasn’t hungry (Bergmann 2008:109); this impulsive spending may suggest a shaping of an unstable and turbulent economic life and poor financial responsibility for Dude in future

Read More
694 Words | 3 Pages

When comparing the Dead Rabbits and the Native gangs to the different styles of leadership Jankowski created I would say the Native’s were ran like a charismatic/ influential group and the Dead Rabbits were more like vertical/hierarchy group. I believe the Natives were run like that because there were no formal positions but it seemed like The Butcher ran the group. I feel like his authority came from his being charismatic and showing everyone he was the leader by money and power. Also when The Butcher was killed in the end the whole group disappeared unlike the Dead Rabbits; everyone that was a member of the Dead Rabbits still felt connected to each other and they never died off, the people in the gang were just suppressed.

Read More
828 Words | 4 Pages

The research method that Dwight Conquergood used is that of ethnographic fieldwork, which is one of the early qualitative research methodologies, involving the combination of fieldwork and observation, which seeks to understand the cultural phenomena that reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group (Boundless.com). This type of research method, allowed the author to immerse himself in a long-term participation in the day to day life in Chicago’s Albany Park and the Latin Kings Nation that operated within Albany Park. He wanted to have the firsthand experience for himself, in so much that he chose to live in the so-called “Big Red” housing area, which as he described as the microcosm of the community. In

Read More
1236 Words | 5 Pages

He gives heavy claims and statistics throughout his article, using the rhetorical appeal logos. Hart claims that in the late 1980’s the “majority of crack users were white” and “most drug users buy their drugs from dealers within their own racial group.” While Hart certainly expresses these statements confidently, he does not support them with statistics or sources. It is difficult to believe that the majority of drug users in the crack epidemic of the late 1980’s were white when this issue was felt by numerous black individuals in the inner cities. Hart hopes to persuade his audience to believe him with these passionate, strong statements but fails to provide support for these claims.

Read More
1487 Words | 6 Pages

The book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner talks about many different things, including cheating teachers and sumo wrestlers, how abortion lowered crime rates, how a street crack gang works, and whether the way parents raise their children even matter. These topics seem to have nothing in common, but all of these topics were identified in the same way: an economist (Levitt) looked at school test scores, crime data, and all sorts of other information, looking at them in unconventional ways. Because of that, he has come to many interesting and unique conclusions that make complete sense. These findings were based on some simple ideas: the power of incentives, conventional wisdom is not always right, things may not have obvious causes, and experts often serve their own interests instead of the interests of others. Perhaps the most important idea in the book is, as Levitt and Dubner state, “Knowing what to measure and how to measure it makes a complicated world much less so” (14).

Read More
799 Words | 4 Pages

In the article “The Crime Bust” by Gordon Witkin, it is introduced that in 1994, after a 9 year soar in crime rates, they began falling (1). According to preliminary figures released by the FBI, all across the board, the amount of crime committals were declining at a drastic rate. (Witkin 1). To determine the source of this sudden decline, several factors were examined, such as the economy, dismissed as “Robbery and burglary fluctuate with economic conditions--but murders generally do not…” (Witkin, 1-2) Prevention and domestic abuse were also discredited since “Studies show that prevention programs don’t work, and others may or may not be effective…” and “...in 1996, there were only 447 fewer ‘domestics’ than in 1993, accounting for just 9 percent of the murder reduction.”

Read More
1236 Words | 5 Pages

Freakonomics Essay Freakonomics is a mind bending, engaging and controversial look into a never before talked about side of economics. From relating the Ku Klux Klan to real estate agents and to why drug dealers are living with their moms Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner turn conventional wisdom on its head. As a whole I enjoyed the book, but there were some things that annoyed me and that I didn’t like and/or confused me. Freakonomics makes you think differently about topics you thought you already knew the answer to. To most with little knowledge of writing techniques they would not have noticed/comprehended the authors uses of rhetoric and tone but luckily from these past few years of English classes I was able to pick up and see

Read More
690 Words | 3 Pages

According to Bourgois, he explained that he felt structural oppression was the main cause of what affected Primo and Caesar’s life choices and opportunities. Structural oppression is when people of a society identity group are mistreated and the treatment of these people are supported by society and its institution. Throughout the book, we see several cases in which Primo and Caesar and mistreated in various ways. In the beginning, Bourgois talks about the history of Puerto Ricans and how the immigration from Puerto Rico to New York City consequently affected the growth and development of their own culture in El Barrio.

Read More
217 Words | 1 Pages

2. Living in a poor society in Harlem causes the gang to rob and steal money from music stores and mini marts. For an example, in the music store, the gang put song records in a newspaper and left the store without paying. They needed the

Read More
1584 Words | 7 Pages

This was also the start if the hard and developed work ethic T.J. was talking about, and the gang was finally realizing it. Even with T.J, contributing most of the work, it made the group have the strong willingness to complete this dream of theirs. The continued to to work and have hard labor, and they were as excited as T.J. They all enjoyed going outside, and felt satifasticied with their work. The claimed that they “were all sniffing at the air , too, trying to smell it the way that T.J. did, and I can still remember the time in my life… knowing faint way the hunger within him through the toilsome winter

Read More
1198 Words | 5 Pages

”(Bergmann, 2008:108) Dude learned about selling drugs from his parents which means that it has been a constant characteristic of his life, all his life. Something so ingrained in his life would not be disposed of so quickly and lightly as the sentence he received from the court of attending some classes and undergoing some probation

Read More
387 Words | 2 Pages

Since the beginning of time there have always been clicks and groups that were made up of people who had the same goals in mind or same interests. However, nowadays gangs consist mostly of people who commit the same type of crimes together that involve drug charges or murders. Gangs noticeably started getting their “bad image” beginning with a man named Al Capone. The rebellion started with the prohibition era. Al Capone was the most powerful gangster in Chicago during this era.

Read More
788 Words | 4 Pages

The word hustle is and will always be embedded in the black community. As young black males the word little-man intertwine with hustle, Whitehead (1994) shows how young drug dealers fights to establish their right-of-passage to do whatever to become the “Big Man”. The problem with trying to be the “Big Man” this was leading to the increasing of homicide among young black men between the ages of 15-34 (whitehead, 1994). This was a historical pattern of limited education and a limited job rewarding system to the African American male in the 1980’s. African American males was seeking to live the life as the counter-part the white male that was awarded education and the jobs.

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

In the Freak Show, the main attraction is the imperfections of the people on display. The people come and see the Freak show because they love to see the freaks and make a mockery of them. Even the director of the Freak Show, when introducing Will, talks about Will as if he is God's mistake because he had no limbs. What makes it even worse is that the director of the Freak Show not only welcomes, but encourages people to make a mockery of the "freaks." In the Butterfly Circus, Mendez encourages his team to put on display their special abilities.

Read More

More about Summary Of The Third Chapter Of Freakonomics

Related Topics

Open Document