Freakonomics: Critical Response Journal 5 | ENGL 104, Papers of Grammar and Composition

Download Freakonomics: Critical Response Journal 5 | ENGL 104 and more Papers Grammar and Composition in PDF only on Docsity! English 104 November 2008 Critical Response Journal # 5 “Why do drug dealers live at home with their moms?” (79) The third chapter in Freakonomics is a claim in itself as Dubner and Levitt state that all drug dealers live at home with their moms. It is true that a majority of known drug dealers live in the projects of various cities, whether that is with their moms or not poses the question. (83) That question is “why would they?” Dubner and Levitt believe the answer to that question lies in the information and statistics. The first fallacy that I saw was the comment saying, “The secret to finding the right information is finding the right person,” but “drug dealers are rarely trained in economics, and economists rarely hang out with drug dealers.” (83) The first part of this sentence is correct, obviously the right information lies in the hands of the right person. Though there is some generalizing going on in closing with the assumption that drug dealers are not educated and don’t hang out with those that are. This does not affect the claim’s warrants very much, though to a trained eye the fallacy stands out. The story continues describing how Suhdir ended up hanging around the drug gangs and collecting their information. Dubner and Levitt describe the drug world as somewhat of a business. “Perhaps none more so then McDonalds. In fact, is you were to hold a McDonald’s organizational chart and a Black Disciples organizational chart side by side, you could hardly tell the difference.” (89) As McDonalds does, the drug gang has managers or those in control. Those managers or those in control have many workers that are under their control, over 250 each to be exact. (90) Statistics say that the gang makes around $32,000 monthly, a majority of 2 which goes to those higher up in rank. The rest is distributed down the pyramid; unfortunately for the lower drug runners, they are only receiving about $3.20 and hour. (90) In the big picture there are “120 men on the Black Disciples’ pyramid that are paid very well,” and “20,000 plus low paid rank-in-files that are even willing to pay additional dues to have their chance at the top.” (92) That being said, “Unless you’re a top cat, you don’t make that much money.” (93) These are all significant bits of information that Dubner and Levitt use as warrants towards their overall claim. Then comes the fact that low ranked drug dealers “have about a one in four chance in being killed on the job.” (94) The question as to why these men would take these risks has already been answered, and that is to have a shot at the top. While restating this, Dubner and Levitt again use some hasty generalization when claiming “it is the same reason why a pretty Wisconsin girl moves to Hollywood, or a high-school quarterback wakes up at five a.m. every morning to lift weights.” (94) They are insinuating that in these two examples, the subject is doing what is necessary to also get to the top. One cannot assume such things in situations like these. It is obvious however, that a drug dealer low in rank must take a very big risk and sacrifice a lot to have their shot for riches. Until one gets lucky or is in fact good enough at working the system to make it to the top, they live in poverty. This poverty is felt by a great majority of the drug gang thus one can infer why a majority of drug dealers live in the projects. They are unfortunately unable to afford to live elsewhere. This warrant is the most important because it backs up Levitt and Dubner’s claim in saying that drug dealers live at home with their moms. If a majority of the drug dealers are only getting paid $3.30 hour, they are unlikely to be able to afford a place of their own or much less a place to live outside of the projects. Thus, they live at home with their moms.