This chapter answers a surprising question;“Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?” Once
you have read and carefully studied this chapter you should be able to complete the following tasks
which,taken together,answer this and related questions.
Each student should place their answers to these fundamental questions on Graham's Blog and respond to 5 responses by at least 2 other students. Reminder: responses to fellow students should be thoughtful not inane!
1. What is “conventional wisdom?” What are some ways that “conventional wisdom” comes into being?
2. Explain why challenging the “conventional wisdom” with regard to a sticky social issue may
be difficult to do.
3. Considering this chapter’s analysis of the transformation of Listerine from an antiseptic to
a cure for halitosis,what can one conclude about the effect of advertising on market demand
for a good or service?
4. Explain how the incentives of police departments and the public media gave rise to explanations
of the rising crime rate in the 1980s that were totally wrong.
5. Describe,in general terms,the organizational structure of the Black Disciples street gang.How is it
similar to the organizational structure of most business?
6. Explain how four years of financial records of the Black Disciples street gang found their way into
the hands of a University of Chicago graduate student.
7. How did J.T.,a branch leader of a Black Disciples street gang,acquire and maintain a regional
monopoly over crack cocaine within the territorial domain of the gang?
8. What are monthly costs incurred by J.T.’s unit of the Black Disciples? Which costs would be
considered fixed costs? Which would be considered variable costs?
9. Explain how a “tournament” or “winner take all” labor market works.Why would a street-level
drug dealer be willing to accept low pay and poor working conditions?
10.Give your own examples of a “tournament” type of labor market.
11.How do the incentives of the street-level drug salesman differ from those of the gang leader/
franchise owner? Are they both attempting to maximize the profits of the gang? Why or why not?
12.How did the invention of crack cocaine transform the urban street gang?
13.According to the data cited in this chapter,civil rights laws and a shift in the attitudes in the United
States regarding race helped to improve the status of black society.How did crack cocaine alter
that progress?
14.Based on the examples in this chapter,what does the invention of better and cheaper production
methods do to the price and sales of a good or service?
1. Conventional wisdom is anything that is virtually seen as convenient, comfortable, and comforting when it does nothing or sometimes has the opposite effect. Some examples are how advertisements show that a product could help a problem that many have when in reality it creates the problem in itself, or worsens it (Listerine was listed as an example to this in the book.)
ReplyDelete2. Challenging conventional wisdom is difficult since it takes a short amount of time for people to get introduced to it socially. It would be like going against the flow, only socially.
3. Advertising increases demand while supply stays the same, making the product being sold more expensive.
4. Giving inaccurate information about things that make people uncomfortable or unsure about themselves is a plus for corporations like public media because then people will be more likely to listen to them if it means that they are keeping people safe. An example in the book was of a statistic that was released by an ‘expert’ int eh 1980’s about the percentage of homeless people in the USA. The percentage given was reported as much higher than in reality, but it still made people cautious of their surroundings.
5. The BD street gang is structured like most any other organization. At the top is the ‘board of directors’, those who call the shots. The board of directors gets the most money, simply for being in charge of how the whole body works. A notch below are the ‘gang leaders’, who are like the managers of local branches in a company. Those are the ones who have a closer communicative connection with main workers, called ‘gang members’. They are also the ones who distribute money, since they interact with members directly. The structure here is a lot like one of say, McDonalds. Where the CEO of a company assigns managers throughout the nation to hire employees.
6. A gang member was in trouble with the law and wanted to leave the neighborhood. He gave the notebooks to Venkatesh for safekeeping.
1. I like where you are going with your answer about "conventional wisdom", but I do not understand what you mean when you say that the products in advertisements make the matter worse. I understand that they are lying and exaggerating, but what are some examples of opposite effects?
Delete2. I agree with your response, but I also think that it would be difficult to go against conventional wisdom because it is facts from the "expert" so you would seem like a fool to question the "expert" knowledge.
5. In your answer you compared it to McDonalds but did not mention the foot soldiers, which is a major component to the comparison with McDonalds.
11. You say that gang members are trying to maximize gang profits to get a higher status, but I think that they are looking to maximize their own profits in order to give themselves more power as away to climb to a higher status as a dealer.
12. Your answer is good, but I do not understand how the crime before the introduction of drugs is related to the gangs.
1. I really dont know what you mean when you say "the products in advertising make matters worse" If you provided an example i may be able to understand, but right now it is confusing.
Delete2. I totally agree with your response, it is straight and to the point.
6. For number six that is a short version of what really happened, maybe next time you can go into a little bit more depth.
7. He also gained their trust so they would not suspect him of doing anything devious like giving himself a bigger share of the money.
10. I get your answers of sports, acting, and corporate type fields, but i dont get entertainment. In entertainment people do what they want. For instance you usually dont see a chello player playing the drums.
1. I really like your first part about how conventional wisdom as a lot to do with convenience, but I'm not sure what you're saying when you talk about it having an "opposite effect". I feel like conventional wisdom is just giving people an excuse to skew the facts or make people feel bad so that they will give into would they are persuading them to do/buy.
Delete4. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what you saying connecting feeling uncomfortable to the example of homeless people in America. Maybe if you were to try rewording the statements or elaborating more, it may be easier to understand.
5. I think that you gave a really good description of how the gang runs like a cooperative organization, you used correct terms and evidence from the text. The only suggestion I would have is that maybe you could have gone into a little information and comparison to the ground level gang members and runners.
8. You've made me realize something about number eight: I think I misunderstood the question. When discussed the fixed and variable costs, I switched the examples.
2. I do agree with what you're saying about going against the flow; it also has a lot to do with conventional wisdom is used a lot in major issues like rape, or world hunger. If someone says that every 6 in 10 children dies of thirst or unclean water, no one really wants to be the person that says, "No, it's really 2 in 10." (These aren't real stats, just a general example)
2. I agree with your response and it is straight and to the point.
Delete3. I can really see that you understand how supply and demand works.
4. You conveyed well how the lack of truthful information can change the way people act or feel.
5. I think that you gave a really good description of how the gang runs like a cooperative organization, you used correct terms and evidence from the text.
9. Lots of description, very well portrayed.
7. Since he was in charge of distributing and collecting money, he knew exactly how much to give all the gang members he was in charge of. Because of that, he gave a lot more money to himself than anyone else to establish and keep the idea of him being the leader of the group.
ReplyDelete8. J.T got about $8,500 dollars a month, more than half of the gang’s monthly salary—about 14,000. The fixed costs was anything left after taxes and monthly dues were payed. The variable costs would then be the taxes and dues they payed to the board of directors.
9. In a ‘tournament’ type market, one works from the bottom up. Start out working long and hard hours to earn better rankings in a system. It takes a lot of work, since there is usually a lot of competition in this type of market, forcing you to prove yourself as better and more qualified than the rest. However, for the 99% that don’t get to prove themselves or are simply ignored, the next step would be to quit the ‘tournament’. So, a street-level drug dealer would be able to accept low pay and terrible working conditions in hopes of someday becoming someone of high status in the drug dealing community.
10.Some examples of ‘tournament’ labor markets are people in acting, sport, general entertainment, or corporate type fields.
11.Street-level drug salesmen usually are motivated by the idea of getting promoted in the drug business, so they ultimately try to maximize gang profits. Higher ranked officials, however, are more interested in making money since they are already in a position of high status.
12. Initially, urban areas were filled with so much crime that it was almost something normal to see someone robbing a store, for example. It was almost not worth committing a crime since the consequences were so little due to the high percentage of criminals in one area. However, when drugs were introduced, people now saw the benefits of dealing with it due to the high demand in urban (crowded) areas. This lead to excessive crimes and eventually gangs.
13.After the civil war, black people started to integrate a lot more into American society. There was less and less of a gap between white and black job incomes, schools were interracial, black children tested as well as white children, and so on. When crack cocaine was introduced into black society, however, things started to worsen. Black infant mortality rates started to rise, black and white children school performance gaps widened, and a lot more black people were sent to prison for numerous crimes.
14.If a product is cheaper but does just as well as a more expensive version of the product, then it is going to get bought more. That means more money for the organization selling this product
1. Conventional wisdom is the accepting belief, opinion, and judgments. For example conventional wisdom in Hollywood says that a movie can’t succeed unless it stars a famous actor or actress. Conventional wisdom can come when people want attention so the make big deal out of small thing.
ReplyDelete2. Challenging the conventional wisdom can be difficult because you are associating the truth with convenience. Basically, you are telling false information hoping that they will never figure out the right information.
3. The advertisement showed the customer that other are using this product and you should too. Then the customer would have to demand for the products, which will raise the price of the product.
4. Their incentive was to grape the public’s attention and act fast to the problem that is rising. They exaggerated their information by giving the wrong information that will leave them speechless.
5. As state in the book the organization structure of the Black Disciples work very similar to the McDonald’s structure. The leader of the Gang, J.T. was like the gangs manger because he educated and knows what he is doing. The Black Disciples paid the board of director nearly 20% of their revenues for the right to sell drugs.
6. The second gang leader under J.T. wanted the next generation to have better live than he did. So he secretly gives his notebooks with the information about financial records of the Black Disciple to Venkatesh.
7. J.T. sign short-term contract with the Mercenary to help the gang fight turf wars. He also paid for the funeral and wage for the victim’s family when gang member dies. He also shared the money with his member and pays the board of director for the right to sell drugs.
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Delete5) also they are the same in structure because the gang had employees so does McDonald's and they also have to pay their workers and buy equipment every week or month
Delete6) also he was kind off feeling guilty so he gave the graduate the financial records to benefit the next generation like you said.
7) also it says he was feeling guilty
14) also the incentive of better and cheaper production makes the price less making the buys want to buy more because they know it is better and is a cheap price than the better one for a higher price.
12) To add to yours they also saw that selling the crack would benefit them and help their way of life like the gangs.
1. i like that you include its usually people wanting to make a big deal out of a small thing. But why would they want to do that?
Delete2)Challenging it can be hard because if it is too widely accepted there are lots that argue for it and you get singled out.
3)An example is Listerine. There did not used to be a market for bad breath until an add was made for Listerine.
4)What does it mean to grape attention? That confused me. The information does not have to leave them speechless just surprise them enough they know there is a problem.
5)There was also money paid for protection through new weapons for the gang.
8. The monthly cost that goes to J.T. is $8,500. The fixed costs would be the money that he needed to pay the board of director. The variable costs are the money left over after paying the board of director.
ReplyDelete9. If you’re the leader of your gang you must get pay more because if you do not than you will be seen as weak loser and if as leader you don’t pay the foot soldiers less money than they you are going to lose your job to them. The street-level drug dealer are willing to accept low pay and poor working conditions because they want to succeed in an extremely competitive field in which, if you reach the top, your paid a fortune. They are motivated by knowing they leaders first started with their job and then make it to the top.
10.The best example I can think of is that Athletic. Athletics face the same danger as foot soldiers but in the different form. Someone who wanted to become a professional athletic is wasting his time practice while we could be in class room learning. The odd of become a professional athlete 1 out of 1000 in most sports.
11. The street level incentives is to someday be named the leader of the gangs and the leader want to make more money for themselves while still a leader. They are both trying to maximize their profits because they want live a good life.
12. The invention of crack cocaine made urban street gangs to want living out of sell crack cocaine because the saw the outcome of the leaders of the gangs.
13. Most African American teenagers are going to jail instead of school when the crack cocaine started. Unemployment increased in the black society and single parented women were increasing.
14. The invention of better and cheaper production methods make the price lesser and in return make more selling of crack.
1. I never would have thought of conventional wisdom in that way, but it really does make sense.
Delete4. I'm not sure that they were acting to a rising problem so much as they were the rising problem.
10. I'm not sure about athletes and foot soldiers really facing a similar problem, because the foot soldiers were seriously endangering themselves while athletes are really put themselves into the line of danger as much as the foot soldiers would be.
12. I'm not sure they saw the outcome of the leaders so much as they saw that they could make more money off of crack in general because of the cheaper production methods.
14. I don't think the cheaper production methods necessarily made crack sold more, but i think the cheaper production methods are what made crack so valuable to the street gangs and that's why it sold "more."
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ReplyDelete1) conventional wisdom is ideas or explanations that are generally accepted as true by the public or by experts in a field. Example is the idea that if you work hard you will be successful, other one is the Listerine example in the book.
ReplyDelete2)challenging the conventional wisdom would be difficult because the wrong thing is out already and changing that for other people to believe will be hard.
3)The advertising of the product will make the demand increase and the supply be the same causing the product to become expensive.
4) In the 1996 Olympics run the police didn't report the crimes thinking it will go down but it still went up and the same with the crack sellers they still lived where they were selling it after the media said it was powering the industry.
5)the BD gang structure is the same as most business because they both have bosses who run the whole business, they both have board of directors they have to pay and employees also they both have treasures. their structure is like that of McDonalds and other companies.
6)the four years of financial records of BD gang got into the hands of a Chicago graduate student when he was studying the BD gang and met booty one of the former gang member who was beneath J.T, he was blamed by the other member for doing something. he was felling guilty so he wanted to leave something for the next generation so he gave the record book to the graduate student.
7)J.T.,a branch leader of a Black Disciples street gang,acquire and maintain a regional monopoly over crack cocaine within the territorial domain of the gang because he was once a business major and a graduate so he knew what he was doing and because he was the boss he gave himself more money to make sure he and the other members know he was the boss.
8)the monthly cost is J.T money 8,500. the fix costs would be the board of directors, the taxes and the variables would be anything after the taxes and directors are paid, like the weapon, employee maybe.
ReplyDelete9)“tournament” or “winner take all” labor market is when you work from the bottom to the top, you try very hard to get known, you work extra hours and all to become a second boss. Sometimes the competition get so hard they quite that is how street dealers work they try all their best to become a top seller so they will take any low price they get and any condition they get knowing someday they will be like their boss.
10) Example of tournament type labor market is playing football. you will practice hours after hours everyday after school, go through all the pain thinking one day you will become a famous football player.
11) the incentive for the street people is to become a leader someday
while the leaders want to get more money, they are both maximize the profits of the gang because they both want a better life for themselves.
12) Urban people were not really into money and the crack things until the creak dealer started coming there and making money, that was when they became interested and started making more money.
13)the invention of crack was cheap and so it was easily sold in poor urban neighborhoods and when you start taking crack you get so addicted to it that you will get more after your last.
14) it makes the price lower and the demand high, so the sellers will get more money because people will start to buy better crack for cheap price.
4. First I don't think that the police didn't report the crime to try and reduce the amount of crime total but they did it so that Atlanta would look more attractive as a location for the olympics and second I'm not sure as to what industry you're talking about but it would make sense for them to stay where they were because once a crack dealer more or less always a crack dealer.
Delete5. I feel like you hit the corporate structure really well, I'm still confused as to who connects with who in some places.
6. I feel like Booty handed over the notebook so that it would either keep his jail time lower, or even prevent other members from being persecuted for their involvement.
8. I see where you are going with employee costs being variable, but I feel like he was spending around the same for all of his employees just because the total price might have changed for all of them combined but they were all getting whatever and hour to sell crack.
9. I don't think they are really going for the" second boss" I think what they are really going for is to become top dog, because yes a vice president or vice chairmen still gets a pretty big bonus ti still doesn't compare to that of a CEO or President, just because those positions are the top.
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Delete2. I agree that it is hard to change what has already happened.
Delete3. That is a good explanation of what advertising does.
4. The Olympics did play a big role in that.
12. I agree with your answer, but how did it change the street gang?
14. That is a good understanding of how the low price affects it.
1. Conventional wisdom are things that are commonly accepted by the general public/experts. Things like if you work out you will get in shape.
ReplyDelete2. Challenging conventional wisdom may be difficult because it is like going against the norm or the majority opinion.
3. The advertisement was appealing to consumers, therefor more people want it and the demand for the item goes up while the supply stays the same, creating an influx of price.
4. The police have the incentive of grasping the publics attention about the awful crime rate when in reality they gave inaccurate information to try to raise awareness but it backfired.
5..The Black Disciples street gang is structured like most common business organizations. The very top have the leaders, the ones who get paid. Below them are the gang leaders who are like managers, and then they have the regular employees who do the dirty work. It's an economic status pyramid.
6. Four years of the BD's financial records got into the hands of a Chicago Graduate student was that he was studying the BD and one of the members, named Booty, wanted to leave some information behind for the next generation and decided to give the books to the student.
7. J.T. was in charge of distributing money to the gang members and without fail they wouldn't questions how much money they received because they trusted him, so he gave himself much more money than the other gang members.
8. J.T made around $8,500 dollars a month, that is over half of the gang’s monthly salary. Fixed costs are anything that is left after taxes and monthly payements were payed. The variable costs are the taxes and dues that are payed to the board of directors.
2.) yes and it would be hard to go against the majority because they wont change their decision. Also they wont just believe on person it might take a lot more then that.
Delete4.) the police didn't put in the records for the crime rate because they wanted to a good reputation for the olympics.
5.) also the dirty workers are the runners
6.) also he was felling guilty so he wanted to leave something for the next generation so he gave the record book to the graduate student.
7.) he did this because he basically he was the boss and he abused his power by doing this.
1) good definition and example, another one that is that if you go to school you will be successful
Delete7) also he gave himself more money because he wanted to make sure that he made it clear for him and this workers that he is the boss and needs to be trusted different when it comes to certain things like money.
5) also they both pay taxes and board of directors
10) i agree and also there is a saying maybe that you work for want you want not just by sitting there and the thing coming to you.
14) also it being cheap and better makes the buyers thing twice about the better and higher price one causing their product to decrease while the better and cheap increase.
2. That is correct. It can also go against what everyone believes in.
Delete4. The police didn't even put up any crime reports. If they did then it would've gave atlanta a bad reputation and they couldn't have that since the olympics were coming up very soon.
7. He gave himself more money because he wanted everyone to know that he is the leader and he has the resources to back that up.
11. I think you needed to tell how the leaders incentive would increase the profit more. You just stayed their motivation more then there actual incentive.
13. It also was big in some white communities as well. Plus you need to state how it changed the progress of the black community.
2.yes and it would be hard to go against the majority because they wont change their decision. Also they wont just believe one person it might take a lot more then that, and therefore after beating the majority, your decision has became the conventional wisom
Delete4.) The police didn't put in the correct records for the crime rate because they wanted to a good reputation for the Olympics to still be eligible to compete there.
5.) The dirty workers that get paid the least amount are the runners and the people who
6.) The man was felling guilty so he wanted to leave something for the next generation so he gave the record book to the graduate student to overthrow the gang.
7. He gave himself more money because he wanted everyone to know that he is the leader and he has the resources to back that up.
2.yes and it would be hard to go against the majority because they wont change their decision. Also they wont just believe one person it might take a lot more then that, and therefore after beating the majority, your decision has became the conventional wisom
Delete4.) The police didn't put in the correct records for the crime rate because they wanted to a good reputation for the Olympics to still be eligible to compete there.
5.) The dirty workers that get paid the least amount are the runners and the people who
6.) The man was felling guilty so he wanted to leave something for the next generation so he gave the record book to the graduate student to overthrow the gang.
7. He gave himself more money because he wanted everyone to know that he is the leader and he has the resources to back that up.
9. A tournament system of business is when you have to work your way up from the bottom, working very hard and long amounts of times in hopes of becoming higher ranked. Most people don't make it out of the low ranks but they are fueled by the idea of reaching higher status therefor this type of system works.
ReplyDelete10. Sports are the best example of tournament type system. If you are determined and work hard in your sport it will pay off, you don't get better by doing nothing.
11. The incentive of the street workers is to become a leader/run the gang someday, they aren't really concerned about profit. The gang leaders just want to make a huge profit and gain a lot of money.
12. The invention of crack made the urban street gang become more of a business than an crime committing group. Robbing places was becoming old because so many people were doing it and the punishment was so low it didn't really seem worth it.
13. Crack cocaine was introduced into black society and it spread like wildfire. Black infant mortality rates rose, black and white children grade gaps widened, and way more black people were sent to prison.
14. Better and cheaper production methods resulted in being able to sell things at a lower price while keeping the demand high.
9. I really like your explanation of the "winner take all" system; it's informative yet quick and to the point. I also agree with what you've stated, because people get so motivated by the idea of reaching the top, until they realize they won't ever make it, in some cases.
Delete10. The sports example is great because it is so true, and it has always and will always be that way. Same goes a business, you work your way from a cubical to an office.
11. I, personally, think that since their incentive is to become a member of the "board of directors", they should really be concerned with the profit. But at the moment just being a ground level gang member, they're just more worried about not getting killed.
12. Yes, crack made being in a gang more interesting. You were not only "cool" for being in a gang, but you now made money off of it.
14. Something that also helped with the distribution of crack cocaine is that there was a direct connection to the country in which it was being produced in, the connection being in the U.S.
1. I agree with you definition, but i don't understand your example.
Delete2. You are exactly right about going against the norm.
3. I think that you are right about a more appealing product being more successful.
5. I think that was a good breakdown of the operation, but who are the leaders at the top?
14. You are correct in saying that selling low with a large untidy will result in a larger profit.
9)I like that you added the part that most people do not make it out of the lower ranks especially when the higher ones are set.
Delete10)Sports is a good example. I never thought of it. The main difference is the work and skill put into a sport before you can even join the tournament style market making competition for a job more than for a burger flipper.
11)The Drug dealers do want to maximize profit or at least their profit. When there is higher profit they get noticed more, payed more, and have a better possibility of rising through the ranks.
12)I didn't think of the punishment side. Getting away with something much more serious does seem like it would feel more rewarding thanks for pointing that out.
14)It was also easy to produce crack and really cheap to produce too.
1. Conventional wisdom is a word to describe ideas that are usually accepted as true by the public or by experts, but has not been examined to be true. An example of it was back before people was travelling the globe and it was believed that the world was flat.
ReplyDelete2. Challenging the conventional wisdom on a sensitive social issue can be difficult to do because saying that it is wrong and saying the truth will hurt many people. This is done for ‘statistics’ advocates use saying “1 in 3 women will be a victim of sexual assault in their life” when it is actually 1 in 8. The conventional wisdom as almost every woman will face it, and someone challenging this shocking statistic will make people react negatively towards them for even hinting at trying to downplay sexual assault.
3. Advertising can have a dramatic effect on market demand because it can practically create new things (like bad breath) and create the demand that people need this new product for this new condition.
4. The police departments have the incentive to try to make the place seem friendly to win the bid for the next Olympics site.
5. The Black Disciples street gang was structured much like most businesses like McDonald’s. The structure is like a pyramid, with just a few people at the top as the leaders who had the most power and control. It then went down to more and more people in each level of power, until it came to the very bottom with the innumerable foot soldiers.
6. The grad student, Sudhir Venkatesh, had been studying and practically living with the street gang for several years to learn about them. He was given their financial records by a one of the officers to leave it in hands of someone who might have use for it as he was about to get arrested.
7. J.T. controlled how much money was used for what, including making sure he gave himself a generous pay each month and giving foot soldiers three dollars a day.
8. The monthly costs came down to the cost of drugs, board of directors fee, mercenary fighter, weapons, and miscellaneous.
ReplyDeleteThe board of directors fee, weapons, and mercenary fighters were probably fixed costs, while drugs and miscellaneous would be variable costs.
9. The tournament labor market works in that a lot of people are all competing for the same thing, which is to have a top spot in that market to be able to earn a lot of money and be well known. The market is so big, there’s a large amount of people on the lowest level, trying everything they can to rise in ranks, and this can also mean having to deal with poor pay. A street-level drug dealer will be willing to accept low pay and the poor working conditions for that chance that they can rise and become a leader earning more money than they had ever imagined.
10.Examples to tournament type of labor markets includes actors for movies, sports, and artists.
11. The street-level drug salesman is different from the gang leader because they want to try to do anything to be noticed and take the leader’s place, while the leader’s incentive is to maintain an organized business profitable to benefit him. Street-level dealers aren’t attempting to maximize profits because no matter what they won’t get enough unless they become officers, so they have to do things like start a war (which causes money and risk for the leader) to be popular.
12.The invention of crack cocaine turned the urban street gang from self-interest clubs of various characteristics to dangerous groups of people running a very dangerous business and actually earning money.
13.Crack cocaine altered that progress because it ruined the lives of the users, a big part being part of the black community. Crack was a cheap drug affordable for even the families in the projects but would turn to ruin any chances for the user or their family to advance in an education and thus get a legitimate job.
14. If a product becomes better and cheaper, the sales for the good will rise as there will be a high demand for something that once was too expensive was now affordable.
1. Conventional wisdom is information that seems true but isn't necessarily true.
ReplyDelete2. The person probably already the false information and feels comfortable with that and not the truth.
3. Advertising can make a small problem larger when advertising a product.
4. After Mitch Snyder made up the number about the homeless people deaths, the public misinterpreted that data into something bigger than what it was.
5. Each member except J.T. lived with their mothers since they were poor. The cocaine they sold goes to their families, so they do whatever it takes to survive. J.T., a college graduate is in charge of no only the gang, but the business.
6. After the gang got in trouble with the law, they blamed Booty. Out of guilt, he gave the 4 years of records off Venkatesh.
7. J.T. is in charge of the business, he gets the most of the money.
8. J.T.'s wage is $8,500 monthly. He pays $2,100 to the officers and $7,400 to the foot soldiers. J.T.'S wage is variable while the soldiers and officers are fixed.
9. You would start at the bottom, then you would work to the top. You must be above and beyond to the call of duty in order to advance. Once you can't go any higher, you will quit. A person would sell drugs in order to survive and advance and maybe get paid more.
10. Examples of tournament labor markets would be working in a fast food chain, being in a band, or being an actor or artist.
11. The seller would want to survive by selling. The leader would want to get the most money while hiring workers.
12. At first cocaine was too expensive in the ghetto. But when crack was invented, it presented an opportunity for black street gangs to sell it.
13. Black people had more babies, they had more criminals, the homicide quadrupled, the whole crime rate just went higher.
14. If its better produced the demand will be high. if it's cheaper, a lot of people will buy it.
1. Also, conventional wisdom is something that is accepted by almost everyone, not just something that seems true but may not be.
Delete2. I'm not sure what you mean, but conventional wisdom is very hard to oppose because it is like going against the flow.
3. It will not make a problem, but rather raise the demand of the product while the supply stays the same, so the price will go up.
4. The police had the incentive to lie just so their city would get the next Olympic bid.
10. I agree with you example of working in a fast food restaurant because you could eventually become a manager, but when it comes to being in a band and acting, those roles are based off of a persons role, not their ability to move up. For instance, you dont usually see a guitarist playing the drums.
1.Conventional Wisdom is things that are generally accepted by the general public and experts but may not always be true. An example of this could be if you pay attention in class, you will never forget the information.
ReplyDelete2.Going against conventional wisdom is hard. It is like going against the norm or the flow, which is very hard to do nowadays.
3.You can determine that the advertising of the product will make the demand for the product go up and the supply of the product will stay the same. This could cause the price of the product to go up as well.
4.The police had the incentive to make the city seem safer than it actually was just so the city could get the next Olympic bid.
5.The Black Disciples gang was structured like most of the businesses now, like a pyramid. At the top were the leaders (just a few of them), then there were the gang leaders (like the manager of a store), and then there were the regular people of the gang (like employees).
6.The gang leader under JT wanted the next group to have a better life then he did, so he secretly gave notebooks with the Black Disciples financial records in them to Venkatesh.
7.JT was in charge of evenly distributing the money to the gang members. JT got greedy and started to give himself more money than the rest of the gang because they thought he was being fair, even though he was not.
8.JT, thanks to his uneven distribution, made about $8,500 which was more than half of the gang’s monthly earnings. Fixed costs are anything that is left after taxes and monthly payments were made. The variable costs are the taxes and dues that are given to the board.
1. I really like your example of "If you pay attention in class, you will never forget the information." It accurately portrays that conventional wisdom isn't always true, just widely accepted.
Delete3. The price of the product WILL go up because as the demand increases and supply stays the same, the price of a product goes up.
4. I agree and disagree, I feel like the police did want to make the city safer but at the same time I feel like they want to make themselves look better.
7. I like that you pointed out how JT thought he was being fair when in reality he was not being fair at all. Another thing that surprised me was no one noticed/thought anything of it.
12. I agree with the fact that it 'helped' in a way, although it still was a bad thing, kind of like a 'lesser evil'.
9.Tournament systems are systems where employees start at the bottom and “compete” their way up the ranks. A lot of people stay at the lower ranks but the incentive that they may become a manager one day gives them a reason to work harder.
ReplyDelete10.An example of a tournament type labor market is definitely in pretty much every sport. In sports you have to work hard in the regular season to make the playoffs and then in the playoffs you have to compete even better to win the championship and be the best.
11.Street Level drug distributors are more likely to work harder so they can work up their way up into higher titles within the gang. Highly ranked businessmen are more likely to just want money since they are already at the top.
12.The invention of crack cocaine, in a way, helped the urban society. Before it was invented there was so much crime that it was common to see a crime happen. After its invention gangs were more focused on selling the crack cocaine than they were about committing crimes (not counting drug dealing).
13.When crack cocaine was introduced to the black population, it spread very fast. The rate of childhood death of black people increased, the grades average between black and white people began to widen, and a lot more black people were sent to jail.
14.The fact that the good/service is better will make the demand go up and the fact that the good/service is cheap will make the demand skyrocket.
1. “Conventional Wisdom” is information that has been commonly accepted in society, yet it is not always necessarily true. It comes into being usually when experts stretch the truth or lie to get a point across.
ReplyDelete2. Going against “conventional wisdom” is difficult because the information has been accepted by the general public, so you’re fighting the beliefs of society.
3. The advertisements on Listerine show that advertising increases the want for the item, although the amount of it remains the same as before. The high demand makes it more profitable.
4. The police have incentives to make the crime rate appear to drop, because they wanted the city to have a good rep for the next Olympic Games. Lies were created to explain this drop, which became “conventional wisdom.”
5. The Black Disciples is structured like most businesses. You have the owners, board of directors, on top running the business. There are the runner, the treasurer, and the enforcer below the board of directors who have important business, but not as important as the board. At the bottom you have the foot soldiers. They do the dirty work, like the minimum wage workers.
6. The grad student got ahold of the financial records because Booty, who was involved in the dealing, knew he was going to be killed and wanted to leave something beneficial behind. So, he left the financial records with the grad student who was spending time studying the gang.
7. J.T. was in charge of the gang, so he was also in charge of money distribution. Without informing the other gang members, he was paying himself way more income than the other members, which guaranteed his monopoly and power.
4- I didn't think about the lies people gave to explain the decline in violence, but you're definitely right how people did come up with different theories and those became common knowledge.
Delete5- Was there an 'owner' in the Black Disciples gang?
1. I like your definition for conventional wisdom. The part about it that made me like it was the part about the expert.
Delete4. I agree, the Police did have the incentive to make the crime rate disappear but didn't that happen in the 1990's? I was unsure on this answer but it seems correct and i do agree about how they have the incentive.
5. I believe you forgot about the franchise owner but, other then that, it looks nice.
8. I'm not exactly sure on that. I thought the variable costs are what he could change based on his business and fixed costs where things he couldn't control.
11. I thought the Foot Soldier wanted to make a name for themselves while the Drug Lord is trying to maximise profit because most of his profit comes from the businesses success.
8. Fixed costs are the income there is after the monthly dues are paid. The variable cost is the amount that you must pay for monthly dues. J.T.’s unit receives more than half of the business’s profit.
ReplyDelete9. A foot soldier would be willing to accept low wages and poor working conditions because he has the hope that he will advance to be the drug lord or something with a more stable wage and working condition. In the “tournament” labor market, people are willing to work from the bottom to reach the top.
10. Most markets are “tournament” type of labor markets. One example is being a famous singer. People are willing to sit on the street corners playing music or doing small gigs in small towns even though they are living off of nothing just because they want to work until they make it big because they know if they do, they will be filthy rich and famous.
11. The incentives of the foot soldier is to get themselves rich by getting themselves on a higher level in the crack dealing gang. The incentives of the drug lord is to make sure the foot soldiers and people below him know that he is boss and not to show any signs of weakness because he knows they are all trying to steal his job. They are more focused on the success of themselves, not as much the gang.
12. Cocaine used to be too expensive for street-level urban gangs to afford. But with crack cocaine they were able to popularize it and gangs used it as a way to make big money by dealing it.
13. Infant death rate and parent abandonment increased for blacks, as well as the gap between the white and black children’s education. The number of black people being sent to jail tripled. This was all caused because crack hit the black neighborhoods much more than the white neighborhoods.
14. The invention of better and cheaper production results in a product that can be sold for less, while the sales demand is still high. This means that the sales will do great because the demand is high but the price is not as high, though the product is better.
10- You gave a good example of a singer trying to make it big.
Delete11- Do you think there is more for the gang leader to be motivated?
13- Nice giving the details of the statistics of issues that rose in black communities.
1.) conventional wisdom is ideas or explanations that are generally accepted as true by the public or by experts in a field.An example of conventional wisdom could be if I make a lot of money, I’ll be happy. Or if i work out i wont be fat.
ReplyDelete2.Challenging conventional wisdom may be difficult because it is like going against the the majority opinion/ whole society that believes it.
3When advertising the demand wil increase while the supply stays the same. this will increase the price of the product.
4.The police have incentives to make the crime rate appear to go down. They did this because they wanted the city to have a good reputation for the next Olympic Games. . In the 1996 Olympics run the police didn't report the crimes thinking it will go down but it still went up. Tis is how they got caught.
5.) The Black Disciples were set up like almost any business. The top men were called "board of directors" then in individual cities/districts their were bosses with three men under him and "enforcer" for safety, a "treasurer" to manage the gang's liquid assests, and a "runner" for transporting the drugs from the supplier. Under these four men are "foot soldiers" which sell the drugs and basically do the dirty work.
6.)With the gang under indictment, one of the gang's inner members gave the financial records of the gang to JT in hopes that it could maybe do some good because of his fear of death that would most likely occur of the gang's backlash.
7.) JT was in charge of evenly distributing the money to the gang members.He then got greedy and started to give himself more money then the other gang members. this guaranteed power and monopoly.
8.)The money that J.T.'s unit brought in was around $25,000 in drug sales.
Variable Costs
Weapons and Mercenary fighters
Fixed Costs
Money needing to be payed to the board of directors, and dues
9.) A tournament or a winner takes all is basically trying to work your way up the bussness ladder.For an example a drug dealer wants to be one of the top bosses but he has to be a "foot soldier," first. That incentive would drive anyone to do a job for low pay.
10.) Examples to tournament type of labor markets could be actors or athletes. they both have to work their way up to get where they want to be.
11.) The incentive for the street people is to become a leader someday. The leaders want to make sure no one below takes their job. While the leaders want to get more money, they both maximize the profits of the gang because they both want a better life for themselves.
12. As street gangs were introduced to the new booming business of crack they started to make more and more money.
13.)The addiction to crack and the high that it gave was only temporary and and user would come back for more. That and the fact that the invention of crack was so cheap it could easily be sold in poorer neighborhoods by urban gangs.
14.)In the example of cocaine it was something only rich people could afford but after the invention of crack it was much cheaper and more people could afford to buy it.
1.) Conventional wisdom is a statement said by a person that is accept by society but isn't really true. It is usually used in ad campaigns to get a item sold.
ReplyDelete2.) It's hard to go against conventional wisdom because society already believes in it, so for you to beat the conventional wisdom you'd have to change societies perspective.
3.) When there is ads for a good or service demand will go up and supply will go up.
4.) The incentive police had were to underreport crimes to give atlanta a good reputation for the 1996 olympic games. Since people were not being turned in for their crimes they took that advantage and did more than what they used to.
5.) The black disciples had a hierarchy, there were the bosses who call the shots and people under them who carried them out. This would be same to a business because there is the boss of the company and there is the workers who do the jobs the boss wants them to fulfill.
6.) Booty, at the time held the financial records of the gang at the time. He had a feeling that he was going to be killed soon so he gave the book to Venkatesh because he wanted to leave something beneficial for the future generation.
7.) J.T was the in charge with gang and the money distribution. Since he had control over how much everyone got, he purposely gave himself more than everyone else so he could stay as leader.
8.) J.T's wage is about $9,500. $7,400 goes to foot soldiers and $2,400 goes to the officers. The fixed cost would be paying dues. Variable costs would be weaponry.
9.) A tournament or winner takes all is basically trying to climb the business hierarchy. A person would start as a low paying foot soldier because they have an incentive, and the incentive is to be a high paying boss or officer.
10.) A example of a tournament type market would be a comedian or entertainer.
11.) The incentive for a street soldier is to be an officer or boss one day. So they will work harder to get more money. The incentive for a high ranked individual is to not lose his position so he'll pay them more to stay down.
12.) As crack started to boom and money was being made, more people want their share of the money. So when more money was being made, more people joined gangs so they could get some money and status.
13.) As soon as blacks got the right that of the whites, crack got introduced. Crack hit black families more than it did white because it was a black-only phenomena. After crack, child morality soared, parent abandonment increased, and urban gangs increased.
14.) If the product is good and production cost is cheap then sales will be high. If that is the case then there will be competition for that business niche.
3. You're right, but this also affects the price because the demand is higher and such.
Delete5. Also, in a lot of businesses, the real money is made only to the people at the very top of the business.
8. Variable costs also include the amount that is paid to the board of directors, and other things like that.
9. Also, the foot soldiers are willing to work for virtually nothing in order to make it big because they have their eyes on the prize.
10. how often to comedians and entertainers work for nothing to make it big? can you describe this more?
13. it was not necessarily a black-only phenomena. plenty of white people are on crack and cocaine. it affected black people more because crack use was more concentrated in black neighborhoods so it affected them in masses.
1. Conventional wisdom is knowledge that is widely accepted by the public. It can come into being when someone is giving a speech that many agree with.
ReplyDelete2. Challenging conventional wisdom is difficult, because you are trying to alter what people have already heard and believe.
3. If you take a product and put it on the market with advertisement, the product will generally increase in popularity, which drives up the price.
4.By giving radical information, you get a huge response. Even thought the information may not be true, it drives people to take notice of the situation and find out the real truth.
5. The gang does run like a business. You have the boss and his partners who work at the top, and then you have the workers who do all the dirty work. The main goal of their organization is to sell a product and make money.
6. One of the head guys of the gang knew that he was going to die, so he gave all the records to the Chicago Student for safe keeping.
7. J.T. made sure that he stayed the boss by taking care of the money, and keeping most of it to himself.
8. J.T. made about half of the gangs salary. Fixed costs were the dues to the directors. Variable costs were for weapons and other materials that the gang needed.
9. A tournament market works by starting low and working hard to get to the top. Someone would be willing to work with bad conditions, in hope of making it to the top.
10. Professional sports would be a tournament market. The players start low in hopes of making it to the top.
11. The gang leader wants to maximize the profits so he can make more money. On the other hand, the street level salesmen isn't so concerned about maximizing the profit, because he still makes his salary no matter what the profit is.
12. When they were introduce to crack, they saw an opportunity to make more money and operate their own business. It also gave the members security and something to work for.
13. The black society was thriving, and was becoming more respected by white people. However, when crack came along, it basically plummeted their success and resulted in a failure in their education and status.
14. If a product sells for a cheap price, but has a high volume, then it will still increases the profit. For example, McDonalds sells their food for a very cheap price, but sells such a high volume, that greatly increases their profit.
1. I believe there are many other ways that conventional wisdom can start, and doesn't it usually occur when an expert says something about something?- Or at least someone who is deemed an expert by other people.
Delete7. J.T also made sure he kept his leadership by making sure the regular population in the neighborhood around his territory liked his gang, or at least didn't hate him, by paying death benefits and so on.
9. I like your answer, but i believe you forgot to include why they want to make it to the top, the high salary.
11. I like your answer, i agree completely, but you forgot a part where the foot soldier wants to make a name for himself.
14. I agree. The low price but having high volume is, in my mind, equal to having low volume but high price.
1. Conventional wisdom are ideas or thoughts that are usually accepted as truth by experts. But the truth is usually stretched out pretty far.
ReplyDelete2. Challenging conventional wisdom may be difficult to do because once people are told something; they’re going to start believing it. And it’s going to be hard to challenge people’s beliefs.
3. It seems like advertisements create more of a demand. And the more demand, the more the product will be successful.
4. The police had the incentive of the Olympics to lie about the crime rate. They wanted to make Atlanta look like a model city to hold them, even though Atlanta had one of the highest crime rates at that time.
5. The Black Disciples was structured like most fast food chains. It’s like a giant pyramid. At the top you have your VERY successful people who make all the money. And the lower and lower you go down the pyramid, the less money is being made. And at the very bottom you have the people who make minimum wage (at McDonald’s) and LESS than minimum wage in the gang.
6. The grad student ended up with the papers because the whole gang was blaming the indictment on Booty, a gang member. And he knew that he was going to be killed soon. So he wanted to leave something behind.
7. J.T. basically ran the whole gang. And he was in control of the money. So he would decide how he wanted to divvy the money out. Since he ran everything, he would always give himself WAY more money without feeling like he had to tell the rest of the gang members.
8. . The fixed costs are what’s left over after all the monthly dues are paid. The variable cost is the amount that the members have to pay for monthly dues.
9. A low level drug dealer (foot soldier) would be willing to receive lower than minimum wage because they all hope that they can all become like J.T. one day. They can’t get any lower so they all hope that they will go much higher in the drug world.
10. One example of a tournament type job is a rapper/singer. They’re willing to sit in the studio for hours on end, live in a studio apartment, and not make any type of money until their record does well because they know what they can reach if they make it.
11. The foot soldiers incentives are to get into a higher position in the drug dealing world. The drug lords incentives are to just stay on top. And keep doing what they’re doing
12. At first, black people couldn’t afford cocaine because it was too expensive. But once a LITTLE bit of cocaine was used to make crack, it became way cheaper to get a little bit of crack.
13. Infant death rate and parent abandonment increased for blacks black as well as the gap between education for white and black children. More black people were being sent to jail.
14. Better and cheaper production methods allow the sales of goods and services to go through the roof.
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ReplyDelete[Don't know why this keeps getting deleted]
Delete1. Conventional wisdom was a phrase coined by John Kenneth Galbraith to describe generally-accepted, and it is usually convenient and unexamined, which can be a bad thing. Conventional wisdom can arise from many different sources, such as experts, journalists and advertising. The reason conventional wisdom can be an issue is that those people may be working for their own self-interests.
2. Challenging conventional wisdom with regards to controversial social issues is difficult because people tend to be on the side of whatever they think will help the most. For example, is anybody really going to say that homelessness or rape isn’t as big of a problem as others are saying it is? Challenging conventional wisdom is basically like challenging undisputed facts (in the view of the public), even though it might not be true at all.
3. Advertising can “enlighten” us to new problems that we never thought of before, and that we need to buy a product to fix. In the case of Listerine, nobody really thought of bad breath as being any kind of issue, but then Listerine advertised bad breath as if it were a medical condition, and their sales skyrocketed.
4. Incentives for police departments and the media created the overstating of the new crack cocaine industry in the United States, and especially the fact that they began to portray crack dealers as being millionaires, when it was really the complete opposite. They used the image of rich drug dealers to enrage the public.
5. The Black Disciples were similar to a business because of their hierarchical structure: People like J.T. overlooking the entire operation, dealers (“salesmen”), and people keeping track of finances (“accountants”). The reason for this similarity in structure was likely due to the fact that J.T. was a college graduate with a business degree. J.T. even reported to a “board of directors” as his superiors.
6. UC grad student Sudhir Venkatesh got the financial records after the gang was indicted. More specifically, a member named Booty was being blamed by the gang for the indictment, and gave them to Venkatesh, wanting to do something to atone himself, knowing that he was probably going to be killed very soon.
7. J.T. got his position mostly because he was college-educated, and he maintained it by giving about 20 percent of his revenue to the board of directors for his right to sell crack in his designated area. He had 3 officers who reported to him, and foot soldiers, who essentially did the dirty work. After subtracting the revenue given to the board of the directors, the rest is divided up as he saw fit.
8. Some monthly costs other than wages include the drugs, board of directors fees, mercenaries, weapons, and other miscellaneous costs. Some fixed costs would be the drugs and B.O.D. fee, while variable costs include the mercenaries, weapons and miscellaneous costs.
9. A “winner-take-all”/”tournament” labor market essentially means that you must work from the bottom-up before getting the good-paying jobs. It’s especially prevalent in the crack-dealing industry, where people start out as foot soldiers (the most dangerous, low-paying jobs) in hopes of moving up to the better ones.
10. Some examples of tournament labor markets could be athletes and actors (especially comedians). In most cases, they have to work extremely hard with little or no pay for years until they either move up, or have to move on to something different.
ReplyDelete11. The leader or franchise owner’s incentives are mostly about maximizing revenues, which results in more individual income. But for foot soldiers, it’s about getting noticed for the chance of moving up, and the best way to do this is by demonstrating a knack for violence. Because of this, foot soldiers aren’t nearly concerned about the franchise’s revenue.
12. The invention of crack cocaine transformed gangs from being brotherhoods or families (albeit in a violent sense) into a business, and a business that was just as divided as an actual corporation. The purpose of gangs shifted from creating chaos to creating revenue.
13. Crack cocaine hit black communities much harder than any others, and completely reversed most of the progress made. Infant mortality rose in the black population, and the gap between white and black students started to widen again.
14. It lowers the cost of the product, which raises sales. In the case of the article, crack was a new and cheaper way of producing and selling cocaine, and it became an enormous problem throughout the country.
1. Conventional Wisdom is the common belief concerning a topic in society. Conventional wisdom is not necessarily true, but because it is the popular belief, and because it is usually more convenient or comforting, people think it is. Conventional wisdom comes to be in many different ways: one could be highly broadcasted information. Another could be a statistic randomly thrown out by an organization.
ReplyDelete2. Challenging the conventional wisdom in a “sticky” social issue is difficult because the challenger could be viewed as against the cause or ‘evil’. For example, if someone were to challenge the more conservative idea that life begins at conception, they could be called out as pro-abortion, or anti-life.
3. What Listerine showed us is that a product or an advertisement can essentially create their own market. Bad breath wasn’t socially unacceptable until Listerine made it that way through advertisement, thus creating their own market for a problem that didn’t exist.
4. Police began to forge and falsify charges in Atlanta in the offender's favor, so that Atlanta would seem like a safe venue to hold the next olympics.
5. The Black Disciples’ basic structure is in levels of authority, similar to any business: At the top is a board of directors, next are district bosses (similar to branch managers), then the officers (treasurers, and other positions similar to higher-ups in an office), and finally the street-level salesmen (the guys who, if the Black Disciples had an office, would be working in a cubicle).
6. Booty, a gang member who was about to be indicted (and therefor, killed), gave the records to the grad student with hopes that he could do something beneficial for the organization.
7. J.T. could essentially fix his income because he was in charge of money and payroll. He could guarantee his own pay; he also believed that his guaranteed income helped him keep his power, because the boss should be someone you aspire to be.
8. The major costs of J.T's unit would be the cost of drugs, weapons, mercenary fighters, board of directors, and other miscellaneous fees. Miscellaneous, weapons, and mercenary fighters fees and drug costs would be variable costs, while the board of directors fees would be a fixed cost.
2- I definitely agree on your explanation on how when people challenge conventional wisdom in social issues they are sometimes painted as bad people.
Delete3- I like how you worded this on how Listerine created its own market.
8- I'm wondering if weapons would be a variable cost, because it seemed that they usually got weapons for heavy discounts or for free.
9. A tournament market is a model where you have to start at the bottom in order to get to the top: winner take all. Very few higher-up positions are available, and therefor very few are awarded. A street-level drug dealer is taking their chances with low pay and poor working conditions, because they are hoping to move up in the ‘tournament’, and be the winner.
ReplyDelete10. Examples of this market are found all throughout the entertainment industry. Any actor, musician, artist, or even athlete usually finds themself at the bottom before they are earning millions a year and are famous. Certain businesses (besides drug-dealing) are like this also: in a law firm you must become a decorated attorney before you can be a firm partner; in a restaurant, you can earn the position of manager by starting as a waiter.
11. The street-level drug salesman and the gang leader certainly both have the best interest of the company in mind, but the street-level salesman is also highly driven by the desire to become the gang leader. They both want to maximize the profits of the gang, and therefor themselves, but the salesman is working towards a higher salary difference than the gang leader, and has a fatal disincentive.
12. The invention of crack cocaine made the drug a lot more accessible, which meant more people could purchase it for a cheap (but very short) high. There was a larger market, which meant there was a need for more salesmen.
13. The invention of crack cocaine hit black neighborhoods the hardest. Black children began to do worse in school, and black infant mortality rates rose again. More and more blacks were sent to prison.
14. The invention of a better and cheaper production method lowers the price, and increases the sales. This is exemplified perfectly with the invention of crack cocaine. Crack cocaine is a sort of altered cocaine, where only a small amount of pure cocaine is required to produce it. More crack was produced for less money, and so it became a very popular drug because it only cost a few dollars to get high. More people had access to crack.
11- Good explanation, it didn't occur to me that dealers would still be motivated to sell as much as they can because it will still benefit them (if only by a little)
Delete14- You illustrated the answer well with using the example of the crack cocaine from the book.
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ReplyDelete1. What is “conventional wisdom?” What are some ways that “conventional wisdom” comes into being?
ReplyDeleteConventional wisdom is all about convenience and comfort, as well as self-interest.
When getting people’s attention on how rape is a serious problem, it’s much more attention grabbing to tell people that it occurs in every 1 in 3 women, rather than the true 1 in 8.
2. Explain why challenging the “conventional wisdom” with regard to a sticky social issue may be difficult to do.
With my previous example of rape, no one will want to openly oppose a person’s statists on the matter, because then it will look bad on them and make them seem heartless.
3. Considering this chapter’s analysis of the transformation of Listerine from an antiseptic to
a cure for halitosis,what can one conclude about the effect of advertising on market demand
for a good or service?
Advertising is full of propaganda, in this instance it convincing people that they will not be able to handle someone they love having bad breath. This makes people more conscious of their appearance and breath, therefore willing to spend more money on this item to fix that so that the person they love will not stop loving them because of their breath.
4. Explain how the incentives of police departments and the public media gave rise to explanations
of the rising crime rate in the 1980s that were totally wrong.
The police departments were under the impression that crack cocaine dealers were millions with an endless supply of cash and high tech weapons, so they used this fear as reason to fund the departments with more money and weapons in order to find and fight off these dealers, who, in reality, generally lived in the projects with their mommies.
5. Describe,in general terms,the organizational structure of the Black Disciples street gang.How is it
similar to the organizational structure of most business?
There are the lower level “employees”, and a leader who may or may not be the smartest of the bunch, but definitely has the most authority and respect that probably comes from fear.
Thee were many branches who all had leaders that answered to a “board of directors”
6. Explain how four years of financial records of the Black Disciples street gang found their way into
the hands of a University of Chicago graduate student.
Venkatesh realized that the questionnaire was stupid, so he, instead, approached T.J. about wanting to join the gang in order to understand how they work. T.J., after negotiations, agreed with the condition that he was full veto power over denying any information that could prove harmful.
After years of being with the gang, they had a run in with the feds, and it was all blamed on member Booty. He then went to Venkatesh, rightly believing that he’d be killed soon, and gave him the four years worth of information on the gang’s dealings.
7. How did J.T.,a branch leader of a Black Disciples street gang,acquire and maintain a regional monopoly over crack cocaine within the territorial domain of the gang?
ReplyDeleteJ.T. was a college graduate and business major that knew how the systems worked.
8. What are monthly costs incurred by J.T.’s unit of the Black Disciples? Which costs would be
considered fixed costs? Which would be considered variable costs?
Sales, dues, extortionary costs.
Fixed: Board, fighters and weapons.
Variable: Cost of drugs, miscellaneous
9. Explain how a “tournament” or “winner take all” labor market works.Why would a street-level
drug dealer be willing to accept low pay and poor working conditions?
In a tournament, or in this drug dealing, many people are all working for very few prizes. You have hundreds of people working for a limited placement of prizes, so it makes the business more glamorous and appealing if you can work your way up to the prize.
10.Give your own examples of a “tournament” type of labor market.
In the fashion world, you have to start at the very bottom in fashion school, to unpaid intern to full intern and so on and so up to the top if you can make it.
In acting, often times you may have to begin backstage, to un-casted cast member, unsteady who never gets seen, and upward.
11.How do the incentives of the street-level drug salesman differ from those of the gang leader/franchise owner? Are they both attempting to maximize the profits of the gang? Why or why not?
A foot solider wanted to make a name for himself, but the leader wanted to keep them from doing so because that costs money.
12.How did the invention of crack cocaine transform the urban street gang?
It gave these gangs a reason to exist. Cocaine was expecive, but this distilled form was much cheaper to come by. So importers, like Blandon from Colombia, could then sell crack to the dealers, and the gang could go about their new business.
13.According to the data cited in this chapter,civil rights laws and a shift in the attitudes in the United States regarding race helped to improve the status of black society. How did crack cocaine alter that progress?
The dealing of crack cocaine would not only put a halt in the progress that they were making, but it sent it back years in progress.
14.Based on the examples in this chapter, what does the invention of better and cheaper production methods do to the price and sales of a good or service?
Better and cheaper seems to mean higher sales and services.
8. I kind of thought that the price of mercenaries and weapons could also be a variable cost, while the cost of drugs was fixed. I think it kind of depends on the situation, but I the only one that is really always going to be fixed is the board of directors fees.
Delete9. Yep, drug dealers take the dangerous low-paying job in the hopes of winning the tournament and getting to be in a position like J.T. Unfortunately, not to many people get to win the tournament.
10. I liked your example, mainly because I had trouble coming up with any besides the ones mentioned in the chapter.
11. That was what I was thinking too. The foot soldiers don't gain much from selling more drugs, so they instead want to make sure they get noticed, and the best way is through violence.
12. It transformed the street gang from a chaos-creating group of people to a business; like you said, it gave them an actual reason to exist, other than creating havoc.
1. Conventional wisdom are widely accepted truths, but are not necessarily true.
ReplyDelete2. Challenging conventional wisdom is very difficult because it's a widely accepted by the public, and going against the grain is extremely difficult.
3. Advertising can create a demand for a product for a problem that wasn't there unitl the advertising pointed it out.
4. Police wanted to make the crime rate look like it was going down for the 196 Olympics, so they underreported crime. But rather than the crime rate going down, it had the reverse effect.
5. The Black Disciples were like an organized business. There were a few people at the top of the corporate food chain, and many more at the bottom.
6. The grad student ended up with them, because the person who had them thought he was going to be arrested, and wanted to leave them in capable hands.
7. J.T. was in control of the money, so he would pay himself more than most others. So he could stay in his current position.
8. J.T. made the most ($9,500), with foot soldiers after him ($7,400), and then finally the officers made the least ($2,400). Fixed costs would be takes and monthly fees, and variable feeds are pretty much everything else.
9. A tournament/ winner takes all competition is when someone works their way up the corporate ladder, from a very low paying position to a much higher one.
10. A tournament labor market could be almost anything in the entertainment industry, singing, acting, etc.
11. A foot soldier's incentive is the possibility of becoming a boss, and a boss' incentive is to keep his position.
12. The invention of crack turned street crimes into a business, and somewhat reduced the number of break ins.
13. The introduction of crack into black communities increased the gap between blacks and whites. There was a huge different in the education of blacks and whites, a rise in parent abandonment and infant mortality, and the number of blacks in jail tripled.
14. The lower the price of the product, the more of a demand there is, and therefore, the higher the number of sales.
1. You have a nice, simple definition but didn't explain how conventional wisdoms are made.
Delete2. Nice, but you might want to explain why going against the grain is extremely difficult.
3. this is a great, short explanation. It might be better if you included an example though.
4. This didn't reverse the effect, it work really well, actually. It's just after they were done, they started reporting all crime again and there was much more recorded. Simulating a spike.
5. For your business alliteration you might want to include the middle management that runs the low workers.
1. Conventional wisdom is when the some thing is assumed and accepted about a certain matter or group. An example is that drug dealers earn large amounts of money. This can start by people generalizing about a group and then only seeing a specific part of them.
ReplyDelete2. If you challenge what the public believes to be true, most likely this will be defending public enemies, like saying drug dealers don’t make much money would imply that drug dealers aren’t that evil. Therefore, putting you in a hated position almost as much as the drug dealers themselves.
3. Advertising can create a need for a product or service even when there isn’t one originally. For example, before Listerine was invented, having bad breathe wasn’t that big of a deal, but because of this mouthwash it has become an enemy to hygiene.
4. In the 1970s Atlanta was trying to be considered to host the Olympics so they cut down on reporting crime by a lot, when really they had much more than reported. Once it was already decided and they would not host the Olympics, there was no longer an incentive to not report crimes, so the police started working better again and, according to record, the crime rate went high up all of a sudden.
5. Generally, the Black Disciple have some high power bosses at the top of the ladder, officers that command the low laborers, and the low labors. This is similar to the organizational structure of most common businesses because they have low laborers, mangers that watch over them, and high in power bosses (CEOs and board of directors) that control them.
6. The little Indian College student wondered into the projects and met a group of gang members. After they decided he was chill, they took him to their leader, J.T. He explained what he was doing and the second in command was getting put in jail so he gave the records to the Indian man to keep and study.
7. J.T., just like everyone else, started on a street corner, selling crack. After a long time of working his part, he was promoted to being a board member. With mercenaries and armed street workers, he kept control of the neighborhoods he sold at.
1.I think you did good job of defining what conventional wisdom but you didn't talk about how it comes into being.
Delete4. Did great explaining why the police officers cut down on the reporting crimes.
5. I think you also did great work tell the similar between the Black Disciple and other businesses.
6. I think it would better if you used his name instead of little Indian College student to make to look professional.
7. Here are you stating that he used force to maintain his regional because I remember that he didn't want hurt anyone in the member because he would have to pay his families money and for the funeral if they passed away.
1. You gave a good definition for conventional wisdom but i don't think your example was clear.
Delete3. Again you gave a great example, but i believe you could've gave more specific information on how it would've increased demand.
5. I like your definition. It was clear and easy to read. It shows you understand it very well
11. You didn't tell how their incentives contribute to maximizing their profit. You told how the leader maximize his profit but not the "workers" or foot soldiers.
8. Wholesale cost of drugs Board of director’s Mercenary fighters Weapons Miscellaneous. The fixed costs would be the wholesale drugs, board of director’s, and mercenaries. The varied costs would be the weapons and miscellaneous.
ReplyDelete9. In a tournament market, the little workers try there best to make it big and be a super-high roller, but in the end no one wins and everyone realizes this eventually. For example, a high school football player wants to be an NFL player but there is a slim chance this will actually happen. A street drug dealer would accept the bad work because there is a chance that he/she might make it to the top one day, and that reward is somewhat greater than the risk of being a dealer.
10. Being a burger flipper at McDonald’s is a tournament job because they are all just there working against each other to try to be promoted to cashier or manager. Another example is a factory worker.
11. A gang leader just wants more people to buy their drugs so they can get more money; they have an economic incentive to keep things clean between other gangs. Whereas, the street-level dealers have an incentive to kill other gang members before they kill them or take their turf. This way they can provide for their family.
12. Before crack cocaine, people could just have cocaine, which was very expensive, and only rich people could buy it. But once crack was invented, it brought luxury to the mass and so many more people could buy it and sell it. This made a huge increase in gang activity because more products and more people were involved.
13. Once crack cocaine was invented and began mass production, there was more work to be done in urban ghetto neighborhoods. Unfortunately, these were almost all black communities. This generalized the statistics of blacks because now most are selling drugs and getting in gang wars because of the nasty product.
14. The invention of cheaper manufacturing of goods makes them more plentiful. Once there is more, the price goes down. Once the price is lower, however, more is sold.
1.) conventional wisdom is something that is convent
Delete2.) It is also hard because you are going against the general public.
4.) the police did not put all of their crime rates in so that they will look good for they olympics.
7.) they made him control of the money so he would give himself more money then others. he was basically the boss
9.)Tournament labor works in the way that you start at the bottom and the more you work and compete with others you should eventually make it to the top
1.Conventional Wisdom is what you would generally think would happen, some ways that conventional wisdom came about is stereotypes, conventional wisdom is more or less a nicer way of stereotype, because conventional wisdom is what generally happens in a situation and a stereotype is what you would assume someone might do based one 1 or 2 of their characteristics.
ReplyDelete2. Because there are so many social issues that conventional wisdom is right about and when it isn't right about a social issue it is generally an anomaly and rarely happens, because conventional wisdom is what is supposed to happen.
3. Advertising has an effect on the demand for a good or service based on the way it goes about advertising that good or service, like if an advertisement makes it seem that without that good or service whatever it's "fixing" will, lack of a better term, go to shit because that good or service wasn't purchased or fulfilled.
4. To be honest I have no clue.
5. Well it's similar to most businesses in that there are a few people at the top who make an exponentially different amount of money than the many at the bottom of their set up, much like a business with it's CEOs and employees.
6. The University of Chicago student, we'll call him Sid, was researching for a sociology degree and was involved with a branch of this gang for his research and as the gang in total, not just the branch was getting indicted a member of the gang who was fairly high up gave him the notebooks of the financial records in fear that otherwise they would get into worse hands than his.
1) Pretty good similarity, and kind of what I thought myself. Conventional wisdom pretty much becomes assumptions that we make.
Delete2) I also thought that people don't like challenging others who are pushing for social change, even when they know their facts are wrong.
3) Pretty much. Advertisers like to create problems that we never thought of before, and that we need to buy their product to fix.
5) It was weird how the two were almost identical, even having their own board of directors and franchise system.
6) Yep. Booty basically wanted to do something good since he knew he was probably going to be killed.
7. He was able to do this because of the number of kids who growing up in the area wanted to be involved with selling the crack to make money and eventually get to the same level as J.T. but he was unlike the others and was well educated and very smart so he was able to control his branch for a long time and had experience from his education so he knew how to run his "company."
ReplyDelete8. I feel that a fixed cost would be the fee to the Board of Directors, where the buying of weapons and the paying for mercenaries would be a variable cost.
9. Because he knows that if he works hard and becomes the best at what he does he will be able to go higher up into the world of drug dealing and get all the money that is associated with selling drugs.
10. Baseball players or any athlete more or less are all competing to get to their goal of being a professional athlete and will do anything to be better than everyone they meet, and they are in competition with all those people because they're doing the same thing, trying to get better all the time.
11. The gang leader is trying to maximize profits so that he can either get a raise or get a higher job position, where the street-level dealers are going to maximize profits to do more or less the same thing because they to what to grow up the "corporate ladder" that is there.
12. Crack cocaine brought cocaine to a wider market because it was less expensive than cocaine and was easy to produce and was very addictive and therefore easy to sell.
13. It led to more blacks going and getting involved with selling the drugs because that was the only path they really had before them growing up or they were the ones buying the drugs.
14. It lowers the price of a good or service but the sales number sky rockets because it that product just became open to a market that is so much larger, because people could buy more of a product or more people in general could buy that product.
12. Crack cocaine is cheaper than powders the production boom of crack actually pushed cocaine more. However, the method of taking it was different.
Delete9. Is it more financially beneficial to be a drug dealer or a pharmacist? We know what costs each has, do you feel that one option outweigh the other.
2.) Name several situations where conventional wisdom has been proven to be true. Otherwise, what you just said is a mere generalization.
Delete4.) Try rereading the chapter to find information.
6.) Written like it was actually a report. Well done.
8.) Really? Only one fixed cost? Don't you think businesses generally need to pay taxes?
13.) Really? The ONLY path? Do some extra research.
1-Conventional wisdom is convenient, comfortable and comforting, although it is not necessarily true. Conventional wisdom comes into being from the advertising, experts and advocates.
ReplyDelete2- It may be difficult because people are going to stick to what the expert says even though it may not be true. For example if somebody challenges the amount of homeless people dying every year, people are going to stick to what the expert says even thought it may not be true.
3- Advertising can create a “problem” that needs to be solved. In this case the product company is going to find the solution to the problem, making it seem like you can’t live with out their products.
4- The police wanted the public to go along with what they had to say to make drug dealers seem worse than they actually were. The police didn’t have enough power to fight the gangs- all they wanted was money and attention and they were willing to lie to get it.
5- In a gang, there is a pyramid type set up, similar to any business. There is the top guy in the gang (or a “president”), then the 3 officers who reported directly to them: the enforcer who was to keep the gang safe, a treasurer who watched the gangs liquid assets and a runner who transported drugs and money to and from the supplier. These would be like on site bosses in a business. Below that was the foot soldiers, their goal was to become an officer. These would be like vice presidents or workers in business. Lastly there were the members of the gang. These would also be considered workers in a business.
6- In the gang there was a member named Booty, and he was expecting to be killed soon because he was being blamed by the gang for bringing the indictment. Before he died he wanted to leave behind something that would benefit the next generation by. So he gave all of the notebooks with the gang’s money transactions to Sudhir who was researching about the gangs.
I like all the lenghty responses, all your questions are thourghly covered.
Delete1. Facts or figures generally accepted by the public. It can be created by people trying to make a point, which can lead to exaggeration.
ReplyDelete2. It’s hard to go against “the norm”, especially when the issue is controversial. For example, challenging a dramatic statistic about some victimized group. Some people may get offended because they feel you’re undermining a problem if you say the statistic is higher than it should be.
3. Advertising has a significant affect on what people are willing to buy even if they never wanted the product before. For example, pharmaceutical companies are often showing commercials for new drugs. People have lived without Pepto Bismol for years. But because of clever advertisements it has become a popular household name. To sum up my point demand often increases when good advertising strategies are used. However, bad/over-exaggerated advertisements can hinder sales
4.Because Atlanta wanted to hold the next Olympic games, a huge money-maker, the police lied/exaggerated the rate at which crime dropped in an effort to make the city seem safer. They did this mainly by changing the way they categorized different crimes, some violent crimes would be considered non-violent.
5.They are like a business in that they have a highly efficient and organized hierarchy. At the top you have the people running the operation, much like a CEO they aren’t doing the grunge work. As you go down the ranks you have people whose sole job is to look after the money. They also have runners who are the ones who actually transport the drugs and money. Much like a business the people in positions are specialized for that position. They only need to look after their own business.
6. One of the members (Booty) who was accused of getting the gang in legal trouble feared that he would be whacked by the gang. In order to clear his conscious, he gave all the financial records to the student.
7. He had a group who he commissioned to sell his product within a certain area. He also had paid protection in order to stay safe and a treasurer to make sure his money was in order.
7- He kept his gang very structured and under controlled. He kept them from starting gang wars and causing commotion.
ReplyDelete8-The monthly costs are the wholesale cost of drugs, board of directors fee, mercenary fighters, weapons, and miscellaneous. A fixed cost could be the wholesale cost of drugs, and the board of directors fee. Variable costs would be the mercenary fighters, weapons and miscellaneous.
9- Tournament labor works in the way that you start at the bottom and the more you work and compete with others you should eventually make it to the top. Street drug dealers are accepting this because if they stick with the work they will hopefully become the leader of the pack and have lots of money. They don’t want to just quit then and then have to find another job and be at the bottom again.
10- Some examples of tournament labor would be at a place like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, target; in places like this the longer you work you get promoted and you get paid more. A person who works for any company with a type of pyramid system is an example of this because the longer you work and try at it, you are going to get moved up and get more money.
11- The incentives of a gang leader and a street level person are very different. The gang leader is more about trying to get more money and not starting any commotion like gang wars because they decrease the amount of money brought in. But the street level workers try to start them because they don’t want their leader to think that they are scared of stuff.
12- It transformed it because people could afford it, but it wore off fast, which means they would come back for more, or buy a lot at a time. Once people realized this, the gangs changed from teenagers to a real commercial enterprise.
13-Crack altered the progress by a lot. The black infant mortality began to soar; the amount of low-birth weight babies rose as well as parent abandonment. The gap between black and white children widened, and the number of blacks sent to jail was tripled.
14-invention of better and cheaper production caused the amount of goods and services to drop and the amount of sales to go up.
7.) He did more than just that though, he controlled the money. He had the ability to essentially control the entire flow of wealth in the group.
Delete9 & 10.) Well though out. Good job.
11.) Interesting take on things.
13.) Great job! I think you just about hit everything.
8. Monthly costs were primarily fixed-costs. He had to buy wholesale drugs, weaponry, etc. Variable costs included miscellaneous purchases that JT might have made. Also the amount he commissioned his workers would vary.
ReplyDelete9. In a “tournament” labor market you work your way from bottom to top, in other words drug dealers don’t have dead end jobs because there is always an opportunity for promotion. A person coming into an operation would be fine making little because the potential outcome is great.
10. In a kitchen at a five-star restaurant most people start with prepping the ingredients. Then they move up to actually preparing food. If they are lucky they move up to Sous Chef then Head Chef.
11. The foot worker is more interested in moving up the ranks at any cost, even going after his superiors, in order to make more money. Whereas the gang leader is already making the big-bucks. All he has to do is watch his rep and make sure his operation doesn’t get exposed or crumble. Neither one has protecting the gang’s assets in mind. In a cutthroat business like drug dealing, there is no time for caring about others.
12. It presented a cheaper alternative to powdered cocaine, which was already popular. That increased the current gang’s status and profits. When news spread through the public more people wanted to get a piece of the action. As a result they joined gangs.
13. America’s view of Black people as productive members of society changed shortly after the introduction of crack because of all the crime and problems it brought to the Black community. As a result the respect given by White people dissipated.
14.The price will go down as the cost of production goes down. Also as methods evolve and mass production becomes possible, prices should decrease or the co
9. You have a great explanation but in the book it explained that there is a super small chance that in the drug business, someone will get promoted to a higher position. That might of been good to include.
Delete10. Your sample was awesome except the instructions said to provide exampleS, another good one might be Andy at Dunder Mifflin getting promoted to manager when Michael left.
11. Sorry, but your explanation for differences between street workers and high up bosses i incorrect. The sweet workers do have an incentive to kill in the streets to keep their rep up, but the bosses have an incentive to not kill because this will make enemies for their gang.
12. This was a good explanation of why people joined gangs when crack was invented, it just might of helped to include the phrase "luxury to the masses".
13. It wasn't white people thinking black people were bad, just the whole country associating black people with bad habits like drug dealing.
14. Everything is there, but the order is wrong. It goes: mass production, cheaper to buy, more sold, more money gained.
1. Conventional wisdom is what we accept as being true; we accept it because it’s most convenient or comforting. Journalists and experts create conventional wisdom when they repeatedly share media with the public.
ReplyDelete2. People think that they know the truth therefore people wont want to believe that what you are saying is the truth because it threatens their comfort and well-being.
3. The way you advertise is really the way your good or service will progress in the corporate business.
4. Police officers were not telling the complete truth when filling out reports. This was because they wanted their city’s crime rate to look better than the previous years.
5. The head of the gang deals with all the laws and distribution of the money. But they money is then divvied up according to specific jobs and functions of the person. Higher ranks get more cash compared to lower ranks.
6. Venkatesh got close with the gang and it’s members. Then the gang got into an indictment and trouble with the Feds. The person who was being blamed for the indictment decided to give Venkatesh the financial records of the Black Disciples, because he wanted to do something good before he was killed.
7. He had a specific gang code and consequences if not followed, just like a real business.
8. The costs were: Cost of Drugs ($5000), Fee to Board of Directors ($5000), Mercenary Fighters ($1300), Weapons ($300) and Miscellaneous ($2400). Fixed cost would include Cost of Drugs, Fee to Board of Directors and Weapons. Variable cost would include Mercenary Fighters and Miscellaneous.
9. People at the bottom look so far forward into the potential earnings of the lead job and therefore they strive to be at the top even though there are many people in the same competition. It pushes one to do better.
10. I think of Olympics or some kind of athletic event. Everyone pushes to be first in his or her competition.
11. The gang leaders want to maximize profit, because it means more money for them. However the street-level dealers have more incentive to cause trouble to make a name for them, which decreases profit.
12. Crack was very popular right of the bat because of the main ingredient, cocaine. Cocaine is original really expensive but with the fillers in crack it can be a lot cheaper and therefore used by the poorer people.
13. Because crack was so cheap, it affected many people in poor African American communities. For instance black infant mortality, the rate of low-birth weight babies, parent abandonment, the gap between black and white schoolchildren, and the number of blacks sent to prison all increased.
14. When you can create a better used item, something that is more cheap and effective then you can create a multimillion dollar idea.
13. There has been a lot of commentary over the sexist laws against crack. A person could have some crack in their pocket and face more jail time than someone with cocaine powder. Do you think the fact that crack is cheaper has and affect on those laws? Or is it really because crack is whack?
Delete11. Ultimately at the end of the day everyone's goal is the same. They want to make more money. The only difference os why and how they go about making more money/
2. I agree people are insecure and someone challenging us on something we feel confident about makes us challenge our entire way of thinking. If something I thought to be common senses false. What else in my life is based off little factual information?
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Delete1. What is “conventional wisdom?” What are some ways that “conventional wisdom” comes into being?
ReplyDeleteConventional wisdom is when an idea is accepted or supported by the general public. It is created because of people publish their findings and ideas.
2. Explain why challenging the “conventional wisdom” with regard to a sticky social issue may
be difficult to do.
Most people will agree with the conventional wisdom and they will shoot you down thus creating a sticky situation.
3. Considering this chapter’s analysis of the transformation of Listerine from an antiseptic to
a cure for halitosis,what can one conclude about the effect of advertising on market demand
for a good or service?
If a lot of people start doing something or think something is right or will have a good effect then other people are more likely to follow with the crowd. Also, all information given may not be true.
4. Explain how the incentives of police departments and the public media gave rise to explanations
of the rising crime rate in the 1980s that were totally wrong.
By the police altering the reasonings that people believe the crime rate goes will allow them to make themselves look better. If the real reasoning is because of the police then they want to shoot that idea down to protect themselves.
5. Describe,in general terms,the organizational structure of the Black Disciples street gang.How is it
similar to the organizational structure of most business?
It has a head "boss" that has the easiest job and gets paid the most. He just makes the call and gets most of the profit. Then it goes down in a pyramid formation down to the people that make almost nothing. Just a little over $3 a hour.
6. Explain how four years of financial records of the Black Disciples street gang found their way into
the hands of a University of Chicago graduate student.
The gradstudent hung out with the gang wanted to learn all about how the crack business goes and how much they really make and what it is like. By befriending them then he had a higher chance of obtaining the information.
7. How did J.T.,a branch leader of a Black Disciples street gang,acquire and maintain a regional
monopoly over crack cocaine within the territorial domain of the gang?
First he had to work his way up the gang. He would of had to start as a foot soldier and work his way up to a branch leader. He also had rules that people had to follow.
8. What are monthly costs incurred by J.T.’s unit of the Black Disciples? Which costs would be
considered fixed costs? Which would be considered variable costs?
Fixed costs are things like drugs, and variable costs were things like mercenary fighters.
9. Explain how a “tournament” or “winner take all” labor market works.Why would a street-level
drug dealer be willing to accept low pay and poor working conditions?
They gain the protection of the gang and become part of the family. They are getting more then pay like a place to stay and drugs.
1.Conventional wisdom is wisdom that is assumed to be true based on general belief and word-of-mouth, but has not been examined and proved. One example of conventional wisdom is that glass is a slow-flowing liquid. It has yet to be proved or disproved, but there is currently a large debate on the topic.
ReplyDelete2. It is hard because the truth is often less effective than an obscure lie. For example, most Republicans are thought to be gun-toting, freedom hating, over-controlling maniacs, while the truth is that Republican’s, at the base of politics, really try for less government, not more. They are against the expansion of the government, and oftentimes want to go so far as to shrink the government. Not only that, but not all Republicans are Sarah Palin. I know many republicans, and very few actually tote guns, or even exercise their right to bear arms. I know more democrats who own firearms than I do republicans.
3. Advertising a product based on half-truths is a good way to get higher demand. By claiming something cures* a disease, you increase demand.
*many so called “cures” have no basis in science and may have no effect whatsoever.
4. Police made the city seem safer in order to potentially get the next Olympics bid.
5. It is a pyramid scheme version of power. People at the very top get the most power and money. Those directly below them get a good amount, but some of their money and power goes to the person above them. It goes like this right on down to the bottom of the pyramid, with the “soldiers” holding virtually no power and earning nothing, since it all goes to those above them.
6. The university student was studying the Black Disciples. One of the members of the Black Disciples, nicknamed Booty, was feeling guilty, so he gave the records to the graduate student to leave “for the next generation.”
7. J.T. controlled where the money went. He could cut off sections income on a whim. He maintained power by holding all the money, and “acting trustworthy.”
8. The main monthly cost incurred was J.T’s $8500 dollar check. The fixed costs would be paying the board of directors, paying employed personnel, and paying the taxes. The variable costs would be buying weaponry and other supplies.
9. In a tournament style labor market, you have the potential, through hard work, diligence, perseverance, and blackmail, to work your way from the lowest position to the highest. This means that a street level drug dealer is willing to work for so little because he has the incentive of potential promotion.
10. An example of a tournament labor market is car sales. There is one person on top, but with the vast majority vying for higher positions that can be reached through high sales.
11. The incentive of the street salesman is to make as much money through sales as possible, in order to move up in the hierarchy. The incentive of the boss is to make as much money as possible through effective allotment of company/gang resources. Each is attempting to maximize profits in their own way.
12. Crack made urban street gangs change their structure from a more crime and robbery based structure to that of a more business based structure. They now had a product that the public demanded, and they had the ability to produce it.
13. Crack cocaine altered that process by rapidly spreading through the African-American communities. African-American infant mortality rates rose, African-American vs. Anglo-Saxon grade margins increased, gang violence rose in African-American communities, and rates of arrest increased significantly for African-Americans.
14. Better and cheaper production methods cause the relative price to drop, while heavily increasing demand.
10.Give your own examples of a “tournament” type of labor market.
ReplyDeleteWork as cashier ad DQ. Best of the cashiers move up to cooking the food. Eventually become a manager and eventually become a cowner then CEO
11.How do the incentives of the street-level drug salesman differ from those of the gang leader/
franchise owner? Are they both attempting to maximize the profits of the gang? Why or why not?
The incentives are protection. By paying the street-level salesmen lower they make a higher profit off the drugs.
12.How did the invention of crack cocaine transform the urban street gang?
Crack is cheaper then cocaine so the business exploded.
13.According to the data cited in this chapter,civil rights laws and a shift in the attitudes in the United
States regarding race helped to improve the status of black society.How did crack cocaine alter
that progress?
The number of blacks in prison and underweight children increased giving them a bad name.
14.Based on the examples in this chapter,what does the invention of better and cheaper production
methods do to the price and sales of a good or service?
The price lowers and the sales go up.
3. Advertising can also create manufactured demand, making consumers believe they need something.
Delete4. They also did the opposite, making crime rates seem higher to attract funds.
11. I think there are more incentives than this; low level dealers want to become high level dealers, while high level dealers want to stay that way.
12. It lowered the barrier of entry for crack sales and made many gangs into drug gangs as well.
14. Specifically, this is because quantity exchanged increases in response to lower price at the same level of demand.
1.Conventional wisdom is something that is generally believed but not always true. Conventional wisdom comes into play usually when an “Expert” says something and people believe it.
ReplyDelete2.Challenging the conventional wisdom in regards to a sticky situation is like challenging the Status quo, people will fight you and it will be hard to make people believe you.
3.If there is demand for something, people will buy it. If you advertise people will know about you, so if people know about you and there is suddenly a new problem that needs to be fixed and YOU’RE the only person with a cure people will buy it.
4. The police had the incentive to lie about the crime rate to help Atlanta get the economic boost and the publicity and tourism of the Olympics.
5.The Black Disciples are much like MacDonald’s in that they each have franchises and people at the bottom of the triangle don’t make any money (People like dealers and cooks) but as you move up your pay starts to exponentially increase. They have a head, a board of directors, and then regional directors who run the franchises.
6.The years of records found their way to the I college student because he was doing research with the gang and gained their trust and one day a person who had gotten the gang indicted was going to die so he decided to do one good thing in his life and gave the records away.
7.He used things such as wars to keep other street gangs away and drugs are pretty addictive, so people would have to come back to him over and over again and since he was the only person there (Monopoly) it made his gang rich.
8.J.T made a large portion of what ever the gang made. Variable costs where things such as his weapons because they aren’t always in a war and fixed costs where things such as the pay to the board of directors which he had to pay all the time and not just every once in a while.
9.A winner take all market is a market in which you will make very little for a long while until you get to the top, and once you get to the top you make a ton. Only people on the top make the real money, everyone below them makes very little. Drug dealers would go through being a drug dealer just for the chance to become a board director or something along those lines because those people made the real money in the gang, they made enough money to make it worth their wile to be in a gang.
10.A tournament type labor market is college sports, you don’t get paid but if you do well and you are one of the lucky ones that gets to progress you will make tons of money.
11.The street level drug dealer is just trying to progress through the ranks and not get killed, they don’t care about gang profits they just want to move up. The gang leader wants to stay in his position and wants the gang to succeed. So he can make is money.
12.The invention of Crack cocaine made being in a street gang a job. You only needed a portion of actual cocaine to make it and it was very addictive and a very good source of money.
13.Crack cocaine altered this success because black communities where the ones hardest hit by this drug. Crack cocaine helped open up new stereotypes and helped to pull the black community away from their track. After Crack Cocaine came out black baby mortality rate began to increase, performance gaps began to reappear, and more of the black community was being imprisoned.
14.The invention of better and cheaper production methods helps to drive down the cost of production making the price to buy it go down and it also increases the availability so more people can buy it.
4. Not only this, but police lied about booming crime rates to increase their funding.
Delete7. J. T. actually opposed the wars, since they increased operating costs and scared away customers.
10. Sports are a great example of this sort of hierarchy, since only a tiny percentage of athletes make the big time.
11. I think in some ways moving up is related to increasing gang profits, since one can cause the other.
12. It also gave these gangs a clear purpose and direction, rather than the being simply groups of individuals out to cause trouble.
@Ryan how long do you think people will choose you over other companies once they have created a product that mimics yours?
ReplyDelete@anythony since you are talking about people not letting you disagree with them, i read a freakanomics blog a while back talking about how there is also a technique that police sometimes use in which they almost make a suspect think that they did something. Even if they didnt. Also, you can plant false ideas in people minds and even if they know they did not perform the action they still remember doing it
@Elli-Your responses were very detailed, and covered all the information needed.
ReplyDelete@Alden-The "pyramid scheme" that you explained was very easy to follow. If I had no previous understanding of it, I would have been able to explain it after reading your post
1. Conventional wisdom is information that is widely held to be true, and seems to follow our intuitive logic. It helps us to understand complex situations in comforting and simple terms.
ReplyDelete2. Since these facts are held to be true, and help to uphold our self-esteem and confidence, challenging them makes everybody uncomfortable and many will oppose this.
3. Advertising can create markets where none existed before, by presenting the illusion that there is a problem that needs to be solved when there may not be. By creating the problem that it solves, Listerine did just that.
4. Police departments had the incentives to get more money, and the media’s incentives included getting good stories. Together, these incentives led to the spread of the idea of the millionaire crack dealer, netting police departments more funds and a great story for the media.
5. There is a clear hierarchy, with higher up employee making much more money than lower ones. There are regional supervisors and accountants as well.
6. This student, Sudhir Venkatesh, was originally surveying poor black neighborhoods for a sociology project. In the process, he became waylaid in an abandoned apartment by a group of young crack dealers. After staying with them and seeing their situation, he decided to go back and ask better questions.
7. He kept violence low, and maintained a solid standing in the organization The draw of the gang was the possibility of advancement, and the views of gang membership.
8. Cost of drugs, board of directors’ fee, and weapons are more likely to be fixed costs. Variable costs include miscellaneous expenses and mercenary fighters as the situation requires.
9. These low level employees keep their job in exchange for the chance at becoming higher in rank and making much more money. For the same reason that people play the lottery, they think that the tiny chance at a huge payoff is worth it.
10. This structure is present in many business franchises, which have a tree-like topology. Workers pay supervisors, who pay owners, who pay the top level of administration for the privilege of owning a franchise. Examples of this include McDonald’s or Subway.
11. Street level salesmen want to advance themselves, which can be accomplished by proving themselves in combat. Franchise owners want to maximize profits, and keep street level salesmen in their current position. These incentives oppose one another.
12. They gave gangs a reason to exist besides the camaraderie and violence. It turned them into businesses, out to make money selling a product.
13. Crack reversed much of this progress and caused a large increase in infant mortality and other negative factors. It created poorer neighborhoods and put African Americans in a worse economic situation.
14. Better production methods make selling a good much easier, since the price can be lowered accordingly. This widens the potential market and increases sales dramatically.
1. Conventional wisdom is information assumed to be true usually and is spread through things like word of mouth.
ReplyDelete2. It could be hard to challenge conventional wisdom for multiple reasons. It could hurt to tell the truth, the truth is not known and a substitute is needed for the time being, and the person that points out that the wisdom is not the truth will be an oddball left out of the group for going against the whole.
3. Items tend to be made more popular through putting them on newer markets and using adds to attract attention. Adds can make a feel of need for a product. An example is Listerine. It was considered OK to have bad breath until this product hit the market.
4. This was probably used to get the public's attention and have them help stop crime or be in a fear position where those of authority can benefit.
5. The gang is structured like most corporations. For example McDonalds. There is the lower tier, (the burger flippers, and street drug vendors). Then there is the manager or the main supplier of drugs. So on so forth. Each person that joins has a goal of reaching the top but the road to that success is nearly impossible. Also the lower tiers doing most of the work make almost minimal pay while those at the top rake in the cash.
6. An Indian student of the university decided that for a research project visited the gang and lived with them.. The "manager" of the area the gang was located wanted a better life or for it to be easier for the continuing generations to live and therefore shared the transaction books.
7. He was the distributor of the money and therefore saw where it would go. He kept a majority of the profit. This made him seem to have more power and made the others work harder because they wanted to reach a position at the top that got the big amounts of money.
8. J.T. got about $8,500 of the gangs monthly $14,000. The fixed rates were what was payed to the board of directors , and taxes. The variable cost after that was weapons, and things that made living safer, easier, or more comfortable.
9. The tournament market is like a corporation where the lowest tier make minimal of what is made as a whole. A drug dealer would accept to be apart of that market because of hopes that he could reach the top and make a ton of money.
10. An example is McDonalds, with burger flippers, managers, franchise holders, then the lead of the corporation/board of directors.
11.Drug dealers at the bottom have the incentive to make more money because if the make more or do good they have a better chance at rising through the ranks and making good pay. Gang leaders are trying to maximize profit so that they can make more money because once they get high enough they make substantial pay.
12. The invention of crack cocaine transformed the gang as they could produce more at a lower cost and distribute more in more locations because there was a surplus. Plus it was a cheap alternative to drugs such as heroin and such that attracted more people that couldn't originally afford drugs.
13. Crack cocaine gave a cheap alternate to drugs for black society to fall back on. This also gave more chances as a drug dealer to sell and make money.
14. Intervention of a cheaper product that is considered quality increases demand greatly. It makes competition prices drop and makes their demand go down.