The main idea of the article is about the sale of illegal drugs and the pyramid style set up of the industry. There are a select few who make a substantial amount of money and then the vast majority make less than minimum wage. The chapter follows a drug pyramid run by a gangster that goes by JT. In his pyramid scheme he makes a large sum of money and so do a few of the higher ups, but a large portion make next to nothing. Because the majority make so little and have the hardest job they are forced to live with their families rather than have their own residence.
Statistics: (I already owned the book on my kindle fire, I do not have page numbers, The percentages at the end of the statistics indicate the percentage into the book the data was found according to my kindle.
20% of revenues go to the dealer at the top of the pyramid as a result they do not even receive the money they get from all their transactions 26%
Foot soldiers in JT's operation earned less than $3.30 an hour, less than half of minimum wage. Showing that drug dealers usually make very little money. 27%
Average number of non fatal injuries per drug dealer 2.4, drug dealers constantly risk being hurt and while injured they have no income which makes it nearly impossible to get out of poverty and forces them to live with their mothers.
The statistics show that drug dealing is a dangerous job with little to no benefits, they risk arrest and death on a daily basis with the small possibility of working their way up the ladder to making large sums of money. The majority however live in poverty and live at home.
Matt, I think one alarming fact about the operation was the base they worked with. The authors stated that being a foot soldier was a prized position and that multiple people wanted it. I wanted to know if those people who looked at the foot soldier position with envy understood the dangers and low wages. If they did know would that change their perception on the job?
ReplyDeleteMatt, I was amazed by what these guys go through to earn so little money. It definitely made more sense once the authors compared their positions with people going to Hollywood to try to become famous, but at the same time those people aren't actually risking their lives in the process. From the sounds of the article, being apart of this business seems like an important part of their culture in a way, which seems bizarre to me but if you're born and raised in an environment like that I guess it's not unlikely for guys to want to be apart of it.
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