Argument Analysis : ' Freakonomics '

In the book Freakonomics, written by economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubne, the authors go through different parts of modern life to show how economics describes why people act a certain way as well as the way specific outcomes occur. They look into different aspects of society and view them with different perspectives. With the use of specific data and the fundamentals of economics, the very obscure comparisons and the different chapters in the book show correlation between economics and human nature. The main point of this book is to explain a few fundamental ideas through the answers of strange questions and how they play a major role in society.

Drug dealers still bunk with their mothers due to the fact that they uphold subpar jobs. The reason for this is proven in the third chapter of Freakonomics. The

One of the main economic problems that many people, particularly gangs, in Robert Taylor faced was the fact that they didn’t want to trade in their status for entry-level jobs because in many cases, gang leaders made far more than they would have if they worked minimum wage jobs (72). Many of the gang leaders such as J.T. held the false belief that the drug economy was “useful for the community, since it redistributed the drug addict’s money back into the community via the gang’s philanthropy” (115). However, the drug economy is not a stable or lucrative economy compared to your average jobs because it was clearly very hard for people to get ahead in gangs, thus no one ever had a fair shot of earning more money in their life span. Nevertheless, the situation can tend to be a grey area of debate since a lot of the residents did attempt to hold blue-collar jobs but continued to get laid off (60). In this case, the underground economy of drug sales may have been the only choice for residents looking for an income. Another way the gangs play into the economic situation is when there are drive by shootings, in which case parents

The title is a chapter (chapter four to be specific) included in the book “Freakonomics”, by Stephen Leavitt and Steven Dubner. The authors have applied critical thinking and problem solving process to several open ended problems to reach a particular conclusion. In this particular chapter, the authors dwell on the factors that are significant for the decrease in crime rate. The authors have compared the effect of legalisation of abortion on the crime rate. This article is an analysis of how the authors have performed the Wolcott’s model.

In the book, Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociology student from the University of Chicago starts out simply trying to understand “how it feels to be poor and black,” and ends up spending years and years figuring out the ins and outs of a gang society (Venkatesh 14). Sudhir receives the chance of a sociologist’s lifetime to see first-hand what life is like in the projects. He follows gang leader, J.T. around and studies his life at the Robert Taylor homes for years. Throughout Venkatesh’s experience he witnesses many things some people go a lifetime without seeing. For example, he was no stranger to seeing people use drugs or get beat up by gang members. One interesting aspect of Venkatesh’s experiment

In the book, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, there are many rhetorical devices listed and used to support the authors beliefs. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner; the authors of Freakonomics often use Ethos and Logos to back up their arguments and beliefs. In Freakonomics there are three main rhetorical devices used; Allusions, Diction and Metaphors.

Gang crime is one of the most intriguing social phenomena’s across the world, as defining the deviancy has been difficult due to a broad range of definitions (Wood & Alleyne, 2010, pg. 101). One definition is given by David Curry and

To start off, the main driven idea of this book is the black market, or what they refer to as the underground and “shadow economy”. The underground has its choices and consequences as well as any other type of economic system do. But, in this case the underground can be a country’s main economy for survival such as, “In Bolivia the underground economy is responsible for an estimated 65 percent of GDP. In Nigeria it accounts for perhaps 76 percent.” (7) This type of GDP from the underground is usually found in the developing worlds. That’s not to say that we don’t have a dark side of our own in the mix. The US has been the largest competitor in the Black Market in many fields for example: Marijuana,

Bootlegging, the distribution and dealing of an illegal substance, was becoming increasingly popular with liquor outlawed. Bootleggers would go to great extents to bring in liquor to their customers, prymarily speakeasy owners, as well as making sure they did not lose their customers to the other vaious gangs in the area. To ensure this threats were made to owners, gang wars began, and many murders occurred. (“Prohibition”) Those who became successful bootleggers became emmensly rich and powerful resulting in the expansion and flourishing of organized crime. Most organized crime leaders, gangsters, were wealthy and lived, at least on the outside, a sophisticated and exuberant life. In fact durning the Prohibition Era many people idolized bootlegging and gangs because it was a fast way to get rich and powerful.This would lead to an increase in the population of gangs. These gangs could be extremely dangerous and would kill many, ultimately causing an increase in homicide rates by 13% ("Organized Crime and Prohibition”). The reasoning behind the homicide rates going up is simple; as different mobs became more powerful in their areas and their range of illegal activities expanded they got more attention and this attention caused for rivalrys between different mobs and a higher police involvement in attempting to end the

Pathos. Being a book of nonfiction and being written with the purpose of educating others, Levitt and Dubner do not hesitate to throw logistics on what they talk about. The title of this chapter asked what schoolteachers and sumo-wrestlers have in common and anyone would be surprised by how much they actually do in fact have in common. A usage of pathos used by Levitt and Dubner is “ Whatever the incentive, whatever the situation, dishonest people will try to gain an advantage by whatever means necessary”(page 21), in saying this, Levitt and Dubner want you to grasp your mind around the fact that basically people will do whatever they need to do. The whole chapter

“Gangs have morphed from social organizations into full-fledged criminal enterprises” (Thomas, 2009, para 5). Gangs are highly sophisticated and more dangerous then ever. The number one reason to join a gang is money; and 95 percent of gangs profit comes from drug dealing

Racketeers and gangsters competed for business, spawning a wave of violence across the nation” (Hanson 35). No place was more evident of this than Chicago.

J.T and the Black Disciples are similar to McDonalds due to the fact of having the similar needs and doings. For example, they're all paid a great salary and in the franchise there's a runner, treasurer and enforcer. J.T gets the news and he reports the news to someone higher than him, such as a supervisor. As it says in the book, "A foot soldier had plenty in common with a McDonald’s burger flipper or a Wal-Mart shelf stocker. In fact, most of J. T.’s foot soldiers also held minimum-wage jobs in the legitimate." (129). They’re paid the exact same or maybe even better. The Black Disciples are similar to the franchise of McDonald's because of the gain of money also. There's a head boss and it goes down from there. Drugs in Chicago were apparently important to those who lived there. You'd have to sell it just like a salesman is trying to do the same with their new invention. Information is passed from a person to another kind of like how a corporation is modeled. The incentives differ for the upper management of a drug ring and foot soldiers, with the thought of need to go up the ladder. For the war it was beneficial for the foot soldiers because, "A foot soldiers was to make a name for himself; J.T.'s incentive was, in effect, to keep the foot soldiers from doing so." (134). For J.T. war was terrible due to the fact of it's expensive price to sponsor it, he saw it bad for the business as a drug

During this period the rise of urban gang rule and mobsters was unprecedented, mainly emerging from minority immigrant groups (Jewish/Italian/Irish). Initially the gangsters of the period were seen as high achievers as they were associated with the proletariat and seemed to be capable of rising above there roots, even during hard times in America, and achieve wealth. When considering the socio-economic factors it is easy to understand why such men were considered as "gangster-heroes"[3] who represented the people, however the only way that gangsters could achieve this wealth, subsequently fulfilling the American Dream, was by stealing it. " Accruing capital meant accruing power over others"[4].

What they were all responding to was the force of Levitt’s underly- ing belief: that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not un- knowable, and—if the right questions are asked—is even more in- triguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. - Stephen J. Dubner.