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Sumo Wrestlers Research Paper

Decent Essays

1. Question: “What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?”
Answer: Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers do not have much in common other than the fact that they have both been accused cheating. While some deny the unlawful acts, others admit to them. Incentives cause many different reactions amongst people. “We all learn to respond to incentives, negative and positive, from the outset of life” (Levitt & Dubner, 16). A schoolteacher doesn’t seem like one to cheat and neither does a Sumo wrestler due to their dedication and the severity of the possible consequences. Incentives are a huge part of economics. Schoolteachers actually cheat for their students for various incentives such as a promotion, or even a raise in pay. This not …show more content…

Most people would think that drug dealers would make a lot of money, but in reality, they don’t make very much money at all. The only people who make good money in the drug trade are the ones at the top of the pyramid. “The top 120 men in Black Disciples gang represented just 2.2 percent of the full-fledged gang membership but took home well more than half the money” (Levitt & Dubner, 93). If you’re not at the top of the gang, you end up just selling the drugs while making a little profit on the side, when the people at the top are making a living off of you doing the work for them. “J. T. paid his employees $9,500, a combined monthly salary that was only $1,000 more than his own official salary. J. T.’s hourly wage was $66. His three officers, meanwhile, each took home $700 a month, which works out to about $7 an hour. And the foot soldiers earned just $3.30 an hour, less than the minimum wage” (Levitt & Dubner, 93). J.T. and the Black Disciples are actually a lot like McDonald’s. The Black Disciples consisted of about 100 branches or in McDonald’s case, franchises. They had three senior officers and anywhere from 20-70 foot soldiers depending on how good business was. McDonald’s also has senior officers and foot soldiers also known as the store employees. McDonald’s is obviously on a larger scale than the drug-trade, but in both, the people at the top are the ones making most of the money. The drug trade …show more content…

Correlation is a relationship between two or more things, while causation is something that is caused because of something else. Many people confuse the two because they say that if something has a correlation it will have a cause as well. I have witnessed a correlation of a kid stealing something from somebody else and later breaking his arm at the skate park. This is an example of a correlation of the word “karma”. The young man believed his correlation with theft caused the incident, when in reality it was just a freak accident that could have happened any other time to anybody else. “The wide-ranging ECLS data offer a number of compelling correlations between a child’s personal circumstances and his school performance” (Levitt & Dubner, 166). The ECLS is a study conducted by the United States Department of Education that measures about 20,000 students from Kindergarten up to the fifth grade. The main purpose of this study was to see how parental factors and child activities affected the children when it came to their academic performance. According to the data in the ECLS, what a parent is was more important when it came to taking standardized tests. “Parents who are well educated, successful, and healthy tend to have children who test well in school” (Levitt & Dubner, 175). In my opinion, parents who care about their children’s education and will do everything in their power to get them to succeed will lead to their

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