In the first chapter, quite a bit was written about incentives. Crack dealing is one of the most perfect models to explain incentive-driven behavior. J.T., with his business background, brought a degree of organization to his "franchise" that most other cells at that level didn't see. His incentive was success and he made it to the top, if only for a short time.
Now let's look at this from a more realistic standpoint:
One has to admit that this unique circumstance was a little too unique. Remember at the beginning of the chapter what was written about how experts have a tendency to spice up their information. Venkatesh was a top-of-the-heap, PhD-level researcher. What's the chance that he would just stumble across the one crack gang out of a million that actually had that high of a degree of organization? I'm not saying that he made it all up. Nonetheless, of the staggering number of individual gangs in the entire organization, it's kind of strange that he would by chance gain access to the one that actually conducted accounting practices and had a leader go to the top! What did the first part of the chapter have to do with the part on crack cocaine? Nothing other than the latter proving the former. As I wrote above, I'm not saying he made it all up, I'm sure he spiced it up though. Who would go and check his data? Not any of the geeks he knew!
I had heard about the conspiracy theory that the CIA is responsible for the crack epidemic. Like most other conspiracy theories I didn't put any stock in it. After reading this chapter however, it seems a bit more credible. I agree that crack ruined the progress of the Civil Rights Movement. It's not as much of a problem today but think of the repercussions it has left: fear, resentment, blame and mistrust. First think of these words from your own perspective then try to from that of someone from the ghetto.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You bring up a good point about this chpater. I am extremely gulable when it comes to reading something. But when I read your blog it really made me think about and I completely agree with you. How could this guy risk his life like this just so he can report this? The ratio of risk to reward seems way to high. Its not like anyone was offering him a million dollars to do this. I agree that this is not made up, but he had to spice it up. It does not seem to logical.
I'm assuming you have never seen American Gangster. It was based on a true story and its about how the military transported cocaine to one of the biggest drug dealers in NYC. I know the military is not the CIA but I would assume it would be less shocking to hear the CIA could of been involved by knowing about how the military helped.
I thought that it was funny and a little bit ironic that one of the most successful members of the gang was a college graduate. However, he left the corporate world and joined this gang because of incentives. However, being safe is a priority of mine.
I agree with you that it is weird how a top level graduate wanted to go and stay in a gang. It is funny how long he stayed with the gang but only has a few stories that seemed irrelevant from the main point. However, the most important piece of information that he had was from that financial notebook (which was simply handed to him).
Also, John, I know that a gang keeping financial records was strange. However, I'm sure that they did not stress if their debits balanced with their credits!
Post a Comment