TOW #12: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (IRB, written)

Freakonomics: A Rogue Scientist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a book written by Steven Levitt, an economist at University of Chicago, and William Morrow, a famous journalist working for the New York Times. Out of the multiple economist articles in the first half of the book, chapter 3: "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?" was the most interesting. In this chapter, Levitt and Morrow discuss the fallacy of conventional wisdom. They use ethos of John Kenneth Galbraith, who claim that people "associate truth with convenience... [which is] simple, convenient, comfortable, and comforting-though not necessarily true" (57). The media and police officers utilize this conventional wisdom to imply that drug dealers are one of the most well-earning people of America. However, with real life research, Morrow and Levitt found out that this is only true for a few dealers. To establish credibility, Morrow and Levitt interviewed Venkatesh, an economist who actually had interviewed a large black drug organization leader, J.T. and found out that the drug dealers also had to spend a lot to mercenary fighters who help them fight turf wars and for weapons. While J.T. earns a conciderable amount, other workers who are in lower rank than him earns a minute amount an hour, approximately three dollars an hour. WIth the facts, the authors reveal the ugly truth, the fact that poor African Americans have no other choice than becoming drug dealers. Despite the fact that being a drug dealer is one of the most dangerous jobs in America and many earn much less than the minimum wage, many drug dealers are born into the business. In this article, the authors' audiences are those who might have been mislead by the statistics that media used, to warn them to question the credibility before trusting the information that is presented to them right away.