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There was a great book called Gang Leader for a Day, about a UChicago sociologist that spends time inside a Southside drug crew. His research showed that the av
by dcolkitt 6y ago
There was a great book called Gang Leader for a Day, about a UChicago sociologist that spends time inside a Southside drug crew. His research showed that the average low-level street dealer made less than minimum wage. Almost all the profit accrued to the guys high up in the supply chain or gang hierarchy.
- edoceo 6y agoDrug dealing is a facinating experiment of full-free-market capitalism. The experience certainly inspired me further on the path of entrepreneurship.
- galuggus 6y agoI think it's often monopolies enforced by violence and corruption.
- boomboomsubban 6y agoMany people argue that's the inevitable result of fully free market capitalism too.
- vagrantJin 6y agoI have to agree with the sentiment. Free markets aren't operated by reasonable people.
- rayhendricks 6y agoExactly, assuming that we are operating in a non-lawful space would that not enable the most “pure” result of free market capitalism?
- marvin 6y agoRecommend the book Narconomics for an in-depth look at the «free-market» ideas that drug organizations use in South America. Gang tattoos to limit the mobility of their labor, duopolies to minimize conflict but maintain most of the benefits of a monopoly, squeezing upstream suppliers by playing them off each other, geographically-differentiated pricing and much more. The violence is obviously the biggest difference, but even the rest serves as a warning not to drop regulation entirely.
- rayiner 6y agoWhat makes you think that? Free market capitalism is premised on the existence of a “market.” A “market” is not something that exists in the state of nature. In particular, you need some sort of property rights. If you can kill people and take their stuff, as in the state of nature, or use violence to coerce labor, then you don’t have “markets.” You don’t need a government necessarily to enforce those rights, but free exchange of goods and labor cannot exist if violence is possible to coerce those exchanges.
- boomboomsubban 6y agoSo for free market capitalism you need these "markets" that eliminate the ability for money to be used for violence. Anytime violence is involved, it's automatically not free market capitalism, so any negative result does not reflect the ideology.
- amanaplanacanal 6y agoThere is still violence, it’s just centralized in the government instead of distributed in the gangs.
- boomboomsubban 6y agoSo if you pay the government for violence it's free market capitalism but if you pay a gang it's not?
- imtringued 6y agoWell, it is true because a fully free market would imply lawlessness and no government.
- gherkinnn 6y agoAnarchists aside, I have yet to meet an extreme free-marketeer, libertarian or whatever who did not see the point of having some degree of governmental intervention. Enforcing legally binding contracts, for example. In doing so, you no longer need to keep business within a tightly controlled group (family?) or enforce it with chainsaws. Neither apply to selling heroin on the street.
- hntrader 6y ago> full-free-market capitalism It's illegal, so it's hardly a free market.
- blululu 6y agoThat research was from 25 years ago. Rent has ballooned since then and wages at the bottom have dropped (minimum wage is lower now relative to CPI). Would be curious if this result holds up if we adjusted for inflation.