Why is Selling dope even an option?
This chapter made an outstanding point about the irrationality of being a drug dealer. The majority of drug dealers make about $3.30/hr, and they face a probability of one out of four of getting killed in the street. Most of them usually live with their parents because they can’t afford to live on their own. Why on earth someone would choose to be a drug dealer when there are some many other ways to make so much more money and live at peace? How could some people be so irrational?
Further, the author made a point about drug dealer’s possible motive for accepting such a tough working condition. Most of them are trying to get to the top 2% level where drug dealing really pays. Those at that level spend one third of their times in jail. People would definitely be better off trying to make it in the legal work environment.
Maybe the ghettos are suffering from a lack of true leadership that can gear young black men towards more rationale choices. The civil right leaders spend too much time trying to get the government to give wealth fare to people who are young and able to work. I think they should spend more time helping blacks choosing educations so they can have better futures. Blacks can make lots of money legally and live in peace if they are willing to sacrifice a few years of their youths in school. Selling drugs is not the only way to make money.
Unfortunately the ghettos suffer from a lack of information. People don’t even know about their options. As a master student, I didn’t find out until a few weeks ago that McKnight scholarship pays $25,000 a year to any African American that chooses to seat through a PHD program. It is uncommon to hear people from poor neighborhood saying they don’t want to go to college because they don’t want to have to pay back student loans. All they need is for someone to tell them that the government gives grant for those whose incomes are insufficient to pay for college. For those who have to take loans, student loans are hardly significant when compare with the amount of benefits one can get from going to college
4 comments:
I agree that drug dealing is not the way to go at all, but your peers have a lot of influence over you when you are growing up. Drug dealers are usually people who are desperate for money and do not know any other way, which means that they have been raised in broken homes with parents or a parent who does not know, or does not have time to give the proper guidence because they are constantly working/slacking. If you are a kid who grows up in the projects, and your parents are always gone, who is going to teach you the right way? If you live in a bad area the public school that you goto is most likely underfunded with poor teachers, so education is a difficult option. Im not saying that people in the projects only deal drugs because thats the only option, but there is more to the story then just being an "irrational idiot."
Those are some very good and strong arguments. I believe that one reason for people becoming involved in the drug game is that they feel they have no other options, and have been brought up to think that this is the only way someone in their position can make it. I don't believe that the risk is worth the reward but to some it might be the only light they see at the end of the tunnel.
There is string evidence that growing up in a broken home in the wrong part of town leads to criminal activity. If you have no guidance, and are left alone everyday after you get home from school, you are going to get into some sort of trouble. Kids like to get away with things. Therefore, if no one is there to stop you, you will try to test the limits on many occasions. Parenting has such a strong inlfuence on children.
I don't know if what they're doing is really that irrational. The job opportunities aren't the same when you don't even have a high school degree (which is an assumption). It's not like McDonald's is going to make you rich and, even though it's illegal, it easy to picture yourself being the big dog. We all do it when we picture ourselves behind the big desk in the corner office, wearing Armani suits and smoking a Cuban cigar. Our ideal is just legal.
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