What conclusion do you draw...

[Gogf]

This is a thread about inferences. Please vote your conscience rather than viewing the results and then voting based on other people's votes. I want to gauge how people react to the presentation of a certain fact.

According to Freakonomics, the average crack dealer makes less money than he would working at McDonald's. Let's assume this is correct. What do you infer from this?

 

[Zack]

According to Freakonomics, the average crack dealer makes less money than he would working at McDonald's. Let's assume this is correct. What do you infer from this?

Both customers and employees of McDonalds like crack.

 

[carmen510]

Crack is cheaper than McDonald's food.

 

[Cutlass]

According to Freakonomics, the average crack dealer makes less money than he would working at McDonald's. Let's assume this is correct. What do you infer from this?

That jobs where the stars make fortunes and the superstars make vast fortunes attract a lot of people at the bottom who have no shot at the top, but are willing to go through hell to hope have some remote shot at it.

 

[jtb1127]

By drug dealers you mean the blokes who actually stand on the corners, yes? If this is who you are referring to I think the corner guys are being under paid by their bosses. Also, I think the turn over rate is too high so it allows for the bosses to pay them very low (prison, getting shot ect.).

Other things I got to: If this were true then the crack dealers should definitely change jobs and the main reason I would think a crack dealer is dealing is because he thinks it is cool and he likes the power, or needs to make money. Both cases are a result of being unaware of the opportunities. I also think Downtown should not smoke crack because it is bad for him.

 

[Gogf]

Also, I think the turn over rate is too high so it allows for the bosses to pay them very low (prison, getting shot ect.).

Why do you think longer-term workers would require higher wages?

 

[Cutlass]

Most people don't make good decisions concerning long odds. It's like the risk of falling down your stairs and killing yourself is much more likely than dying in a plane crash. Yet what do people fear? The opposite of that is that you aren't at all likely to be the star. But the reward is so high that people misjudge the odds and try vainly for it anyways. Because, you know, someone makes it.

 

[Arwon]

I voted utterly randomly, but I think entry level crack dealing is probably quite analogous to doing a tour of duty in the service industry.

 

[Earthling]

I'm not sure the OP's vague intent is going to be satisfied by voters. Many of the poll options do not reflect the ideal the OP seems to be aiming for in asking people to draw inferences based on the single statement. Instead, they are going to invoke people's general opinions on drugs and other issues to determine if they vote for various statements.

For example "people selling crack should sell other drugs instead" is probably a valid conclusion if you assume that those people must sell some sort of drug. Given that and the "fact" in the OP then inferring that they should switch drugs is reasonable. Though obviously one could say they shouldn't sell drugs at all, but that might not satisfy the OP's goal to "just draw conclusions based on this one statement."

 

[downtown]

Why do you think longer-term workers would require higher wages?

I assume because selling crack is difficult, dangerous, and highly specific work. Good help is hard to come by if you're a crack dealer, and if a successful, long term dealer isn't compensated, he's either going to hook up with another gang, or worse, try to strike out on his own. That means violence, and violence is bad for the crack business.

 

[Zelig]

The average crack dealer smokes enough crack to harm his business sense.

 

[Perfection]

Goddamned Republicans are preventing them from unionizing.

 

[jtb1127]

Why do you think longer-term workers would require higher wages?

Because short term workers never form unions, because they're leaving soon.

 

[Tani Coyote]

I imagine it's a combo of too little demand (possibly people acting a tad more responsibly given how dangerous the drug is compared to marijuana and such), as well as the fact it's a lot harder to be successful as a dealer. It's like a casino. You go in, there's a high chance you'll lose (killed/arrested), but if you win, you win big.

 

[Takhisis]

In b4 the lock.

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[amadeus]

Drug gangs need to be deregulated - Absolutely. Drug gangs are granted a de facto monopoly by the government through its enforcement of anti-drug laws.

The cost of doing business as a drug dealer is too high - Going to prison is a high price to pay for a job that actually pays little and offers little in terms of upward social mobility.

Most people do not understand how drug gangs work - Probably true due at least in part to media depictions of wealthy drug dealers sitting in palatial estates in Colombia.

(Some) poor people do not understand the employment opportunities available to them - Applies to most if not all income groups.

McDonalds pays its workers too much - Seriously, how hard is it to not put ketchup and cheese on a hamburger?

The turnover rate among crack-sellers must be very high - Again, the prison thing.

OK, now the one I didn't vote for:

Legalize crack so we can tax it and raise the price, to combat the drug problem - The high price of drugs is the problem. By driving up the price, you create more incentive for people to join the drug trade. You also create more incentive for addicts to steal in order to fuel their addictions.

 

[Mise]

This is a thread about inferences. Please vote your conscience rather than viewing the results and then voting based on other people's votes. I want to gauge how people react to the presentation of a certain fact.

According to Freakonomics, the average crack dealer makes less money than he would working at McDonald's. Let's assume this is correct. What do you infer from this?

I don't think I can draw any of those conclusions from that statement. Dealers make less than McDonald's staff, McDonald's staff make less than office assistants, who make less than lawyers, who make less than blah blah blah. So what? I don't think any of those conclusions are necessarily correct, based on that new information. The poll options are littered with subjective judgements, like "too" or indeed "high". If there were words like "higher than" or "more than", the poll options would be easier to click. If they were qualified with things like "possibly" or "maybe" or even "likely", then again, I'd be more inclined to make such inferences. Overall, all I can say is that the market price of labour when that labour is drug dealing is lower than the market price of labour when that labour is burger flipping, due to the supply/demand relationships in both cases.

Don't get me wrong, I could certainly agree with some of the statements in the poll. But this new information doesn't change anything, with regard to the poll options. It just states a fact about where the market equilibrium is in both markets.

 

[brennan]

I would ask: How long does the average crack dealer spend working, compared to someone working at McDonalds?

Given that right now I am sitting next to a client with professional qualifications and a Masters' degree who has failed to so much as get a job at McDonalds for the 4 years I have known him despite a lot of intervention and 'training' by myself and others. I voted for option 2. The economy is broken. btw the reason he can't get a job is that he is a bit weird - he gets a lot of interviews but just comes across wrong. I have discussed this with my colleagues and we agreed this is the worst barrier to employment our clients can have

 

[azzaman333]

I'm not sure if any of the poll options can be actually inferred from the statement in the OP without additional information.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

It's the petty dealers who make so little. They aren't independents but rather work for a bigger boss who takes their gains and pays them whatever he wants. This chain goes all the way to the drug lord, who is wealthy beyond measure. Since it is a criminal business, there is no regulation. The bosses can pay whatever they want, or even not pay.