1. What is "conventional wisdom?" What are some ways that "conventional wisdom" comes into being?
A: Conventional wisdom is an idea or explanation that is excepted by the public regardless of the truth in the statement. examples are advocates of women's rights, homeless, and politicians stretch the truth on statistics to encourage people to pay attention and get more support.
2. Explain why challenging the "conventional wisdom" with regard to a sticky social issue may be difficult to do.
A: When there is a chance no one will question conventional wisdom it due to the nature of a topic, why not? However, when someone exaggerates their arguments and are confronted with facts it creates a problem. The topic that a person lied about is not bad (i.e. the homeless, woman's rights) but the false information that has been given hinders the good that they are trying to do.
3. Considering this chapter’s analysis of the transformation of Listerine from an antiseptic to a cure for halitosis, what can one conclude about the effect of advertising on market demand for a good or service?
Listerine was sold as anything from a floor clearer to a antiseptic so why would people want to use it as mouthwash (something that didn't exist back then.) The advertsing completely sold the product showing a couple not so happy because of one of them had bad breath. Until then bad breath wasn't considered a problem but Listerine made it seem like one and made $8 million dollars off of it.
4. Explain how the incentives of police departments and the public media gave rise to explanations of the rising crime rate in the 1980s that were totally wrong.
A: In run for the 1996 Olympics, . The media also told the story of crack cocaine and how it was a powering industry and had a lot of money in it but the people selling the drug still lived in the projects where they started selling it.
5. Describe, in general terms, the organizational structure of the Black Disciples street gang. How is it similar to the organizational structure of most business?
A: some general terms where that The Black Disciples were set up like almost any business. The top men were called "board of directors" then in individual cities/districts their were bosses with three men under him and "enforcer" for safety, a "treasurer" to manage the gang's liquid assests, and a "runner" for transporting the drugs from the supplier.
6. Explain how four years of financial records of the Black Disciples street gang found their way into the hands of a University of Chicago graduate student. With the gang under indictment, one of the gang's inner members (the one who was being blamed for the new legal interest) gaave the financial records of the gang to Venkatesh in hopes that it could maybe do some good because of his fear of death that would most likely occur of the gang's backlash.
7. How did J.T., a branch leader of a Black Disciples street gang, acquire and maintain a regional monopoly over crack cocaine within the territorial domain of the gang?
How any gang would survive, out of violence and takeoff of rival gangs. J.T. was also a college graduate and a business major. He knew what he was doing in the managing and organizing his portion of the crack cocaine business.
8. What are monthly costs incurred by J.T.’s unit of the Black Disciples? Which costs would be considered fixed costs? Which would be considered variable costs?
The money that J.T.'s unit brought in was around $25,000 in drug sales.
Variable Costs
CHAPTER 4
Banning abortion in Romania would (in theory) bring more people to be the future of Romania and increase the economy of the future.
2. Describe the incentives Ceausescu used to increase the birth rate in Romania.Were these incentives effective? Explain.
Beside making abortion illegal Ceausescu would have many work places take weekly to monthy pregnancy test on all of the female employees and if they were not pregnant they risked losing their job. Out of fear this did work the population of Romania grew.
3. As a result of Ceausescu’s policies, what happened to the average quality of life in Romania? Provide an economic explanation for the change that occurred.
Because of the increase in population the quality of life dramatically decreased. While the increase of people sounded good in theory the resources, goods, and services didn't change making life harder.
4. Describe the general behavior of the crime rate in the United States between 1970 and 1999, i.e., indicate whether it was increasing or decreasing from year to year.
Crimologists thought a 80% increase in crime was going to happen by 1999 when in fact it decreased.
5-6. List each of the explanations of the drop in the crime that occurred in the 1990s that are evaluated by Levitt and Dubner. Of the explanations you identified in the previous question, which ones do not appear to in fact be valid? Which ones do appear to in fact be valid?
Innovative policing strategies/Increased number of police
1. In economic terms, what was Nicolae Ceausescu’s rationale for banning abortion in Romania, i.e., how did he see banning abortion befitting the Romanian economy?
The police that were on the street had resources, training, and experience.
13.What percentage of homicides in the United States involve a gun? How many guns are there in the United States compared to the number of adults? Based on your answers to the previous two questions, formulate a hypothesis regarding the relationship between the crime drop in the 1990s and laws such as the Brady Act and initiatives such as the various gun buyback programs that were implemented around the country.
Two-thirds of United States homicides involve a gun. If you were to give a gun to everyone in the world you would run out of people before you run out of guns. Gun buyback programs do not take in enough guns to have any drop in crime. The Brady Act keeps guns out of the hands of citizens while criminals buy their guns off the equally as thriving black market.
14.What do the data tell us about the viability of the assertion that tougher gun laws contributed to the drop in crime in the 1990s? What helps to explain this finding?
Based on imprisoned felons, most guns are bought by licensed dealers even the ones used in crimes.
15. Summarize the findings of economist John R. Lott Jr. regarding the relationship between "right-to- carry" gun laws and crime. Have other scholars been able to produce similar findings? What does this say about the reliability of Lott’s findings?
If criminals think that most of the law-biding citizens are carrying weapons then criminals will be less likely to commit crimes. However, these results could not be produced multiple times.
16. Is there evidence to suggest that the "bursting of the crack bubble" contributed to the crime drop in the 1990s? If your answer is yes, explain how it happened.
17. Did the "graying of America" help bring down the crime rate in the 1990s? Why or why not?
The takeover of turf, killing for power, and other crimes around the selling on drugs decreased because of the cheapest of the drug itself and lack of profit.
The strong economy boost in theory did decrease the crime rate of nonviolent crime like robbery, car theft, and burgalry based on the theory that criminals didn't need to steal. However, it did not explain the 40% decrease of violent crimes like homicide, assault, and rape.
8. What rationale do some criminologists offer for the argument that imprisonment rates should be lowered as part of the effort to reduce crime in the United States? Was their logic sound? If not, what fallacy did they commit?
The arguement is that crime rates are high when imprisonment is high while crime rates are low when imprisonment is low. This is called the "Moratorium" arguement and doesn't make much sense. It costs $25000 dollars to keep one person in prison for a year and it doesn't get to the root causes of crime but that doesn't justify setting criminals free.
9. Explain how a "tournament" or "winner take all" labor market works.Why would a street-level drug dealer be willing to accept low pay and poor working conditions?
Young aspiring workers in to start out at the bottom to get to the more glamous high-paying jobs for little pay and great devotion. A drug dealer has the same outlook. He wants to be one the top bosses but he has to be a "foot soldier," first. That incentive would drive anyone to do a job for low pay.
10. Give your own examples of a "tournament" type of labor market.
In Hollywood, becoming a movie star or singer is almost a dream that will never come true. Taking extra jobs or even finding a job is where you have to start. Most of the big name actors and actresses didn't start off in the blockbuster hits.
11. How do the incentives of the street-level drug salesman differ from those of the gang leader/franchise owner? Are they both attempting to maximize the profits of the gang? Why or why not?
Both the street-level drug salesman and the gang leader/franchise owner are both somewhat looking out only for themselves. With the leader pocketing a lot of the profit and the salesman just trying to get by on any money he can get. However, the leader is also systematically distrubutes the money for the better of the gang keeping it in business and growing.
12. How did the invention of crack cocaine transform the urban street gang?
Urban street gangs before crack cocaine were more on creating mayhem and not money. But as street gangs were introduced to the new booming business of crack they started to make more and more money.
13.According to the data cited in this chapter, civil rights laws and a shift in the attitudes in the United States regarding race helped to improve the status of black society. How did crack cocaine alter that progress?
The addiction to crack and the high that it gave was only temporary and and user would come back for more. That and the fact that the invention of crack was so cheap it could easily be sold in poorer neighborhoods by urban gangs.
14. Based on the examples in this chapter, what does the invention of better and cheaper production methods do to the price and sales of a good or service?
Price is everything. In the example of cocaine it was something only rich people could afford but after the invention of crack it was much cheaper and more people could
Based on imprisoned felons, most guns are bought by licensed dealers even the ones used in crimes.
15. Summarize the findings of economist John R. Lott Jr. regarding the relationship between "right-to- carry" gun laws and crime. Have other scholars been able to produce similar findings? What does this say about the reliability of Lott’s findings?
If criminals think that most of the law-biding citizens are carrying weapons then criminals will be less likely to commit crimes. However, these results could not be produced multiple times.
16. Is there evidence to suggest that the "bursting of the crack bubble" contributed to the crime drop in the 1990s? If your answer is yes, explain how it happened.
17. Did the "graying of America" help bring down the crime rate in the 1990s? Why or why not?
The takeover of turf, killing for power, and other crimes around the selling on drugs decreased because of the cheapest of the drug itself and lack of profit.
The strong economy boost in theory did decrease the crime rate of nonviolent crime like robbery, car theft, and burgalry based on the theory that criminals didn't need to steal. However, it did not explain the 40% decrease of violent crimes like homicide, assault, and rape.
8. What rationale do some criminologists offer for the argument that imprisonment rates should be lowered as part of the effort to reduce crime in the United States? Was their logic sound? If not, what fallacy did they commit?
The arguement is that crime rates are high when imprisonment is high while crime rates are low when imprisonment is low. This is called the "Moratorium" arguement and doesn't make much sense. It costs $25000 dollars to keep one person in prison for a year and it doesn't get to the root causes of crime but that doesn't justify setting criminals free.
9. Explain how a "tournament" or "winner take all" labor market works.Why would a street-level drug dealer be willing to accept low pay and poor working conditions?
Young aspiring workers in to start out at the bottom to get to the more glamous high-paying jobs for little pay and great devotion. A drug dealer has the same outlook. He wants to be one the top bosses but he has to be a "foot soldier," first. That incentive would drive anyone to do a job for low pay.
10. Give your own examples of a "tournament" type of labor market.
In Hollywood, becoming a movie star or singer is almost a dream that will never come true. Taking extra jobs or even finding a job is where you have to start. Most of the big name actors and actresses didn't start off in the blockbuster hits.
11. How do the incentives of the street-level drug salesman differ from those of the gang leader/franchise owner? Are they both attempting to maximize the profits of the gang? Why or why not?
Both the street-level drug salesman and the gang leader/franchise owner are both somewhat looking out only for themselves. With the leader pocketing a lot of the profit and the salesman just trying to get by on any money he can get. However, the leader is also systematically distrubutes the money for the better of the gang keeping it in business and growing.
12. How did the invention of crack cocaine transform the urban street gang?
Urban street gangs before crack cocaine were more on creating mayhem and not money. But as street gangs were introduced to the new booming business of crack they started to make more and more money.
13.According to the data cited in this chapter, civil rights laws and a shift in the attitudes in the United States regarding race helped to improve the status of black society. How did crack cocaine alter that progress?
The addiction to crack and the high that it gave was only temporary and and user would come back for more. That and the fact that the invention of crack was so cheap it could easily be sold in poorer neighborhoods by urban gangs.
14. Based on the examples in this chapter, what does the invention of better and cheaper production methods do to the price and sales of a good or service?
Price is everything. In the example of cocaine it was something only rich people could afford but after the invention of crack it was much cheaper and more people could
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