Freakonomics: a nonfiction book filled with real life narratives and the perfect starter book about economics. Freakonomics has the motto: Assume nothing, question everything. This book was an eyeopener for me into how seemingly unrelated aspects correlate, and out of the six different hypothesises, including the relationship between teachers and sumo wrestlers, the KKK and real-estate agents, and going in depth with the black-poverty question in the United States. However, today I’m going to explore my favourite one in depth: Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?  
 
The research of this chapter was done by sociology PH.D candidate Sundir Venkatesh, and it was completely done through an extraordinarily unlikely scenario. In the pursuit of his PH.D, Venkatesh went to visit one of Chicago’s poorest black neighbourhoods to investigate the correlation between one’s race and their economic success. In a turn of events, Venkatesh was met by a gang, whose leader’s name was J.T. J.T., upon seeing him threatened to kill him unless he proves that he is not a government spy. After spending a night, in which resulted in him getting very drunk, Venkatesh was surprised by many of the gang customs and asked J.T if he could stay with the gang to find out what they really do.  
 
Surprisingly, the leader agreed.  
 
During his time with the gang, Venkatesh was informed that it was a crack gang, and with this being the height of drug sales in the later 1980s, business was booming, albeit only some of the more dominant gangs. Through the accountancy notebook, left by a dead gang member to safekeep, Venkatesh learned that in a month, the crack gang made $32,000, a truly staggering number judging by its size and number of gangs in downtown Chicago doing the same business. The wage bill given to the members of the gang, in relation to the money they earned, was a different story, however. When such a crack gang was made, there has to be a leader, and right under the leader was three of his best officers, and beneath was fifty-foot soldiers. The leader, naturally, earned the most, a well-paid $8,500 a month, but each of the three officers only received a less-than-modest $700 per month, and the foot soldiers, a measly $300. This results in an incredibly difficult life for the foot soldiers, as even adjusted to inflation, $300 is well below the average monthly wages which would be $2000.  
 
Judging from the numbers, you might think that the leader was do the most work, therefore, rightfully earning the money. In spite of that, the leaders only have to sit back and relax. What if I told you that being a foot solider means that you are five times more likely to die in comparison to an inmate sitting on death row in Texas? Crazy, I know. This is because, the foot soldiers were to the people selling the crack to its shady customers, risking the fact that standing on the side of the road looking suspicious would get them arrested. Not to mention the shooting, or warring of rival clans. In times of higher sale prices for crack, one of the objectives is to eliminate the other competing gangs, and who has to fight these pointless battles? That’s right, the foot soldiers.  
 
Why, you may ask, would people risk their lives for $300 a month? Well, in black neighbourhoods, especially the extremely poor one this research was set in, where 56% of the people lived below the poverty line, 78% of young black males came from single-parent homes, and the average household income was $15,000. The only realistic way to make it out of this mess, it to join a crack gang, and everyone’s objective? To become the leader, like what J.T does and earn big cash. In reality, less than one percent of these foot soldiers ever rise to become the gang leaders they see themselves in becoming. The result? They move back with their moms. Here, the true reality of life for the very poor hit me as it has never before. Never would I have thought that failure in drug dealing would result in a bleak futures, and never would I have thought that drug dealing was one of the few options, if not only, to survive as a black young man. 
 
As I read Freakonomics, I was fascinated by the depiction of the lives of many other people, things that would normally be kept under the radar and away from sight. But, I felt that it made me connect to the aspects of the real world like cheating, racism and black market. I really wish more of you could discover this amazing book like me, which was recommended to me by my lovely mother, and especially people who might want to pursue economics in the near future.