A reminder that it’s not easy to make $10,000/mo…
“The crack gang works pretty much like the standard capitalist enterprise: you have to be near the top of the pyramid to make a big wage.”
“Notwithstanding the leadership’s rhetoric about the family nature of the business, the gang’s wages are about as skewed as wages in corporate America.
“A foot soldier (lowest level guy) has plenty in common with a McDonald’s burger flipper or a Wal-Mart shelf stocker. In fact, most of (the gang leader) J.T’s foot solders also held minimum-wage jobs in the legitimate sector to supplement their skimpy illicit earnings.
“J.T’s hourly wage was $66. His (front line-KK) three officers, meanwhile, each took home $700/mo, which works out to about $7/hour. And the many foot solders (under the three officers-KK) earned just $3.30/hour, less than the minimum wage.
“So the answer to the original question – if drug dealers make so much money, why are they still living with their mothers? – is that, except for the top cats, they don’t make much money. They had no choice but to live with their mothers.
For every big earner, there were hundreds more just scraping along. The top 120 in the Black Disciples gang represented just 2.2 percent of the full-fledged gang membership but took home well more than half the money.”
They conclude:
“So, if crack dealing is the most dangerous job in America, and if the salary is only $3.30 an hour, why on earth would anyone take such a job?
Well, for the same reason that a pretty Wisconsin farm girl moves to Hollywood. For the same reason that a high-school quarterback wakes up at 5 a.m.to lift weights. They all want to succeed in an extremely competitive field in which, if you reach the top, you are paid a fortune (to say nothing of the attendant glory and power.) – Freakonomics, p. 103-4.
Their chances are strikingly similar to ours, aren’t they? Right along with those hopes and dreams of reaching the top with the fortune and attendant glory and power.
Think?
Kim this is not a comment to htis post which I haven’t read yet. I want to get on your call this afternoon and got 2 emails with the time and pin number but no call in number.
Would you please email the call in number? webinfusion@comcast.net
I’d really appreciate it.
Thank you,
Tracy
Just ABBA sang, “The winner takes it all”.
Here’s last year’s salary chart for Toronto Maple Leafs:
http://www.tmlfans.ca/misc/salaries.php
Sundin’s contract was $7.6Mil. The lowest earning guys were making $450K. Is Sundin 20 times as good as the worst guy on the team? Does he skate 3 times as fast as Peca (the second most-expensive forward on the team with “only” $2.5Mil)? Does he shoot 3 times as hard? No. Not at all. He’s just a little bit better than the other guys.
Is Raycroft 3 times as good a goalie as Tellqvist? Of course not. If he was, Tellqvist wouldn’t be playing in NHL, he’d be playing pick up games with a bunch of buddies and a case of beer waiting in the dressing room.
That’s the law of nature: You just need to be a LITTLE better to have a HUGE advantage. In real life, the scale is not linear.
The reason we feel it’s not “fair” is because in school we get a mark which is proportionate to our effort: if the assignment is 3/4 complete you get a 75%. In real life, if your marketing campaign is 3/4 complete or only 3/4 as good as the other guy’s, you get a 0. Actually, you get a negative mark because you’ve just wasted money and time.
So.. let just be winners. The good news is, to be a winner, you don’t need to win by a mile. You just need to win.
-Alex
http://alex.networkmarketingcentral.com
Drug Dealing is an illusion to these folks. They watch too much TV and their values are in the wrong place. Unfortunately, public school does not offer much except reading and arithmatic. That is boring. I think the drug thing is because it is exciting and they probably have a habit they have to maintain themselves. My husband was a cop in New York for 20 years. That kind of money to those dealers is. a dream come true. When you feel you have no chance of surviving, you will do anything. It has become a culture thing at this point. I don’t think you can relate what we do to what they do at all, if that is what you were trying to do. They would probably be successful in network marketing because they want it fast and they would hold a gun to your head. 🙂 It is a sad, sad existance.
Because their mothers are the “Mrs Bigs”. Well that’s often the case over here!
The cream always rises to the top in any endeavour, that’s why there’s so much money in the comp plan with MLM. We just need to help others make a bonus or commission to give them a taste of what’s in it. Remember, WIIFM?
Well, I’d actually suggest that the chances of the “gangbangers” are a lot less than that for network marketers. The “gangbangers” have completely the wrong mindset to create long term success. Whereas network marketers generally have a decent mindset or are learning it.
Network marketers also have the potential to learn useful business skills. I think Robert Kiyosaki does a good job in pointing this out in his “Business School” book about Network Marketing.
I think this is a strange topic but maybe I’ll figure it out later. As for comparing dealers with McDonald’s employees or Walmart shelf stockers, I can’t really agree even if it was used as just a point of comparison.
Kim, I laughed out loud when I read that chapter of “Freakonomics”.
I may not be standing on a street corner getting shot at and being illegal, but I sure related to working for $3.30 per hour because hope keeps you going.
Strange subject I think.I never thought of comparing drug dealers with Network marketers…I thought about it and I can see some things that compare but certainly not the attitude or mindset.I want to help people and I don’t think drug dealers think that way do you????
Oh well, at least its a interesting thought.
Lana