The book Freakonomics wrote by the economists Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, has a definition as “A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything”. Such definition coincided with an in-class discussion which a student questioned: “if a smuggler would classify as a businessman and/or entrepreneur”. Based on that inquiry,  I recollected the chapter three of Freakonomics in which the authors compare a street gang organization with corporate monopolies. Thus, it was a direct match with my in-class discussions.

(Picture from Netflix “Narcos”)

In short, the book describes the organization of the Black Disciples street gang mirrored the structure of most corporate monopolies. To further my understanding, I read Susan Chandler’s article, Gangs Built on Corporate Mentality from the Chicago Tribune. Both sources agree when comparing the structural organization of the Black Disciple to Mcdonals and Walmart. Their system was incredibly efficient, and the gang was adept at putting the right people in the right jobs, including identifying legitimate business opportunities to launder cash. A lot of these people could have been business leaders if they had chosen to run a legitimate firm instead of a drug cartel. Nevertheless, the similarities go beyond this point. As Tom Wainwright claims, one theory behind the similarities is that the cartels in the area have what economists call a “monopsony.” A monopsony is a monopoly on buying in the area and is often associated with Walmart. In addition, like many large franchises, including McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Walmart itself, the gang members pay fees and “taxes” for the right to sell drugs and for “protection”, while the employee to boss hierarchy in the gang resembles a pyramid. 

At the bottom of the pyramid are the basic jobs; cashiers, burger flippers, and in the case of the Black Disciples, foot soldiers or those who actually sell crack on street corners. Then there is the second base tier. These people are the department managers, who manage specialized jobs. In a corporation, they make sure all the shelves are stocked, and storage rooms organized. They put all the cash from the registers into a safe at night. In the case of the Black Disciples, those employees are known as officers. A officers duty is to make sure that the drug supply and money are delivered to the appropriate people at the appropriate location. They keep the ledgers and books up to date, and they make sure lower level employees stay in line. At the third level of the pyramid is the manager himself or the gang leader. However, even store managers and drug gang leaders have to report to a higher authority. This is the top tier of the pyramid: The directors- or as the Black Disciples call them, the board of directors. These are the ‘hot shots” that truly receive the capital return. Their duty is to run and assist all branches of their franchise and make sure everyone is pulling their own weight and delivering money into the board’s pockets. 

The two “Big Ideas” for this course that emerges through this controversial comparison are complexity and capitalism. The Black Disciples’ operations plan is extremely compound including a pyramid structure for control and even a starting of a genuine business to launder the money. Their pyramid structure has a lot of “do and don’ts” and can be seen everywhere in the business world, as it resembles the organization of governments, schools, big businesses, and drug gangs. When exploring their system to the extreme, Jonathan King said: “I’ve always believed they were run the way IBM should have been run…”  What he said was that their(the gang’s) system would have been beneficial for a multimillion dollar company that had numerous skilled educated professionals working with an experienced board of directors. Why does it work? I understand that it works because it operates on the power of incentivized opportunity and hope. We as citizens or people trying to make the best possible living, see these board members, as the standard goal for how we would like to live. We see their achievements and wealth as our personal end goal. We also have been taught that to get there, you have to start from the bottom.  As children, we are told stories of poor, unfortunate heroes going on quests up in the social ladder until they become princess and kings. How did they get there? Hard, relentless work. A theme that is even echoed in the infamous American dream. The possibility of one day reaching that top tier of the economic pyramid makes us take low paying, 9-5 jobs in the hope that one day, we too will sit on that board of directors.  If you were working at the cashier at Walmart or selling crack on a street corner, your ultimate goal is still the same. It wouldn’t be outrageous to affirm that drug gangs and corporations have great synergy and a high correlation- there was even an annual company picnic for the gang members. In the end, we are just hoping for economic success and a life of comfort.