Chapter three begins with a discussion of a famous quote by economist John Kenneth Galbraith who stated, “we associate truth with convenience” (86). This statement is the basis for the beginning of the author’s line of reasoning to conclude that statistics are easily manipulated. For example, the public will not challenge or doubt a statistic if it sounds reasonable or would be socially inappropriate to question. Therefore, individuals and groups have been able to manipulate statistics to their benefit without resistance.

For example, Mitch Synder exaggerated the presence of homeless in the US and women’s rights activist exaggerated and continue to exaggerate the incidence of sexual assault. Most importantly, the authors examine the exaggeration by polices departments in the 1990’s that over reported the means and weaponry of crack dealer in the 1990’s.  Police departments successfully painted a picture of crack dealers with state-of-the-art weapons, working one of the most profitable jobs in America. However, after seeing the manipulation of previous statistics the reader is immediately left questioning how crack dealers could actually have greater resources than police. The accuracy of this statistics is the premise for the discussion of the chapter.

To determine the condition and means of crack dealers the authors examines the research of Sudhir Venkatesh. Venkatesh, a scholar who researched the crack culture in Chicago, lived among a branch of a gang the “Black Gangster Disciple Nation.”  He researched the culture and hierarchal relationship of the crack industry for six years. He also was lucky enough to meet J.T. a college educated gang branch leader who took meticulous notes on the finances of his gang.

Through the documentation and budget reports that J.T. compiled over four years Venkatesh found that there was indeed a lot of money in dealing crack, if and only if you were a leader. J.T. for example was a leader and was earning about one hundred thousands dollars a year. J.T.’s bosses were earning five times as much as he was. However, these were not the individuals selling crack on the streets the police were referring to. The boys who were selling crack on the street earned slightly more than three dollars an hour, which was below minimum wage at the time. As a result, the corner neighborhood crack dealers, as the name chapter suggests, was living with their mothers without bottomless pockets and state-of-the-art guns.

According to Venkatesh the reported wealth of crack dealers by police stations during the period was only half true. Although, there were crack dealers making a lot of money the corner crack dealer certainly was not. The authors do not plainly say that the police department’s statistics were inaccurate, but as a reader who drew this conclusion I suspect most other readers would come to the same conclusion.

The authors then examine the prevalence of the effects of crack in African American community by comparing its evolutions from cocaine to the evolution of silk stockings to nylon stockings. Originally, silk stockings were a luxury only the very wealthy could afford like cocaine. After the advent of nylon stockings, stockings were available to the masses for very cheap similarly to crack. The advent of crack, however, had detrimental effect to African American communities totally stopping and reversing the progress made after the civil rights movement.

Statistics used:

1. Page 86: Mitch Snyder’s 1980 statistic that there are 3 million homeless Americans and that 45 homeless people die each second.

2. Page 88: Women’s rights advocates have exaggerated the incidence of sexual assault from one in eight to one in three.

3. Page 88-89: Atlanta police underreported crime in the early 1990’s because they want to host he Olympics and needed to be viewed as a safe city. (88)

4. Page100: In the Black Disciples the top 2.2 percent of the gang earned more than half the money earned by the gang.

These statistics help tell the chapter’s story by summarizing the argument that static’s are manipulated and crack dealers do not have bottomless wallets. The first two statistics illustrate that common statistics are manipulated and even made up in Mitch Snyder’s case, but are still accepted by the masses as fact regardless of their accuracy. The statistic in number three transitions the story to police departments and shows that even police departments, Atlanta in this case, have motive for manipulating static’s.

Atlanta’s underreporting makes the reader doubt the police departments claim that crack dealers had state of the art weapons and bottomless wallets in the next paragraph. The reader has been set up to be distrustful of the police claim because of the inaccuracy of the prior statistics. Finally later in the chapter the forth statistic disproves the financial situation of crack dealers reported by police. The majority of money in the crack industry goes to the leaders who never stand on the street corner of a ghetto, the conclusion that the reader has been waiting for and expecting while reading Venkatesh’s experience.

Levitt, Steven D., and Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. New York: William Morrow, 2005. Print.