

Why do crack dealers still live with their moms? - tyn
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_levitt_analyzes_crack_economics.html

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pchristensen
Short answer: because drug dealing gangs are organized like McDonalds
franchises where most "foot soldiers" make minimum wage or less while the
leaders make hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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time_management
I'd be surprised if the average McDonald's franchiser is making anything close
to $100,000 per year. I'd guess that it's around $60,000 in a good location
and year. McDonalds is known to be especially bad at fleecing franchise
owners.

I worked at a chain grocery store one summer and had observations pretty
similar to Barbara Ehrenreich's in _Nickel and Dimed_. "Four digits" (per
week) was considered to be rarefied compensation. The #3 man in the store was
making around $50k, and this was a huge store with about 150 employees.

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netcan
Would you? Down here (Australia) it takes $0.5m-$1.5m to start one. I'd expect
more thent 100k

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gravitycop
The McDonald's site has some ballpark franching-cost figures for the U.S.:
[http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/franchise/purchasingYourFranch...](http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/franchise/purchasingYourFranchise/newRestaurants.html)

 _The costs associated with new restaurants are as follows:

Initial Costs

$45,000 Initial Fee paid to McDonald's

Equipment and Pre-Opening Costs

Typically these costs range from $905,200 to $1,746,000. [...] The new
Owner/Operators must pay forty percent (40%) cash of the total costs of a new
restaurant, and may finance the remainder from traditional sources._

[http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_do_McDonalds_franchise_ow...](http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_do_McDonalds_franchise_owners_earn)

 _The average McDonalds franchise owner will make $240,000 per year for each
restaurant owned. The average McDonalds restaurant will have sales of 1.9
million per year._

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netcan
That's not to shabby.

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jwesley
Side note: I wish TED talks were available in text format. They're always
interesting, but most of the time I'm unable (or unwilling) to hunker down and
watch a 20 minute video. Web content needs to be scan-able.

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cdr
This particular talk, at least, is from chapter 3 of Freakonomics.

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zaius
The best part of that was hearing Steven Levitt say 'bling bling'

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gritzko
Another explanation why Google underpays its employees.

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josefresco
Google underpays because they have a 'cult' following similar to Apple which
allows them to recruit not based on pay, but on their credibility as a cool-
smart company, and other non financial perks.

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medearis
There are a number of other interesting (though perhaps dubiously supported)
similar arguments (including this one) in his book freakonomics.

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brentr
Would your mom narc on you?

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auston
Although it isn't true - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blow_(film)>

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albertcardona
For those not acquainted with the book: "Freakonomics"

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics>

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point
Let's not jump to conclusions here. Maybe they are just saving money to make
their own web 2.0 todo list app, so they can finally get rich.

