Reefer Madness
Eric Schlosser To start off, the main driven idea of this book is the black market, or what they refer to as the underground and “shadow economy”. The underground has its choices and consequences as well as any other type of economic system do. But, in this case the underground can be a country’s main economy for survival such as, “In Bolivia the underground economy is responsible for an estimated 65 percent of GDP. In Nigeria it accounts for perhaps 76 percent.” (7) This type of GDP from the underground is usually found in the developing worlds. That’s not to say that we don’t have a dark side of our own in the mix. The US has been the largest competitor in the Black Market in many fields for example: Marijuana, …show more content…

The Detroit Police Department charged into his warehouse on a couple occasions and on one of those, got charged with $200,000 in damages to Sturman’s warehouse because he sued them. This underground business was one of the few that left the underground economy into the mainstream. Many people wanted to become porn stars and strippers because of the pay and it was the next best thing to being in Hollywood. “Agriculture is still California’s largest industry…it now produces more than half the fruits, nuts, and vegetables consumed in the United States.” (78) How do you suppose does all that labor for half the country to enjoy delicious fruits and vegetables? Those people are referred to as illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico. Although, to us the pay seems relatively small, but for them in their country it’s at least as twice as much. People on a farm constantly work together but those tenders are usually are treated gravely because of their ethnicity. But, they get paid every now and then, so that is one of the written rules the owner follows. Everything from maltreatment to no shelter provided goes into the category of unwritten rules of the government. Once the rules change, such as Philip L. Martin tried to “improve the lives of farmworkers is simply to enforce the existing labor and immigration laws” (102) from that “1,600 of