Oh, I realised that with my funny sleeping pattern, I've missed another blog for NaBloPoMo, does this mean that I've failed? =/ Well, since I started late anyway, I'm going to go with number of posts rather than one post per day.
I started watching The Wire again a couple of days ago, and I think schools should offer some sort of drug dealing class. It teaches kids so much better than the current education system could. I've lost count of the number of times some school has instigated a new policy where kids are being babied even more. I read an article about a game (whose name I can't remember at the moment), where the developers avoided using terms like "Game Over" because they thought that was too discouraging for children. I think one day, we're going to end up having a bunch of 30-year-old people with the same mental capacity as a current 10-year-old.
OK, so why drug dealing? First of all, it's a dog-eat-dog world. Your life is on the line now, and someone may pity you and give you a supplementary exam, but in most cases, if you get an F, you're dead. I don't know of any better motivator to study than that! You also need to develop a lot of important skills:
Networking
Any good drug dealing ring has to have some corrupt police in their pocket, maybe some politicians even. That's not all, it's good to have good relationships with your neighbours. In The Godfather, the Corleone family is so powerful because Vito understands the importance of forming relationships - doing favours for others, and having others who can do favours for you.
Competition
As a drug dealer, your ability to deal with competitors is so much greater since you don't have to follow the law as such. Sure, you can try to edge them out of the market, undercut them, start a smear campaign, etc, but if things get too much, you always have the option to kill them or their family members as a warning to stay out (bonus points if you manage to do it without losing any of your family members or your own head).
Building A Customer Base
It's true that drugs are addictive, and you don't really need an expensive marketing campaign to keep those customers coming back, but how do you handle a customer who wants some goods, but can't pay you back right away? How do you convince people that your product is better than the guy on the next corner - especially when the guy on the next corner wants to pop your kneecaps for sleeping with his sister and not calling her back? What do you do when someone wants to exchange their baby for a hit?
Supply and Demand
Depending on your neighbourhood, there is pretty much always going to be a demand, but how do you handle your supply? The police is always going to be all up your ass trying to catch you in the act, so discretion is important. How do you organise things so that you get your stuff out there, but nobody knows you're doing it? What do you do when your supply gets caught coming in from overseas and you only have x amount left, but the demand is the same? You can decrease the quality and mix it with something else, but you might lose customers (possibly to death), or you can increase the price, so that you still make your month's quota, but you might lose people to the competition.
Although, I have to say, I know I'm definitely not cut out for the drug dealing world. Some parts of The Wire make me feel so sad, and I'm finding that I'm getting really attached to a lot of the characters. I'd never be able to ask someone to kill someone else. I even get sad sometimes when my units die in SC2. =/ (However, I don't have improved micro as a result of it, I just get all sad and stop playing.)
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