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Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market
by Eric Schlosser

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30810.Reefer_Madness_Sex_Drugs_and_Cheap_Labor_in_the_American_Black_Market?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1168120104m/30810.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30810.Reefer_Madness_Sex_Drugs_and_Cheap_Labor_in_the_American_Black_Market?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/380.Eric_Schlosser">Eric Schlosser</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1303389?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>I don't get this book at all. So there are 3 different segments of the underground economy that are covered: pot, agriculture and porn. They exist in a marginalized world, he briefly talks about them, a short conclusion is tacked on, and away we go? I had no problem with the three choices he made for describing said economy, but there was not enough relevant data to tie these choices together, and without that, I felt that each section left so much unsaid/unexplored. Sure there are loads of juicy details, but just not enough of them. A few men made porn, which is ceasing to be marginalized, the Mexicanization of agriculture relies on a brutal system of peonage that his achieved a modicum of respectability due to a cadre of lawyers working in an unjust system, and pot may have been one of the few success stories of a protectionist economy: ban imports to raise the value of goods at home. And each of these sections elicits a range of emotions: rage at injustice; frustration over stupidity; amusement over the government floundering to battle porn lords. So each section works as an individual snapshot of a problem, but without a cohesive framework to explain more about the significance of said economies, each section just sort of hangs there, incomplete and lacking the firepower it needs. I give it a three because each section is well written, but for a recommendation, I don't think that I can offer. If you are interested in either of the three previously mentioned topics, choose another, more focus tome. If you want to know what the underground economy/vast illegal activities say about the schism between reality and justice, you also have to go elsewhere. I am afraid that doesn't leave much....
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/73582?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Tony's review
rating:
bookshelves: finished

I don't get this book at all. So there are 3 different segments of the underground economy that are covered: pot, agriculture and porn. They exist in a marginalized world, he briefly talks about them, a short conclusion is tacked on, and away we go? I had no problem with the three choices he made for describing said economy, but there was not enough relevant data to tie these choices together, and without that, I felt that each section left so much unsaid/unexplored. Sure there are loads of juicy details, but just not enough of them. A few men made porn, which is ceasing to be marginalized, the Mexicanization of agriculture relies on a brutal system of peonage that his achieved a modicum of respectability due to a cadre of lawyers working in an unjust system, and pot may have been one of the few success stories of a protectionist economy: ban imports to raise the value of goods at home. And each of these sections elicits a range of emotions: rage at injustice; frustration over stupidit...more

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