On the show, Chris Hedges discusses the business secrets of drug-dealing with investigative journalist Matt Taibbi.
No one knows exactly how big the underground or illegal economy is in the United States, but most estimates say it’s huge, 11%, maybe 12% of the US’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP), that’s well over $2 trillion. The underground economy, designed to avoid taxation and government oversight, has its own set of rules, one of them being that it deals exclusively in cash. The 2008 global financial meltdown and the economic fallout from the pandemic have, by most estimates, seen an expansion of the illegal economy, where people make an off-the-books living.The IRS estimates it lost $441 billion in taxes between 2011 and 2013 due to unreported wages. There is a cost to flying under the radar. Not only are those that work in the underground economy bereft of benefits, health insurance and worker’s compensation, but they have no legal recourse when they are cheated or exploited. Disputes are often settled with violence. Matt Taibbi, in his new book The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing, which he describes as “an almost true account,” chronicles the life of a successful coast-to-coast black drug dealer in Donald Trump’s America. The book examines the shadowy world of drug dealing, estimated to be a $100-billion-a-year industry in the United States, and lays out its peculiar subculture and peculiar rules for survival and success.
Watch: Here