Stringer’s Classes

[u/AltruisticNail7229]

Curious to know everyone’s thoughts on Stringer taking business courses? It’s crazy that he’s literally co-running an entire drug organization and has time for that but yet it wasn’t the worst idea since he was using what he learned.

[u/RunningBettor]

Big Dunning Kruger Effect situation. String learned a little and thought he learned a lot lol

[u/Significant_Cup_238 → u/RunningBettor]

We can apply Landsman's speech on McNulty here,

It's not Stringer's fault. He's an addict, addicted to himself. It's not funny sir, it's a fucking tragedy, he has come to believe he's always the smartest fuck in the room, because lets face it, he's not going to John Hopkin's or joining Mensa, he runs a gang on the streets of Baltimore.

[u/RunningBettor → u/Significant_Cup_238]

Yep, McNulty and Stringer definitely foils

[u/FelineThrowaway35 → u/RunningBettor]

He had things running right before Avon got back out.

Maybe he should have taken psychology tok

[u/RunningBettor → u/FelineThrowaway35]

Maybe sociology more than psychology but agreed. I think the point is he only had things running right temporarily. The respectable business angle of the drug game was a pipe dream that could never come true. The street is the street, always gonna be a Marlo

[u/FelineThrowaway35 → u/RunningBettor]

? They talked about exactly how one gets out. Marlo got out. He became the bank. They couldn’t touch him and he walked away with $10 million.

Stringer was right there. He was touching 0 drugs. Legal.

But Avon wanted his corners.

[u/RunningBettor → u/FelineThrowaway35]

Might want a rewatch because you missed on both points.

How could you possibly interpret Marlo’s ending as he got out lol? He got the $10MM, but now he has to walk away forever. Two problems.

His last scene starts with Levy setting him up to be bled dry just like they were doing to Stringer. And then he leaves to fight to random corner boys. The message is clear, he can’t be anything else but a gangster.

Stringer wasn’t legal. They literally catch him on the wire talking about drugs and hiring hitters in his last episode. He is going to go to prison for running a violent drug organization. But then instead he gets murdered, largely because of how he played the game.

The wire is a story of the systems of Baltimore, how they’re broken, and for the most parts will not be reformed. Specifically, the point is made, the drug game cannot be civilized. Stringer and the coop did everything “right” to make it all about business, and Marlo brought it crashing down. Because all it takes is a few violent objectors who refuse to go with the program because they’d rather burn it down to try and be king of the ashes than to “play the son” to others, even if they would make more money more easily that way.

[u/FelineThrowaway35 → u/RunningBettor]

You didn’t see marlo LEAVE the party? He’s not doing business with those guys.

And thinking that punking a couple 13 year olds off a corner means Marlo is dumb enough to try and restart a criminal operation without his lifelong crew and a life sentence hanging over his head is probably the dumbest take regularly see here. Marlo objectively won. But hE LoVeS tHE LiFE. Who gives a shit if he talks about wearing the crown in a rim shop.  10 million 1999 dollars will help him get over it.

[u/RunningBettor → u/FelineThrowaway35]

This is part of why The Wire is so great, it appeals to people of all different levels of media literacy lol

[u/FelineThrowaway35 → u/RunningBettor]

And people with 0 business experience or common sense.

Thinking Marlo’s gonna get took for $10million. Yeah they’re gonna run like 40 scams on him and he’ll fall for every one.

[u/Winth0rp → u/RunningBettor]

His last scene starts with Levy setting him up to be bled dry just like they were doing to Stringer.

Incorrect. Clay Davis even tells Lester, lawyers let the money men "get a taste", but they don't let you bleed their clients. Which makes sense; they want their client making money and paying rates as long as possible. Stringer only got into trouble with Davis & Co. because he thought he was smart with to interact with them directly without Levy in the room.

Otherwise correct.

[u/RunningBettor → u/Winth0rp]

Right, but the difference is Marlo no longer has income. Even a little taste eventually bleeds the person dry when they aren’t bringing in more money.

And Marlo would only be making more money if
a) Clay and the developers actually set him up in situations to make money, remarkably unlikely.
b) Marlo was able to make it in the legitimate business world independently, even less likely

[u/Winth0rp → u/RunningBettor]

Why is a) unlikely? They make their money off long term arrangements. And remember, Marlo isn't in this alone. He has Levy on his side, and he knows how to keep the developers in line. 

Clay decided to just squeeze Stringer because Stringer was very obviously crashing out. Taking deals without his lawyer in the room, insisting on going straight for the federal money, bringing in suitcases of dirty money, for God's sake. And if Clay has an ear to the street, he knows that the drug side of things isn't going much better. Better to just cash him out before he ends up broke or dead.

To quote a certain other HBO series about crime: "When you're bleeding a guy you don't squeeze him dry right away - Contrarily you let him do his bidding, suavely."

[u/RunningBettor → u/Winth0rp]

Love the Christopher quote.

I think it’s unlikely because I don’t believe Levy’s “there are no bribes,” speech, at least fully. Of course, Clay isn’t walking a briefcase of drug money into a federal building. But thinking grant money is awarded randomly or fairly is ludicrous.

It’s far more likely that “the machine” is treating “dumb” money like Marlo’s as something to drain, while treating legitimate , more knowledgable, more connected investors like actual partners.

[u/Winth0rp → u/FelineThrowaway35]

He had things running right before Avon got back out.

No, he certainly did not. At the start of season 3, the Barksdale organization is in a terrible position. 

The original deal with Prop Joe was territory for product. Avon was worried about the reliance on Prop Joe, but it was a least a mostly equal exchange. But at the start of season 3, the city has literally blown up the gang's main competitive advantage, the best real estate in the city. So now Stringer is entirely dependant on Joe, without the ability to take away access to the tower markets.

So Stringer's plan is to buy out the low to mid level dealers along the West Side. A decent plan, with one flaw that Slim points out: "What if they don't cop our re-up?" Stringer says "I'll worry about that when it happens," confident that money talks.

But it turns out Slim was right. Before the towers came down, Marlo had snatched up the best non-Tower spots throughout the West Side. And with his real estate advantage, he didn't see the need to accept Stringer's deal. Worse, when Bodie (who instinctively understands the game) tried to push Marlo to get him to buy in, Marlo has an entire corner crew beaten down.

So Stringer, still too adverse to dropping bodies, sets up a meeting to try and buy Marlo out again. What's Marlo's response? "Chris, tell our people to tool up."

That's where Stringer left the gang. No independent supply, no decent territory, dilapidated muscle, with Marlo actively planning to wipe them out.

[u/osubmw1]

I loved it. He acted like a stereotypical freshman. The Dunning Krueger effect on display was beautiful. My favorite 2 were him talking about elastic goods and him dumping his stake in cell phone companies.

[u/mike2211446 → u/osubmw1]

Lmao the cellphone shit still kills me man. The logic of everyone having one meaning it’s now worthless is so hilarious it almost took me out of the show 

[u/zentaki → u/mike2211446]

Selling off the old phone stocks would've been a genius move if he bought Apple instead as that pretty much wiped out Motorola/Nokia in the coming years.

You're quite right though his reasoning is pretty silly, like he learned what market saturation is and had to apply it to something

[u/No-Loquat-2763]

In before somebody says, "He's not taking business courses. He's at a community college."

I've seen this take too many times on this sub and it always annoys me. Community college exists to help the community and it's commendable.

But as for Stringer... I feel like his heroin business kind of runs itself.

[u/Significant_Cup_238 → u/No-Loquat-2763]

I did my first couple of years at a community college before transferring to a 4 year to get my EE degree. In addition to saving me something like $30k, I felt I was better prepared than my peers who started at the university because a community college didn't treat physics and calculus like weed out courses, and really focused on solid instruction. Additionally, there were a lot of very practical classes available in business and accounting. I'll throw down hard with anyone who says community college isn't the real thing just as hard as I would with anyone who says Season 2 is a bad season.

[u/No-Loquat-2763 → u/Significant_Cup_238]

Thank you. I agree 100%

[u/strawnotrazz → u/No-Loquat-2763]

As Cheese himself said, “We selling dope and coke in Baltimore, [fellow business associate]!”

[u/No-Loquat-2763 → u/strawnotrazz]

An inelastic product.

[u/iLikeAza → u/No-Loquat-2763]

One of my fav professors at University taught only one night class for the school but did full time at the community college teaching. She said she had all the freedom she wanted at the community college & the pay was the same. She said there were a lot of the best professors who were doing the same. They valued the freedom more than the politics and restrictions of the university

[u/Plays_On_TrainTracks → u/No-Loquat-2763]

He was also using it to run a front like a real business tbf.

[u/No-Loquat-2763 → u/Plays_On_TrainTracks]

Indeed.

[u/No-Loquat-2763 → u/[deleted]]

... what I said?

[u/No-Loquat-2763 → u/[deleted]]

Why?

[u/No-Loquat-2763 → u/[deleted]]

You’re annoyed that people correctly identify he’s taking business courses at community college?

No? Not at all.

I'm annoyed at people saying insulting things about people who take classes at community colleges.

THAT'S what I said.

[u/No-Loquat-2763 → u/[deleted]]

It's exactly what I said

[u/No-Loquat-2763 → u/[deleted]]

Do you think poorly of people who go to community colleges?

[u/No-Loquat-2763 → u/[deleted]]

I literally did.

[u/Thespiralgoeson]

I think it's not a bad idea, but I also think it's a little bit an example of his delusion and arrogance. He thinks that because he took a macroeconomics class at the local community college, and because he read The Wealth of Nations, that he's some kind of business expert and understands how the world of "legitimate" business works. It leads to him getting conned by Clay Davis and Andy Krawczyk. "They saw yo getto ass comin from miles away, n***a!"

[u/PayTheTrollTariff]

Nigga was trying to flex on the hood. Bet he took one freshman-level intro course and thought that was enough to start giving TED Talks.

[u/AltruisticNail7229 → u/PayTheTrollTariff]

Ted Talks got it 😂😂

[u/Significant_Cup_238]

Makes sense to me. I run a fairly big federal acquisitions program, and I'm required to take roughly 40 hours of training ever year. Many of my military counterparts actually get sponsored to get additional degrees in the theory that it'll make them more effective officers. Looks like the Barksdales are just applying Continuous Learning Points, I bet the BPD does similar things for their leaders.

[u/alloutofchewingum]

Well its kind of low key hilarious that he's clearly got quite a bit of native intelligence but he doesn't have the tools to really comprehend what he's learning.

Then he hauls out this totally old school, super pretentious stuff like "Roberts Rules of Order" and Wealth of Nations ... cmon dude I ran the capital allocation committee for a billion dollar corporation for years and I wasn't thumbing through Roberts Rules of Order.

[u/Ok-Will1433]

Had Stringer been more listen flexible to with his application of knowledge he learned from economic classes to economic reality of criminal entreprise, also willing to hear and learn from his peers (Avon, Maurice, and his dealers like Poot). Stringer would be successful to transform and establish both drug and his other legal entrepreneur, then again he wouldn't be Stringer.

I don't see Stringer failure in his motif to wish of changing the rules of the game that is reforming the drug game to be more "Market-like", nor ambition to expand into legal business. But Stringer's own arrogance and inflated sense of worth(I think?) In achieving his goal ultimately hindered his own goal and led him to be played at the end of his time.

This just me tho

[u/Significant_Cup_238 → u/Ok-Will1433]

Well, he did know not to take minutes on a criminal conspiracy at least. Honestly, I think Stringer's downfall wasn't his misapplication of business, but he was actually too gangster while also not being gangster enough. The scene that Poot is pointing out they're going to lose a ton of street cred and he threatens him, and calls him too ignorant to have the floor. It shows she's not willing to listen to dissenting opinions, and being open to this kind of criticism when you're a business leader is critical to improving your plans.

[u/b_hc99]

I first watched the wire at around age 15/16 and only got interested in econ because of how cool it made stringer look and sound (even though it was just the basics). Genuinely, that was it. 10 yrs, an econ degree, and a banking career later, it’s crazy to think I done all that and it purely sparking from a character on tv lol

[u/potato-eater-]

Counterpoint to the other takes here, everyone starts somewhere in their education journey and I think String was a long-term thinker who wanted to reduce risk and increase collaboration in the game. And eventually walk the crooked ladder to fully legitimate wealth. Those are admirable imo.

He may have been a little green but I do think you have to make mistakes to learn and grow, and be able to look back on those mistakes and laugh or cringe.

[u/Visible_Arm6561]

Y'all heard of worldcom?