If being in the mafia was as profitable as being on Wall Street, would you do it?

depends on what tier mafia group it is and the exit opps

4chan mafia doesn't count

finger_me_elmo:

It got me thinking, if I was them, I would have stayed on their path.

The answer is whether or not the Feds could make a good claim for RICO or not and how well you insulate yourself from the family business.

It's way too tough to make it in America today as a mobster. The US judicial system has very little tolerance for violent crime and will spend millions of dollars to prosecute even low level street soldiers. Plus once you factor in RICO and the fact that Americans are much more likely to snitch, because of the witness protection program and a lack of loyalty to their patron families.

In summary, you'd be outright insane to pursue a career in organized crime on American soil. However, many countries such as Mexico, Russia, and Italy still have very powerful criminal organizations, and I'm guessing due to budget problems, organized crime in Sicily isn't going anywhere in the imminent future, except maybe on a vacation in Monaco.

Which mafia is most prestigious?

Actually killing people is the new killing it.

I would be a hit man in a second if it paid the right amount.

It would need to be much, much, much more profitable than Wall Street to make the risk of going to jail or being killed worth it.

Why not become a cartel lord? Some of them are billionaires according to Forbes. You can hire an entire army to protect you, but you would most likely have to live in third world countries.

Exit ops?

What if you are a part of both?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/13/italy-mafia-crisis-idUSL6E8CB…

Could I move to KKR from a top tier mafia?

My dad was a banker and in the mafia. He'd come home blackout drunk late at night with random dudes to eat dried fish and drink more and often had cash falling out of his pockets. Would sometimes send my mom and I to his mom's farm because he was paranoid about the KGB or whoever else. This may or may not have just been an excuse to binge drink. Eventually left him and moved to the States.

There's good money to be made in corrupt post-Soviet shitholes for the enterprising. People whine about the wealth gap here in the States, but go to Kiev and it's 98% Skodas from the '50s and 2% Ferraris and shit. My uncle is honestly pretty dumb, but pretty clever about working the corrupt system they have in place and is in the mid 8 figure range. The guy is so Euro new money it's painful.

If the two pursuits had the same profitability, why would I choose mafia given it has higher risk? Sharpe ratio tells me I should go with banking.

My landlord's son is a "medium scale" drug dealer and has an operation of about 15 people, covering an area of approximately 50-75 sq mls.
He was robbed twice, at gunpoint, and arrested once. Charges didn't stick and they had to let him go. At about 29 years of age he owns multiple properties, a bunch of nice cars, has girls around him all day long and doesn't have to do any boring office work. net worth about 2 million?  You don't necessarily have to be "in the mafia" to be in organized crime, but a smaller group can also be very profitable and is less likely to be detected.

I would say it is worth it if you know what you are doing and can take the heat.

Had some extended family members involved with the cartels. Their lives were stressful to say the least. Last I heard about them most were dead of in prison.

Good/interesting question OP. I guess (if you take the morality/ethics part of the question away) it really depends on what are your other opportunities like? By that I mean - watch the Sopranos, the guys who are in Tony’s family didn’t choose between that life and a top MBA programme. Realistically it was a choice between that and being a “nobody”/Mr Average (which without giving away spoilers is a decision Chrissy directly faces towards the end of the series, in a certain gas station scene).

And if you’re talking about whether the average poster on here would go into the mafia for higher pay? I very much doubt it - I certainly wouldn’t. Again leaving out the morality aspect, banking/finance is a relatively low-risk (albeit stressful) career - once you get in, if you work hard you should have a relatively long career with relatively high earnings.

Contrast that to the mafia/cartels - at any time you can get killed, not only by your enemies but by your juniors looking for a promotion - if the government arrest you they can seize all your assets including your family home, and send you away for the rest of your life. Also you don’t even need to be directly involved to get indicted due to RICO.

Finally, it’s worth bearing in mind that the mafia/cartels are a pyramid structure similar to banking or law - the guys at the top make huge $$$, but your average foot soldier might be enjoying a nice middle-class lifestyle but isn’t necessarily raking it in. Again if you watch the Sopranos or the Wire, you’ll see the mid-level drug dealers/enforcers make a decent amount but they’re also not making it rain in clubs, rather it’s only enough to give their family an upper middle-class lifestyle.

In the year 2000, 120 mob guys who worked on Wall Street were arrested.  So you may not have to make up your mind.  There was a Sopranos episode about similar schemes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/06/15/120-charged-…