Like I said. It’s been like that for quite some time. Nothing new. Nothing due to the 2008 recession or COVID. It’s been gradually happening since the early ‘90s. And it’s due to the variety of reasons we posted above.

As for the guys you know that are “starving” even that isn’t new. Or maybe they’re starving because they’re not good at hustling. Not every loser is a victim of the circumstances. Some are just bad with money, dumb, embarrassingly dumb or a mix of all.

Even in the golden age, for one legitimately well off wiseguy you had several dozens who were getting by due to nickel and dime schemes.

Important to note: most of what the mob did/does is connected to the service industry. Which can be inserted in the semi-legitimate file. Businesses forced to buy from a specific mobbed-up company or else. Get a specific service provided by so-and-so or else. That I know hasn’t changed much. Even in places that aren’t as mob-rich as NYC. Surprisingly so. It’s a more than decent operation that the feds don’t really bother with unless drugs or corpses can be connected to it. So it’s one of those “backbone” rackets we hear about.