You won't be in diapers, you'll be in your 70s. Sheesh.

You're an Italian guy, things probably won't start to get really ugly for you until you're 85 or so.

On a somewhat related note, my grandfather and great-grandfather didn't make it to 50, so I might not get to watch the mob age into oblivion after all. Ah well.

That's eerie, Ivan. My Dad is EXACTLY 85 and only started suffering health problems this past year.

And your grandparents mean nothing. Actuaries aren't even allowed to use them in approximating your life span. It's your parents and your lifestyle that they use in determining your risk.

Oh... sorry to hear that. It's not surprising though, every single older Italian-American guy I am acquainted with started to decline at about 85.



Well that's good to hear, my dad is still in decent shape at 65. But I'll probably get Alzheimer's in my mid-70s if a heart attack doesn't get me first, almost everyone in my family does.

I've put way too much thought into this stuff for someone who's only 35.

Does anyone think it is possible that there will be a 'contolled collapse' with families merging together or will it collapse suddenly (with a big indictment or something else)?

That's plausible. If the recruiting pool finally dries up that much in twenty years, I can see families merging to keep it Italian, rather than have each individual family getting taken apart by rival ethnic gangs. All for one and one for all. Better than losing out to a bunch of Eastern Europeans, Russians, Asians, Mexicans, and assorted American gangs. But it's way too early to hypothesize such a scenario.

So going back to my original question, if and when LCN collapses due to attrition or other factors, will the union corruption, white collar rackets, construction, etc be picked up by new ethnic groups? Or will these rackets just keep on going but maybe not necessarily controlled by defined groups (ie, loosely affiliated individuals who have their hands in certain things)?

Honestly, Baldo. I think it's just too early to speculate. They have another generation or two left in them as is. Crime will always be around, and somewhat organized crime will always be around. But the face will change over time. But it'll be awhile.

I would be surprised if future OC is defined by ethnic boundaries. I could be wrong but seems so restrictive in the modern world. I'm assuming these guys that own construction companies/other legit holdings will at least hand them down to their kids.

Things are not getting that good in the regular world like everyone expected .
I would not be surprised if it does not stay status quo ..

Everybody expected the families to be gone if not long gone.
I say the worse the country is in the better for that way of life.

There is always that possibility that the underworld and the corporate world and the blue collar world may meet again.

I don't think that LE will ever let it come to that,but as long as guys going to school for eight years after high school are making as much as the the guy that dropped out as a junior there is always that possibility ....just never know what that will bring.

At some point, it won't be. They don't call America a melting pot for nothing. Well, we're almost all melted now. And twenty years from now? Forget about it.


And those will be the last of the LCN millionaires in those businesses, the kids who are inheriting them now. It's nearly impossible to get a startup construction company going today if you have mob ties.

The guys who are already settled will hand them down to their kids. Beyond that, it's dog eat dog.

White collar crime is monitored in a far more aggressive manner. Most radical groups and terrorist organizations use bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, credit card theft, hacking etc to launder money, plus the SEC can crawl up your ass and take it all away from you and then some in a NY minute. Penalties are much stiffer, ask Bernie Madoff.

The bread and butter is and always will be gambling, shy locking and porn...the blue collar rackets can give criminals a hell of a run if they run a smooth book before getting raided. White collar crime always leaves a paper trail or at least an electronic fingerprint, ask Mike Franzese.

Either the white collar or blue collar have the same common denominator...a sharp tool called RICO. If you actually read the act, it's not hard to get wrapped up into one. ND Law Professor Robert Blakely was anti-mafia, this the "very broad" and somewhat open to interpretation law has hurt many of the top mobsters in the U.S. My two cents.

Plus, the government has the most comprehensive knowledge over LCN from decades of discovery, informants and new laws to combat it. When Hoover was head of the FBI, he was focused on Communism and was stubborn to believe that an underground criminal society existed. Since Valachi, it went downhill...and it's never coming back.