Great examples with Catalano and Richie the Boot, Zannino too. Sonny Black as well...

@ Sonny &BillyBrizzi


I would agree with you guys in that money, resources are absolutely necessary for a guy to rule effectively. But Machiavelli has complex definitions for "Power" , "Fear", "Cruelty", it's not exactly black and white.


Here is an example, we will stay with Paul vs Chin;

Money is power right? Paul had a ton of money right? Yet 40-50 thousand dollars that he took off Gravano, might have got him killed. Think about it. That business deal he made to kill the Conneticiut guy, probably got him killed. This is because he put Money before Power, Money before Respect. Narducci was rich right? Like a multimillionaire, but what he wanted that he didn't have was POWER. Did Narducci take over? His money wasn't enough, put it a better way, he didn't have ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY OFF ALL THE GANGSTERS THAT WOULD HAVE LET HIM GET AWAY WITH KILLING HIS BOSS.



Again contrast with the Chin, let guys keep a lions share, and this gained him tremendous respect, which translates into power.





You gotta understand, WHY A GUY IS A GANGSTER, what makes a gangster loyal to another gangster. There is a great quote from BoardWalk Empire, where a prosecutor accused Nucky of ordering a murder. He, incredulously ask, " How the fuck do you order someone to commit murder?" It's a great question, actually....





You remember the scene from Carlitos Way, When Carlito talked about how his guy was worried he would die before he made him rich? And how the guy was willing to literally take a bullet for him, AS LONG AS HE THOUGHT IT WOULD GET HIM PAID DOWN THE LINE.... See his loyalty was based off that, Carlito was his meal ticket. You guys read Franzeses book? Remember the part where some guy was about to rat out his crew, and like six, seven guys volunteered to kill the guy immediately. Franzese said he could see that they were totally dependent on him for the lifestyle he was providing, and FEARED LOSING IT TO THE POINT THAT THEY WOULD KILL FOR HIM WITHOUT HESITATION.





So HE isn't exactly feared for violence, but the guys under him fear losing the windfall he provided.






In Machiavellis book there is the fear of death, but he also describes the fear of losing a potential windfall or source of revenue. Now awhile back, there was a thread where guys asked, " Where was Galantes feared army?" But I countered that the families feared losing his lucrative heroin connects. And sure he was a feared guy, yeah but as SinatraClub pointed out, once they found another heroin source, once the " fear" of losing that source disappeared that was it.Once the collective decision making body of the mob made up its mind, he was remarkably easy to kill. See they " feared" losing that potential source of revenue. This was a subtle nuance Chin understood. He wasn't just feared for being a real killer, a capo at that time would legitimately fear Chin being off the streets, because it would hurt him FINANCIALLY. Chin being in power was probably a key component of prosperity for a lot of guys. Now imagine how HARD it would be to get a majority of Genovese capos to go along with killing Chin. Him saying fuck the money made him effectively " Conspiracy proof" from inside his family. If your guys see you getting fat, and fatter, and fatter, and don't see their own prospects improving, they get VEEEERY JEALOUS. Profaci, Castellano, Genovese felt Costello held his crew back in favor of his own business deals, ect...





What did they say about Luchesse? He took VERY GOOD CARE OF HIS GUYS, and was a very popular boss as a result. Even cheap guys like Gambino and Genovese, had their own revenue sources' so they didn't have to constantly take from guys under them.






Another example; The Palermo Gambino click, the Inzerillos and all of them, these guys were so rich it was ridiculous. I mean the Gambino, Inzerillo, Bontade, Spatola, DiMaggio, Grado, these clans were VERY WEALTHY. But they weren't getting the rest of the mafia rich. Now the poor, Corleonesi mafia would do a kidnapping, get the ransom, and distribute the money amongst the struggling clans. This made clans indebted to them, brought them respect, and allies, and power. They eventually gained so many allies using methods like this that they gained control over a majority of the men that made the decisions for Cosa Nostra as a whole. Once they had control over the POWER APPARATUS of the mafia, once they controlled the mechanism that made and broke the rules, once they had the POWER, all the money in the world didn't save this clan from getting slaughtered, and this is all because they spent all their time worrying about their money and not the POWER THAT MADE THE MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE.

It's Michael Corleone in the second movie, he had to stop focusing on the business and focus on the " BUSINESS"' in order to get back to doing business, if that makes any sense... It's the idea that money is a byproduct of power....