I would say in the case of Mexico, most cartel members and "associates" are poor relatively to the United State's s GDP. I bet this is/this is/like this in other states/organized crime groups.

Let's take an honest take on the cartel wages per position or task if you ask/will.

Cartel gunmen/sicario- 400 dollars per week(The average minimun wage in Mexico is about 80 dollars per week, FYI)
Halcon/look out- 150 $ per week( Double, almost, the minimum wage in Mexico).
Drug dealer/puntero- Not sure about this, but more than halcones but less than sicario/gunmen.\
Guardia/look out intelligence.\- Not sure about this tbhn.
Central/central intelligence for all Guardias.-Not sure but it may seem more a lot, by gut tells me more than sicario, possibly Guardia more than Sicario.
Drug merchant, supplies drugs to punteros and "tienditas"-significantly more than other in par with Guardia.
There might be more positions I don't know about but here at the basic ones.

The ""commadantes"or captains, this is where it gets interesting, depends on the commandante but you will see here the standard of living on par with the average of the U.S or even surpass them.
The "plaza" boss, this guy definitenly gets in the hundreds of thousands per year and depending on the boss or area, they may get in the low millions/millionaire.
The regional boss, this guy is definetely a multi-millionaire, I am talking about 10 million plus per month.(In the case of Taliban and Lucky, both regional bosses). They stated how much money they made for themselves and the "company". Zeta bosses.
The leaders, main players, hundreds of millions to billionaire Chapo Guzman and others.

What about players/people in your country?

I really get shocked sometimes when i hear some guys speak on how little money the criminals make in their country, say for example USA. When here in Sweden criminals make good money.

Teenagers makes about 3-5k USD a month on average and if they are good dealers they make 7-10k a month. And thats where i live in Sweden with 100 thousands residents. Not a big city at all.

Then you have the guys bringing in 100 -200 kilos of hashish(this is what sells best here) every month they make about 100k USD a month. Then there is those who deals with ciggarettes ,and those who grow theire own weed they make more. And this is in Sweden, Sweden is a fart compared to other places in Europe like Germany Belgium etc. There 100 thousand euros is not a biggie from what ive heard from criminals there.

So i get pretty shocked when i hear like Mob bosses in USA that dont sit on 50 milion dollars atleast.

Greed is what destroyed the honor!

I do recall some bosses did not extort their muscle too much... Wealth spreaders (Not to many though)..Let's be honest, it MUST be beneficial for all parties.

I know Michael Franzese was out earning Carmine in the 80's....Reason for being called to the carpet.

I would like to assume that LCN soldier should make at least $70,000 to make it worth their while, no?

Otherwise, stay legit!

Wasn't Gigante and Gambino fair with their capos and soldiers?

Sicario's average around $600usd per week. $2000 per week if they get promoted.

The rest looks about right.

Just as most people aren't rich, most gangsters aren't rich. That's how it's always been. I find it bizarre how many people either assume they have no money or are sitting on $50 million nest eggs. You've got guys who blow all their money and you got guys who save and invest. There are literally dozens of made guys in NY who are millionaires many times over. I am aware of a few worth more than $100 million and at least one who is a legitimate billionaire. That being said, the overwhelming majority of made members are middle to upper middle class.

I would say it depends on the expertise and scale of tge operation. Racketeers can earned thousands of dollars a day or week in the drug trade of a large metropolitan city. Including Arms trafficking, gambling, extortion/protection, and fraud.

What gets me is the bangers that are shooting other ppl up, getting killed, or getting life and no one is making no MONEY!! What the point! Especially in the states where they give you insane time with the 3 strikes crap etc

Vendetta. No different from other crime groups/associations.

It seems only U.S gangs to this though. I don't see Mexican cartels killing people for vendetta. They can't anyway.

LCN members/associates, Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Naples Camorra, Russian groups, etc. Not only U.S gangs. Any crime groups that also gave youthful membership (20s per say).

Because making money wasn’t their purpose when they formed.

I think you are underestimating how powerful and controlative some of these groups are.

https://www.stylo24.it/inchieste/capopiazza-guadagna-poco-droga/

Even in the smaller Camorra can , there is the clan's obligation to pay the clan members that stay in prison as a sign of respect for their loyalty, in an 2016 interception between the boss Carlo Lo Russo and Luigi Cutarelli who managed a plaza,Cutarelli complained that in the face of 40 thousand euros to buy drugs, at the end he remained with only 1500 euros a month and that he could risk to get 20 or 30 years for so little.
Lo Russo at one point says that as for Ciro Perfetto,another camorrista who menaged the plaza and for the same reason left it, saw that the same thing is happening to Cutarelli,say that the only solution for all of them is to go home.

LCN members/associates, Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Naples Camorra, Russian groups, etc. Not only U.S gangs. Any crime groups that also gave youthful membership (20s per say).[/quote]
I think you are underestimating how powerful and controlative some of these groups are.[/quote]

I'm not underestimating their influence but criminals regardless of which groups their membership/association they belong to aren't immune to internal vendetta due to personal disrespect or fallouts. Some of those cartels have splintered and usually not on good terms.

Internal vendettas happen all the time,its not rare thing at all.

The internal wars depend on how piramidal are the organization: US mafia and sicilian mafia had a commission for avoid wars where the camorra doesn't had it,some thing for the sacra corona unita while the ndrangheta had a sort of commission called camera di controllo while the Mexican cartels,they born after the Guadalajara cartel was disbanded and wasnt a boss like Felix gallardo that can keep all the bosses use him.

In some case like the scampia feud the old guards wasnt happy that the new guards take control.

Even between family members like Beltran Leyva vs El Chapo who were related through marriages.

@BlackFamily- The vendettas between cartel members does happen but it was mainly between the Sinaloa Cartel bosses where the structure is organized horizontally, the other groups like La Familia etc. Knights Templar and other have personal beefs or disputes between organizational controle and power. It's a power move most of the time or sometimes.

Acknowledge, hence why I said some groups.

Drug dealing is pretty hard work, the guys here are running around 24/7 and they spend a lot of time in prison.

Understand the vendetta point but the whole life is about making money first and foremost.. And there is no honour, especially the bangers that have high rates of guys flipping when the serious charges come in. If you ain’t balling why bang out especially when you late 20s/30 plus when your an adult.. some of these guys have kids and families to feed and they going out there banging and killing and doing life when they have no money, live in a cesspool or their grandma spare room. If you ain’t making money give up the life will never be for you!!!!!!!

Gang banging is a young man’s game. Late 20’s/30’s banging is very rare. Age 16-22 years old is probably the average age range for that life. It was never about making money. That came much later.

By banging I mean going out of your way to attack rival gangs and engaging in gang warfare.

By banging I’m referring to all round gangster activity from beefing to drug dealing. Maybe a UK/US slang divide here.

However I would add that all these (serious and established main) gangs in the US as well - blood sets, Latin gangs etc are all to generate money first and foremost. I think this is a fact (regardless of their history of formation 50 years ago) And the indictments range from young all the way to guys in their 40s. My point is if your 30 plus, more or less broke living at your mums, What’s the point in it all!! Give up and get the tats covered before your dead or in jail for life. If you ain’t clearing big money all the violence drug dealing is a waste with nothing to show for it

I’ll just speak about where I’m from. Banging here has to do with street gangs that gang bang which means gang warfare against enemy gangs. Kids don’t join street gangs to make money. It’s known that if your goal is to make money then you don’t join a street gang.

some of the gang members go on to become career criminals and get into drug dealing, pimping, robbery etc. to get money. And you will see a lot of older guys getting caught up in those sweeps, but that’s still separate from everyday gang beefs which are usually younger guys fighting each other due to gang beefs. The older guys don’t usually partake in that anymore. Most of them, I’d say the vast majority of them DO give it all up completely and live a clean life by that age IF they managed to survive death or life in prison. It’s always a handful of guys left that stay in the criminal world and try making money that way, but even those guys aren’t running around just getting into petty street gangs beefs, unless it’s something real personal with someone else.

Over time I guess I can say that there’s been a slight shift towards more gang members trying to make money, but that actually reduced violence, if anything. LA gang banging at its core is tribal and about belonging. Sure it’s cool to some gangs to make enough money to buy a few cars and lots of guns, it raises your status and gives some bragging rights, but everyone knows if you want to make real money you put the gang banging aside. Gang wars are bad for business and they are all well aware of that.

Sinaloa is known to have internal disputes but major vendettas don't really happen unless family is involved like with the Beltran Leyvas and Chapo Guzman organization. But the run of the mill sicario can't really act outside their control or parameters.

One of those run of the mill sicarios eventually did just that: Los Zetas. Like i said, Regardless of the group/association that criminals belong to their not immune to personal disputes which includes outside of criminal activities ( Daily life).

SoCalGangs response hits the nail on the head. I'm going to add that the drama that escalates quickly when you involved someone's relative who isn't involved in the street life.
(Ex: There's a very thin line between disrespecting a person and slapping their mother/grandmother where I'm from. You'll be in the hospital or morgue before next week. If not you then 1 of your relatives)

Then if it's clicks involved then it creates a vendetta cycle. You always going to have that one or few people that goes to far in their threats or disrespect. Also, don't assume that majority of gang beefs you hear about from the U.S media is pointless. There's money being involved in some of them. Heck, you actually can keep track of those beefs no different than speaking on all these mob hits.

I seem to remember during the Dino Saracino/Gioeli trial that Saracino made about 50K a year. It was based on some gambling slips in his Jeep, something his wife said on wiretap? I could be wrong. For those of you not in NYC, that is enough money to live just about above the poverty line, unless you've got some housing set up. I do think that Dino was living in his parents old house in Bensonhurst, so if he wasn't paying an exorbitant mortgage, 50K isn't awful for not having to work a 9-5. But now he's locked up until he's an old man.

This generation in NYC might be the last one that kind of inherits their parents homes that were bought at a modest price. So many end up selling now, their kids moving somewhere south, and pretty soon, there will be very few old NYC families with homes in their lineage. At that point, 50K is nothing.

I don't think most made soldiers running a few agents, overseeing a book, putting some money on the street make much more than a mid to upper class living. The person who owns the book, hires someone to run it, and has 100K on the street is making good money, but there's a reason recruiting pools scrape at the bottom of the barrel. Anyone who goes to a SUNY school, works hard, spends 5 years working their way up in a company -- they are going to end up making much more than 50K a year in NYC. It's the guys who don't graduate high school, don't want to apprentice for a trade who are left turning to a life of crime, and the dividends in the end aren't much.

in italy most people enjoy mafia groups for power and respect more than money, being a member of mafia they become powerful and respected in the society instead to be a nobody like another
obviously you can also become very rich

Most people are poor so ofcourse most organized crime members are poor. Don't believe the hype or movies