Tonys' various scams and Income

I think it would be interesting to add up all of his various money making rackets, and then possibly take some wild guesses as to what he may have actually earned off of each particular scheme. Obviously we won't be able to get a correct number but a good estimate may be possible.

Just for starters,

Bookmarking
Loan shark
Massarone Construction
Labor unions
HUD scam
Auto theft
Sanitation
Untaxed tobacco
Fencing-


You can tell he is written to be more prosperous than a real life NJ decav member, can the same be said for a member of the five families located in NJ?

I would also add truck hijacking, bust-outs (like Scatino), and stock market manipulation. Also some of the one-time rackets like the stolen airline tickets and the phone calling cards. And of course your everyday garden variety extortion.

the bosses of the Genovese and lucchesse factions were very successful and were probably way more successful than what tony was shown to be imo.. Tino Fiurmara, Anthony acceturo, Mike tacetta etc..

I think they based Tony's income streams on the Genovese and Lucchese Jersey factions, not to mention the war with Phil, which had Amuso's "Operation Wack Jersey" written all over it. And how did the trouble begin with NY? Tony "holding out earnings". The DeCavalcantes hadn't been this relevant since probably the 1960s.

I think the best way to make sense of this show is to view Tony's family as a Jersey crew of a NY family. And I think they give enough of a clue with old man Carmine's line about the Sopranos being a "glorified crew", not a family.

Season 1 however had a lot of similarities to the DeCavalcante conflicts in the 1990s. Boss in prison, acting boss dying of cancer, power struggle to replace him, etc. Those DeCav guys on wiretap talking about the show noticed it too.

That's why I loved seasons 1 and 2. They were so Jersey. Starting with season 3 there were more and more references to NY, shots of the Manhattan skyline, etc.

Regarding Mike Tacetta, there was an article around the time the show premiered with cops chiming in on who they thought the Sopranos characters were based on, and one of them said Tecatta was the only guy in recent memory running around Jersey with Tony's kind of swagger.