What's just the big difference between being a made-guy and being a non-made-guy, an associate?
I know a made-guy gets more respect and things like that but what's the difference in the ordinary day of a wiseguy?

Is it true that as a made-guy you got a job (an gambling-racket, drugracket thing like that)? And that if you're not made you just need to go out and steal (hijack trucks and things like that)?

So, what's the different? What the difference in the ordinary day of a wiseguy?

I think it's the protection. When a non-made guy get's in trouble with other criminals, I don't think the family he associates with will turn into hero's and rescue him...
But when a member of the maffia, a made guy gets in trouble, the family will help him out. Probably more out of selfinterest, but still...

And probably it's also a money thing, that non made guys have to bring in more money for the boss, and stuff.

Thanks Enzo,

But I think there is more. They say the day that they are made is the greatest day in their life so there must be a big differnce...

Juventus, being "made" is a "status" move--and very little more. A guy who's "made" thinks that he's made it to the top of the world. In reality, he's the low man on the Mafia totem pole.
Think of the Mafia in America as what we call a "pyramid" scheme. A made guy reports to a crew chief or capo. The good part is that he's given a "living"--some kind of racket, like loan shark action, or a bookmaking parlor. The bad part is that he's also given a "nut"--a specific amount of money that he's supposed to make from his racket that he has to give to his crew chief or capo every week...or else!
Supposedly, a made guy gets protection from his Family: if he's arrested, the Family will provide legal counsel, bail money and, if he's convicted, support his family while he's in prison. In reality, not many Families provide that support. Reason: because the Mafia is a pyramid scheme, all money is supposed to flow upward to the Don, not downward to the soldier. John Gotti was arrested for killing James McBratney on Carlo Gambino's orders. But when he was arrested, Gambino didn't offer to pay for his lawyer. Instead, he asked his hierarchy to come up the money (luckily for Gotti, they did). Many Mafia rats turned because their Families didn't support them.
By contrast, an "associate" or unmade guy can operate like a freelancer. He can take on jobs or "scores" on behalf of a Mafia crew, and with their protection and support. He gives them a percentage of his score (probably a large percentage), but he doesn't have to come up with a "nut" every week. He can come and go as he pleases. If he violates a Mafia "rule," he may not be subject to Mafia "justice." Best of all, if he's not "made," he won't get as much scrutiny from law enforcement as a made guy.
A good example is found in the movie "Goodfellas." Jimmy Conway and Henry Hill could never be made because they weren't full-blooded Italians. But Conway functioned as a crew chief under Paulie's protection, ordered other guys around, and he and Henry made plenty of money. And when they violated a Mafia rule (assisting in the killing of Billy Batts, a made man), only Tommy paid the price, because Tommy was full-blooded Italian and was about to be made.

Thanks TB...

So the big difference is he has a 'living' and has to pay a 'nut' every week to his guy above him.

Thanks

TB.....Wouldn't it be fair to say that the main reason Conway wasn't also killed - even though he "participated" along with Tommy in the Billy Batts killing - was that he was too good an earner?

I imagine that that would have applied to real life as well, or was the real life James Burke's participation in killing Batts (I forgot the real name of the guy) an invention strictly for the movie?

Definitely! (I've posted previously that I thought it was the underlying reason.) But Paulie had that option in Conway/Burke's case because he wasn't a made guy or Italian.

I imagine that that would have applied to real life as well, or was the real life James Burke's participation in killing Batts (I forgot the real name of the guy) an invention strictly for the movie? [/QUOTE]
I think it was an invention. As you know, plaw, the identity of "Billy Batts" has been much covered here. The closest I could come was an account in Capeci/Mustain's "Mob Star" Gotti book, which implies that William Battista was the basis. But Battista was a bookie, who may have been a Federal informant, and bore no real life relationship to "Billy Batts."