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.