What would compel a young man to pursue a career with the mob in an age where most Italian-Americans have all the advantages to go to college or find a trade and pursue a legitimate career?

Learning difficulties and some Italian families are actually in lower class still

Why the good families sons become criminals?
Many Italian-Americans or have fathers,brothers,cousins etc in the Mafia and then have a future just written, or simple criminals with a Italian surname try to make the jump and become made men.
Others simply think that the easiest way, is the best.

Not all Italian-Americans have the opportunity to go to college. As Philip Lombardo stated above: a fair amount of Italians in the USA are probably still working class people. The Italian-American working class population is the largest in New York City and probably will remain for years to come. Wherever there's a more or less impoverished working class, there will be organized crime. It's only natural for some people to long for more wealth and power, wealth and power other opportunities will not give them. So until the Italian-American working class in NYC fully disappears or at the least shrink to a near-extinction level, the Five Families will be around.

And organized crime from the white working class isn't a solely Italian thing. The Italian-Americans are just known for the large organization called the 'American mafia', but the Irish also always had and still have their own gangs in the USA as well as back in Ireland. The British working class in the UK has traditionally also been an emergence pool for organized crime. And when you ask yourself the question "and how about the Dutch? The Germans? The Danish? The Anglo-Americans? The French Canadians?...", they all have their criminal organizations as well, mostly in the form of outlaw motorcycle gangs. You could argue that they don't carry the same cloud the mafia does, but there's no denying in the fact that there's an amount of bikers (especially in Europe and Canada, as well as Australia) that are as vicious and feared as any of the traditional 'mafia'-type groups, and in some cases just as organized.

Not anymore. Most Italian Americans have bolted for the suburbs. There are far more "working class" Latinos actually living in New York City today than Italians. Look no further than the 2010 census. But if you meant the "New York City metropolitan area," then your statement certainly has merit.

And I agree with the rest of your post. It will be some time before assimilation completely diminishes the mob's recruiting pool .

Well it was your poor and want to make a lot of money or die trying.

If you have money then no.

Some dig the power you get over people including women just like a politician

Good pension.
Good union.
Company car.
Free healthcare.
Benefits.
Don't work Sundays.
Maternity leave.

I meant that since NYC still has the overall largest Italian-American community in comparison with other cities (Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit,...) with a historically large Italian community, that there will be a bigger Italian working class population in NYC than in other cities. The words in my previous post were pretty confusing lol
You are right, in general the Puerto Rican, Dominican, African American and Albanian communities are nowadays probably far more impoverished than the Italian community is.

or until they stop snorting crank and realize bosses give up their underlings

I can imagine a kid from a good family being influenced by movies and TV shows and saying "Hey, I could be like that" but frankly, most kids from my generation, I'd imagine, wouldn't cut it in the mob... they'd be like AJ Soprano in season 7.

Well, if I had the opportunity..I would probably level as an associate. I mean it's pretty badass, let's be honest.

if someone looks at non-hispanic white working class then Italians do stand out along with the Irish and the ever growing population hailing from Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

It's not like it used to be (duh!) but it's still there and should not be underestimated.

Implying that all of today's Italian-Americans are doctors, lawyers and PhDs is as discriminatory as saying they're all connected.

Let's leave these sorts of racist remarks to Italian-American Anti-Defamation societies.

I guess if you're already a career criminal, becoming an associate of a family is a step up.

a cool wiki page ? lol

Why would you want to be a degenerate scumbag and associate with mentally deranged people who would probably laugh if you caught fire?

It's not badass.

Being a boxer is badass.

Extortion, why didn't you get The Arm to hook you up? He was a big shot. He could have sponsored you.

Australian, The number one reason to join the Mob is so they can do 20 years at Butner and watch The Snake try to muscle in on Madoff's no show laundry job while Bernie tries to scam Little Nicky out of his Jell-O with fruit. I can't imagine anyone, fully armed with the realities of mob life, would willingly sign up in this day and age, sadly though it continues to happen.

Someone I know was very close to the demeo crew and after it all went to hell was offered to run with another crew. He realized that the mob was just a group of people who would kill you for nothing and take half your money. For an up and comer the mob can help, but if you already have ways to make money and you don't need them, there is absolutely no reason to affiliate with them

There are plenty of ethnic areas here in NYC. There are plenty of poor people in those areas. The kids in these areas have a lot of unsupervised time on their hands. They think up a lot of ways to use that time. They play unorganized street sports like we did as kids. But that leaves them plenty of time to do other things.

Going to regular school is not the answer for them. It was not the answer for me.
They have no rules at home. They don't want to have to follow rules in school.

I may have the record for the most days playing hooky when I went to school.

Some think we should push trade school rather then going to college. I think it is a great idea. But when these kids are of High school age they don't want to go to any school.

get a nice truck route from papa smurf and company. not having your shit torched or destroyed. go steal 100k of cardboard acouple days a week.

Very true.

Way too many people get college or university degrees and then they do not even use them.

A lot more people attend a college or university and take classes either as a part-time or full time student and then just drop out or stop going to classes, and never graduate despite how they or their parents/guardians pay for the classes.

If people do not want to go to school like a highschool then they should just drop out and get a job, or as you wrote learn a trade or go to a trade/technical school.

Well some people don't want to go to school drop out or dont drop out, and do other things like steal. Get money for something you stole it feels like found money. It can become addictive like a drug.

Remember in Goodfellas Jimmy Burke just loved to steal he thought it was fun that is an associate without a gang in the beginning. I guess he had no friends to steal withbasva kid. So he recruit some local kids to steal with him.

That also happened in the Departed. Nickolson recruited poor kids in the neighbor to steal for him and with him.

That is what happens every where.

You can steal by yourself. You can steal with a friend. You can steal with a group of friends. Some people call that a gang or a crew.

Some people don't want to follow others in gang. But if they ever come up with a good way to get money. But they need help to pull it off. That is when they join a gang. If it works and they are making money they can be led. When that happens who ever led the gang before will either become a follower or he will disappear.

That is one of the reasons thieves can become killers.

Also not everyone involved in (organized) crime grew up in poverty. There are more than enough examples of kids from economically and socially advantaged, caring families that grew up to become violent criminals. Some people have just that, an uncontrollable disposition to be attracted to and commit criminal acts.

Well their idiots and they will probably turn into rat who could trust them. If you did something with them what's that old saying. If three people know something and you want to keep a secret two of the three have to die

I can't imagine why anyone would want to join the Mafia. You are under a constant threat of death from your own 'friends.' There are so many canaries in the mob now, it sounds like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

God only knows how many of the stand up guys offered to rat but whose services were politely declined.

Thankyou Moe that is what I been trying to say for the last year to a small majority of these people on here.. 30% of these people kneed to get rid of their kneee pads.. And kneed to stop watching their mob shows and looking up to these punks.. That's right
Put your shoe shine kits away people.! I am bak.. Again Thankyou very much Moe... you are da man...

that's what I been trying to say for a year.. 30% of these people kneed to put their kneee pads away and stop watching those mob shows.. Put those shoe shine kits away people ... again Thankyou Moe great post..

The Marine always talking about knee pads

You still roaming the streets of phila.

Get money, fuck bitches!!!!!!