Mafiosi are fundamentally protection entrepreneurs, not dealers in any protected good.

Evidence

This book aims to make a contribution by showing that the parallel between the mafia and the state has clear limits, and, consequently, that the view of the mafia as a legal system in its own right does not actually stand up. … Next, criteria of universality and equality (let alone transparency) are irrelevant: protection is sold on a private basis to individual customers; its price varies according to the customers’ wealth and position, the types of services required, and last but not least the whims of the seller. … The more accurate counterpart to the mafia is a business. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 26 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mafiosi sell protection rather than illegally produced goods.; Mafiosi are entrepreneurs of violence who sell protection, not merely violent criminals; Mafiosi’s real product has nothing to do with their nominal jobs (+2 more)

Related

• The mafia protects everyone from peasants to arms dealers (similarity 0.92)
• Mafiosi are entrepreneurs in protection, not in the goods they protect (similarity 0.91)
• The mafia is a protection business, not a parallel state (similarity 0.91)
• Mafiosi sell protection rather than illegally produced goods. (similarity 0.89)
• The mafia’s defining trait is supply-side autonomy, not any single profession (similarity 0.89)
• The mafia can be understood as an industry selling private protection (similarity 0.88)
• Mafia protection treats crime as disputes, not offenses (similarity 0.88)
• Mafia protection customers range from spot buyers to kin (similarity 0.87)
• Mafiosi are defined by supplying protection, not by any particular profession (similarity 0.86)
• Mafia behavior is rational once considered as a protection-selling industry under competitive pressure (similarity 0.86)
• Mafia protection customers span legal and illegal enterprises alike. (similarity 0.85)
• Private justice predates the mafia by centuries, but not as an enterprise (similarity 0.85)
• Mafiosi only produce law and order where it can be monetized as protection (similarity 0.84)
• A free market in quality can dissolve the demand for mafia protection (similarity 0.84)
• Mafia protection requires maintaining relations with the underworld it polices (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Mafiosi are entrepreneurs of violence who sell protection, not merely violent criminals #corroborates (0.95)
• Mafia professionals are customers, not producers, of protection #contradicts (0.85)
• The mafia is a protection business, not a parallel state #corroborates (0.85) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 26
• Mafiosi’s real product has nothing to do with their nominal jobs #expands (0.80)