The mafia converts distrust into profit by enforcing resource monopolies

Evidence

The mafia at any one time can thus be seen as a successful cluster or coalition of clusters. It is successful not just at coping defensively with lack of trust -— as in the case of weaker and non-violent forms of association such as clienteles and patron—client relations — but at turning distrust into a profitable business by a relentless, and if necessary violent, search for exclusivity. Its single most important activity is the enforcement of monopolies over the largest possible number of resources in any given territory. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2164

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A dense, load-bearing definition: the mafia as a monopolization enterprise, not merely a trust-substitute. This is the payoff that distinguishes it from all weaker nonviolent associations.
• XREF: The ‘turning distrust into a profitable business’ mechanism parallels the reader’s causal mapping — where sightedness is a monopoly in the blind society, the mafia monopolizes violence to price distrust.