How Much Money Do You Need?

I can't speak from experience, but I'm guessing a lot of it is just power. It's not money, it's that you can command respect and blood and that's addictive and intoxicating.

There are other factors, I think, and most of them are psychological. So, the addiction to power is one, but another strong psychological motivator is just greediness. Most people seem to have a lust for "more". That could be money, but it could be power (again), or sex, or possessions, or just a bigger empire. Walter White in Breaking Bad says he's in the "empire business". That sums up a lot of it to my thinking.

It's also hard to get out of that kind of thing. I read about a mobster a couple years ago who had been retired for years. In fact, I think he'd been reformed (as in: not just "out", but actively trying to be good instead of evil) and he got killed in his driveway. While you're "in", as a boss particularly, there's a certain amount of protection you have. But you're not "allowed" to leave. Grudges are held. Stakes are high (so-and-so "retired", but what does that mean? Kill him anyway, "just to be sure"...)

A lot of it probably comes without thinking. They're businessmen building up their business. They get locked into a cycle of moving forward, shark-like, and they aren't thinking about "Oh, I should get out while the getting's good". It's just how they live. They don't know anything else. They have a rotten raison d'etre, but it's a raison, nonetheless.

Those are my best guesses on the subject, anyway.

They're drug dealers because they are greedy. Enough is never enough.

Money and power are addictive. In a lot of cases money is power, so if they give up the source of the money they are giving up power. Without power, after all the shit they’ve done, they are vulnerable to all the enemies they have made.

Remember when wendy was talking with ... ben i think?

She said someting like "returning to the life we had before would be so ... dull".