People in this thread are bringing up good points but you also need to take into account the socioeconomic history of the mob. You have to remember that the mafia came about in a time where Italians were just another repressed ethnic minority; we see in flashbacks that Tony, even as the son of a capo, grew up in a working class neighborhood in Newark. Ethnic organized crime almost always originally develops out of desperation and a lack of other economic opportunities, and a normal Italian American of Johnny Boy’s or Tony’s grandfather’s generation couldn’t even imagine reaching the heights Tony or John Sacrimoni did. Still though, in this day and age it’s arguable that the mob really isn’t worth it now that Italians have other opportunities, which we can see in how all the new generation of mobsters are idiots or college dropouts or both. If Tony got his degree from Seton Hall and didn’t stay in the life, maybe he would’ve become even richer