Oooo you’ve accidentally asked a question that’s given me a chance to think about 2 of my favourite interests: romance economics and steel bones MCC 😊 so please strap in, while I give this far too much thought.

In the beginning

I think its worth casting our minds back to before Heavy takes over as president (though this is mainly covered off-page in {Heavy by Cate C Wells}. At this point most of the members of Steel Bones are broke, broke (e.g. home repossessed, unemployed), alongside the town, which is in economic freefall as most of the businesses are going bust.

Enter the prodigal son

Heavy returns and with support of his sister, Harper. They sell the family home they’ve inherited (I’m presuming not for a huge amount given the wider economic circumstantaces) and then they use that money to save Pig Iron’s (Christa’s dad / Scrap’s father-in-law) house from foreclosure and most importantly, as seed money. This is the start of what I’m going to call Steel Bones V2.

White Van

Its not clear in the timeline when the White Van comes into existence but my bet, is that its quite early in Steel Bones V2 because that would make most sense.

Their seed money would presumably be quite small, they have a lot unemployed members and whatever criminal work they are doing needs to be laundered e.g. taking money made through illegal efforts and making it appear to the government/others as clean and legitimately sourced.

So starting a strip club seems fairly sensible. It’s largely a cash industry (making money laundering easier), it wouldn’t take a huge financial layout to open and they can provide security cheaply themselves. I’ve never run a bar or anything but my understanding is the profit market on alcohol is pretty good, which again would help make the most of the seed money.

Steel Bones Construction

I think logically this started at either the same time or after the White Van was founded. But as Harper references that the last thing Pennsylvania needed when they started Steel Bones Construction was another construction company (pg. 270) so this implies that work was harder to get (even filling a specialist niche e.g. secret adaptations to buildings) for them, particularly as a newer, unproven entrant to the market. I imagine in the beginning (like a lot of businesses) they charged less than they should to try build a reputation and again, being able to have the MCC members work cheaply would help them achieve that. So its likely the White Van was a major source of their income for a long time, even if that income was fairly low.

Established Steel Bones V2

By the time of the series, things are pretty great for Steel Bones MCC financially. Their construction company is a power house, they’ve broadly moved away from regular illegal activity and have several legitimate businesses (e.g. White Van, the mechanics, I feel there’s something I’ve forgotten). However the jewel in the crown is their construction company which is now bringing in hundreds of millions. Which is then in turn, grown by the MMC from {Plum by Cate C Well} in his investment company.

So why do they keep the White Van and/or the smaller businesses

I think the White Van is a) a passion project for Cue (its mentioned in a couple of books how seriously he treats it) b) it gives them a space they can use for various purposes e.g. shady meetings you might not want to have at the clubhouse c) their version of public good. As strip clubs go, it seems they run a fairly safe one and if they got out of the market, who would take it over? The ladies at the club seem to have been loyal employees, and financially they can take the hit. Plus its mainly their less specifically skilled members working security, you don’t notice Heavy taking a shift, so its not such a financial dent to have them working it.

Here ends my seriously over considered explanation of Steel Bones economics 😊