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Comment by throwaway13qf85 | Hacker News Reader

I found this sentence interesting -

  I surmised that Viktor serves a large segment of the East
  Coast and personally takes in $24,000 to $32,000 per month
  after all his other costs are covered.

Let's say he takes in an average of $30,000 per month. Does $360,000 annually sound like quite a small amount of money for running a highly illegal business that serves a large chunk of the East Coast?

Small-to-medium sized business owners, Wall Street traders, quants and very good engineers make that much money with none of the associated risk.

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>>> Small-to-medium sized business owners, Wall Street traders, quants and very good engineers make that much money with none of the associated risk.

Of course it's not a lot. The corner boys are earning less than McDonald's burger flippers.

But you comment makes it sounds as if a dealer one day can say "screw it, I will be a quant". It's not a lot but it's the best he can get.

We're not talking about the corner boys - I've read Freakonomics too, I know they are earning next to nothing. We're talking about someone running a large scale distribution operation supplying a huge metropolitan region in the US with goods that are in short supply and high demand.

I guess I thought that the guys at the top would be earning more. It's a lot of money, but it's not private jets and weekends in Aspen kind of money.

Just because he's serving a large segment of the coast, doesn't mean it's exclusive. I've known of people serving larger numbers than mentioned in the article, but they're one of 100s in the city. On any given weekend in London huge numbers of drugs are purchased and consumed. A single supplier is a small part of that.

To be fair, the article mentioned that he uses his government relationships to limit his growth to a safe size. He seems to be actively limiting his upside to protect his downside, which in a high-risk, illegal industry, is probably the logical move to make.

My economically ignorant analysis: Every link in the chain demands a large danger premium. The cellular nature of the black market prevents him from sucking up all the profits himself: he has no way to influence the business models of those between him and the eventual user. Except by starting his own distribution chain, which is more risk than any sensible person would take on, even by drug dealing standards. Ever seen breaking bad?

$360,000 tax free, remember.

It's not tax free. That much cash is useless unless it's laundered.

"other costs" might include laundering overhead.

10% laundering "tax" is much less than the almost 40% the government would take otherwise.

I don't think you're avoiding the 40% once it's laundered.

I don't know what "laundering tax" you're referring to but the whole point of laundering money is to make it seem like real profit from a legitimate business, and thus, regular corporate and/or income taxes must be paid.

Heh good point, not sure why I was excluding taxes on the laundered money.

Bitcoin

I had the same thought but I doubt he's as big of a player as he makes himself out to be.

Fair point. I expect the people making serious bank aren't the kind to grant an interview to a journalist at The Atlantic.

That, and his criminal life is a second job. He has no financial need driving this; he's fulfilling different needs like "access to what he wants when he wants it" and "experimenting with strains because it's interesting".

Do you pay taxes on that money, or have an expense to launder it somehow (and then pay taxes?)

If not, then no. There are still plenty of small towns here East of the Mississippi River where working to retirement age and cashing out with $1 million and a generous continuing (for now) return from a lifetime of working, paying taxes, hiring and firing, and making various contributions into Social Security, is enough to set up a trust fund for your family and go on living the dream in a house worth about $100k.

Reality is you would probably end up paying taxes on that money somehow or other, and if you ever want to get out of the game, then it's probably not worth it.

I know someone who makes a little more than that and only works part-time (although with MDMA, not pot).

This guy is talking up his role because he obviously likes the image of being a drug dealer. Chances are that he is the mid-level supplier in one of thousands of organizations serving the East Coast. There is no real 'east coast head' of all pot supply, the drug business is very very broadly distributed.

$30k+ a month for a guy in the middle of one of these orgs sounds right. Remember, there isn't much work - you aren't going door-to-door 12 hours a day and grinding out, you are handling a package or two a week plus some re-packaging.

He'd likely has a normal job (the person I know does) and a business that he uses to launder his extra income.

Those are very different skillsets - someone who is street smart may not be able to do the simplest of coding tasks, and a very good engineer may not have any skillset to survive the streets. This comparison doesn't make much sense.

Look, weed makes no money. It never has, really, unless you're a mogul running an international empire.

You can't cut it, it's cheap, and it's much much harder to move around. Straight chemicals are where the billions are made.

So there's no risk in committing tens of years and tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to become a business owner, Wall Street trader, quant, or a very good engineer?

There's no risk of going to jail for 10+ years.

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