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Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

Dollar for dollar which crime is more profitable (money-wise) to do?

Asked by Hypocrisy_Central (26879points) January 16th, 2014

disclaimer ]I am not thinking of a career as a criminal. I am not advocating stealing from anyone.

Some friends and discussing the motivations of why criminals do certain crimes that led to why some do certain crimes over others. Those who steal cars do not burglarize places, those who sell dope don’t steal bikes. Part of why people do what they do illegally is money, another part could be the effort needed to do the crime, or the risk of arrest. Dollar per dollar (factoring in profit, effort, risk both physically and arrest) out of which crime is the highest profit made verses the negatives:

• Jewel thief.
• Burglar.
• Dope dealer.
• Bike thief.
• Car thief.
• Booster (professional shoplifter).
• I.D. thief

I.E for each $100 profit which would be the easiest to do, the less risk of getting caught, less sentence of you get caught, less chance of getting shot by the person you are stealing from, shop by someone else, ease on disposing the goods if that was the way on which the stolen goods would be converted to cash, etc. Even if the actual dollar amount was smaller say stealing a $3,000 diamond ring and fencing it for $80 bucks as oppose to stealing a $26,000 vehicle and flipping it for $1,200, effort needed to get the item, versus risk, and ease of cash conversion which crime is easier to do dollar for dollar?

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16 Answers

talljasperman's avatar

Booster… they sell that stuff on E-bay as new.

WestRiverrat's avatar

ID thief, can be done all online, you never have to leave your mom’s basement.

ETpro's avatar

Wall Street Bankster, hands down. Too big to fail and too big to jail. You make billion dollar bets and if you win, you keep the money but if you lose, the taxpayers get the bill and you get a billion dollar bonus for bankrupting your country. What’s not to love?

talljasperman's avatar

White collar crime pays, and tech crime, pays the most. Berine Madoff made off with $65 billion American dollars, though his cut was smaller than that, its still a whopping amount.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

It’s a toss up between the bank man and the tax man.

Seek's avatar

Senator.

DWW25921's avatar

I was going to say representative but @Seek_Kolinahr beat me to it…

Berserker's avatar

I’d say dope dealer, but only if you’re up there in the ranks, and control a lot of the operation, instead of just being the hustler. And by dope, I mean hard drugs, like heroin and nasty shit like that.

johnpowell's avatar

Even weed can net you a lot. I had a friend that was up on the chain. He was buying pounds and splitting that up into QP’s and for me smaller sections like 1/8ounces.. I could get a 8th for 30 from him and flip it in 5 minutes for 50. Keep in mind my day job at the time payed 4.25 a hour. 30 minutes of weed slinging for the pay at a 8 hour job.

The guy I got weed from only dealt with a few people. Buy a pound from one guy, sell four quarter pounds to people you trust. He was never busted and easily made six figures in about five years.

Berserker's avatar

Yeah, I believe that, especially since as far as drugs go, weed is probably the one that’s the most consumed. Any truth to that?

ragingloli's avatar

Wall Street broker.
Pope.
Banker.

ETpro's avatar

@cazzie What a revealing study of faith supplanting reason. Thanks for posting that. I was in Scientology. I was on the ship. I met the man. I knew he was a sham. Everything Jamie DeWolf says in that rap is true.

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

@ETpro @talljasperman @ARE_you_kidding_me @Seek_Kolinahr @ragingloli @cazzie
Well……..we are not talking about legal or quasi crooks, but the real crooks on the list. Notwithstanding anyone inventing a religion which would be fraud or swindling, which I guess would be a fairly safe way to make ill-gotten gains with less risk.

ETpro's avatar

@Hypocrisy_Central Understood, and I already gave my answer regarding the real crooks here.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Burglars make a killing in resale of goods on eBay.

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