The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

How do Wizards make a living?

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toodeep:
about crime: keep in mind the supernatural is everywhere.  As we've seen the red court and the white court run/ran a lot of the crime in the world as the red court ran prostitution in Chicago before Harry burned down their operation and Marcone took it over.  Marcone now runs crime in Chicago and is supernaturally clued in.  The Paranet papers imply that something supernatural runs Vegas.  So getting involved in any of those things too much and you run the risk of attracting the ire of the supernatural forces that already make money off the operations.

Seeing as how Bob is a spirit of intellect, and under Butter's influence has connected and interacted with the internet, I would think that Bob could be (or a similar spirit or more) have already become "ghosts in the machine" that could know more and react more quickly than any human, and more effectively than any program.  It seems like something like Bob would be the ultimate superfast day trader.  So I wouldn't be surprised if you ran into the supernatural in high finance either.

I assume that if you kept your operations low - knocking over small banks once a month throughout the country, you probably wouldn't attract much attention.  But try to just walz into verity trust in Chicago and make a killer score.... probably wouldn't go so well, and there might be similar places run by other supernatural entities throughout the world.

g33k:

--- Quote from: toodeep on October 30, 2019, 02:07:09 PM --- ...  So I wouldn't be surprised if you ran into the supernatural in high finance either ...
--- End quote ---
I'm pretty sure the White Council IS one of the supernatural entities doing high finance.  I suspect they are the preeminent one, or up in the top tier of "the very best."

I'm sure there are wizards whose talents lie in that direction, who benefit from being Council "insiders" so they don't have to worry about competitors/predators hitting them in areas where they're weaker.  Support teams... investigators finding new opportunities, and finding problems to steer away from; security vs. other supernatural financial agents; intelligence finding weaknesses to exploit in other supernaturals; etc...

I presume Harry has put some of his/Maggie's newfound wealth into the White Council's investment arm (I presume he hasn't put all of it in!).

morriswalters:
Just for the record bank robbery is a good way to go broke.  Welcome to the modern economy. Large piles of cash are a thing of the past.  And good luck chasing drug money, high reward but very high risk.

I would personally research the thorn manacles and engineer some didn't involve pain, and then take some low risk path to wealth.  Like be a doctor.  My doctor has two corvettes, two Shelby GT's and an elevator in his garage. Earn it in the first hundred years and invest that for the next two.  Buy real estate in major urban areas and go live on a farm next to Eb. 

Kindler:
That's too much work. I'd much rather simply steal it.
Australian authorities or drug kingpins aren't going to look for a thief chilling out in the United States. I could enchant something like Harry did in Small Favor to change my appearance, go in under a veil, hire a horde of faeries, or, failing all that, blow stuff up.
And yeah, most bank branches don't have piles of cash lying around. But most of the reasonably sized ones have at least 200k on hand. ATMs by themselves often have 50-100k inside. They're hard to open for someone who doesn't know magic.
Actually, fun story about that. A friend of mine worked in LP for Chase in our area. They hushed things up and it basically went entirely unreported, but there was a gang of thieves who managed to clear out ATMs at ten to twenty (the story changes and he gets skittish about giving details) different branches over a three month period. They never found them, and they walked away with anywhere from two to four million dollars. They cut through the roof, directly over the room behind the main bank ATMs. Didn't trigger any alarms, and since it's all 20s, there's no way to trace the cash.
That's the kinda thing you can do once every couple of years and live perfectly comfortably. A wizard could beat that performance.

Bad Alias:

--- Quote from: morriswalters on October 30, 2019, 05:53:54 PM ---And good luck chasing drug money, high reward but very high risk.

--- End quote ---
I really don't see how it's high risk unless you're taking on a mob bank like Marcone's or something similar. I'm not talking about hitting a major cartel for a few million in one go. I'm talking about hitting a place with four guys and $200,000. The only risk I see about hitting a big stash house with millions of dollars is if they're wise to the supernatural. Mostly we see Harry do something under a time clock. When you plan on stealing millions, you can take a few months to plan it out. I'm pretty sure a wizard could figure out how to get away clean pretty easily if the victims didn't know anything about the supernatural. Also, I'm thinking burglary, not robbery.


--- Quote from: Kindler on October 30, 2019, 06:06:32 PM ---That's too much work. I'd much rather simply steal it. ... since it's all 20s, there's no way to trace the cash.

--- End quote ---
Funny. If 20s are untraceable, that's the way to rob a bank. Otherwise, you'd have trouble laundering the cash.

A casino job might be a good way to go, but it would take a lot of research. You would probably want to steal money coming in from gamblers instead of money coming in from banks for the same reason you'd want to steal 20s.

On the flip side of crime, if these organizations are aware of the supernatural, a wizard could probably make a fortune preventing/investigating what we're talking about, which is basically what Harry does. Harry doesn't charge enough for his services. He charged $75 an hour in Blood Rites. The highest paid lawyers get $2,000 per hour and the average partners at big firms charge $875 per hour according to my first google result. There are a lot more lawyers than wizards. If someone needs to hire a wizard, the wizard can charge whatever the client can afford to pay up to the point that it isn't worth it to prevent the thefts. As we've seen in the books, even those part of the supernatural community often have no idea how to get in touch with a wizard. Harry and Elaine would be their only options.

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