It is important to remember that this is a symbiotic relationship. Allowing for inflation, that figure has probably quintupled by 1995. While Haller was writing about the great political machines of 1930s and 1940s, his words are also descriptive of the situation today. William Chambliss points to the role of organized crime as a very important source of political corruption at all levels of government. Those who come up with the oil, whatever its source, are in a position to make the machinery run the way they want it to.
Crime is an excellent producer of capitalism's oil.
Those who want to affect the direction of the machine's output find that the money produced by crime is as effective in helping them get where they want to go as is the money produced in other ways. Those who produce the money control the machine. Crime is, in fact, a cornerstone on which the political and economic relations of democratic-capitalist societies are constructed. A basic characteristic of organized crime is that it depends on the corruption of government officials for survival and continued profitability. Bribery, campaign contributions, delivery of votes, and other favors are used to influence legislators, city council members, mayors, judges, district attorneys, and others.