there was a time where a fair few lower level dealers had day jobs and only sold enough to fund their partying and make a modest profit – perhaps enough to run a slightly nicer car, or buy a set of decks and records or other music equipment. they’d also take care not to be too snappy on comedowns and/or draw attention to themselves in other forms.
they tended not to get caught as often as this also threw the feds off the scent a bit – its much more politically difficult for authorities to investigate someone with a job and paying taxes compared to a person on beneifts who clearly is living a bigger lifestyle than he or she could normally afford.
most of them weren’t “guilty/ashamed” as such to be a dealer but took a lot of care over personal security as they didn’t want to go to prison as its shit and boring!
nowadays there are too folk who enjoy the gangster/dealer image and consider it to be an acceptable way of getting their main income (and wonder why they come unstuck eventually). In fact most don’t even get caught, but they get in worse shit with folks further up the chain because a “mate” ticks loads of stuff off them and is a slow payer – seen this happen a few times before…
