We only see Blondie turn in Tuco twice. Let's say that's all there was. Using your numbers, that's $200,000 in today's dollars each, which isn't rich. It buys a middle class home, but it's not enough to retire on.
So, yes! I would think they still need more money! And neither of them seem afraid or upset at having to kill a few men to get to it.
LOL!
Dear Matt, dear fellow, you were obviously born into, and have lived in, circumstances much different than my own.
I was born in the foothills of the Appalachians, and lived in a very small shack in the country, in Oak Ridge, smaller than the one Johnny Cash lived in in the recent film about his life, to give you a perhaps common reference point. Next we lived in a 30' 1948 Shult house trailer which sheltered me until I got married and moved out at the age of 22. My bride and I moved into a small 2 bedroom apartment that was the cheapest I could find in Memphis. In 1965 my rent was $35, equal to about $350 in 2016 money.
I am retired and I presently live in a dwelling which I own and which cost me $11,000, recently enough bought for that to be the current fair market value. By coincidence my annual living expenses are about $11,000 on the average .
I have been noticing that many people pay far more than me for housing, a fine car, and everything. However it is not fair for you or anyone else to point to your own extravagant financial lifestyle and say that you are living in a bare and frugal way and your circumstances are normal.
You have cleverly diverted attention away form the nexus of my original post. The nexus I presented was that obviously Blondie and Tuco have lived in poor circumstances which, as I have now revealed, to be familiar to myself, though equally obviously you are not personally familiar with living in limited circumstances. Both Blondie and Tuco (and The Man With No Aim) would consider $200,000 in 2016 money to be "filthy rich" compared to much of their and mine financial history.
Counter to your assertion, let's imagine that Blondie and perhaps Tuco also have performed their ruse many times before, but Leone already knew his movie would be too long and did not care to document every one of a dozen or two times they had acquired $1,000 apiece. One dozen times? Blondie has $1,000 X 12 = $12,000. Now, to see it in 2016 money, $12,000 X 100 = $1,200,000. Blondie is rich enough to afford to hire a gunsmith to custom build a fine gun and manufacture cartridges for it. Tuco has to rely on a severe historical anachronism to obtain a fine gun and cartridges for it.
Therefore, I raised two points which I consider to be important to understanding GBU.
1. Belatedly I have realized that Blondie had enough money to get his highly anachronistic gun and its cartridges.
2. Neither Blondie or Tuco were driven by any kind of NEED, but rather by naked GREED.
Matt, my living expenses are one twentieth of what you have called ESSENTIAL, but I do not feel driven by NEED to steal or murder to get a $200,000 house like yours or a retirement stash of $200,000 like yours. I have retired on a cache of cash which is much closer to $1.98 than to $200,000.
Man