But when it first started up, lots of people were talking about it, including the students. And so I thought, “This is a teachable moment.” I took one of my eighth grade classes and we spent one class period talking about the “Circle of Gold” and how it worked. They were all really excited about it. (And junior high school students invariably mirror their parents’ opinions about matters such as this.)
We worked out together in class how long it would take for every person in the world to be sold one of these chain letters. I don’t remember the details, but it wasn’t a very long time. And then I asked them what would happen next.
I thought the argument was pretty convincing. But to my students, it wasn’t. They were perfectly able to perform the computation and draw the inevitable conclusion. But it had no effect whatever on what they thought. They were blinded by the idea that their parents were going to get immensely wealthy. The only critical comment I managed to elicit was toward the end of the class, when one student said, “Well, you know, someone could cheat and move their name up toward the top of the list.” And another student immediately said, “Yeah, that’s what my mother did.” (Seventh and eighth-graders are remarkable in this way; what comes in their head comes right out their mouth.)
For generations the Republicans have been bad-mouthing government and public employees, and saying that taxation is theft. And politicians have been spooked by this assault on taxes. So no one talks about where taxes come from, and where they are going. The fact that our Federal taxes, which should be used to build up this country, are being squandered and given to the bankers, the military, and Halliburton; that large corporations and people of great wealth now pay taxes at much lower rates than they used to—none of this can be discussed. I want state legislators and a governor who make an issue of this, who go to Washington and make a Federal case out of it.
But instead what we get is a proposal for casino gambling.
And we see people jumping on the casino bandwagon because of the cynical view that discussion of taxation is just off the table and there’s nothing we can do about it. The whole proposal reflects the notion that we can’t build a society that reflects our values, that brings us together and realizes our hopes. It’s a tremendously cynical proposal.
And if that cynical view is really so powerful, then what are we left with? One fairy tale or another, I guess. And so now some people are deciding that casinos are a source of wealth, rather than a drain on productive labor. Maybe they’ll get rich. Or maybe the state will get rich. Or maybe both. In any event, it’s free money.
That experience I had trying to teach about the “Circle of Gold” wasn’t a great moment for me as a teacher. But I did take something away from it. And I think I see some of the same psychology in play right now. And I don’t like it now any more than I did then.
Regarding the “Circle of Gold”
<
p>
<
p>I don’t think that all of the proponents of casinos in Massachusetts think it’s going to solve the states budgets problems, or solve the states unemployment issues, or result in a big payoff. I’m not planning on getting rich at the casino. But I will probably visit it once or twice a year just to have a good time.
<
p>I agree with you on this point:
<
p>
<
p>When are they going to start making a federal case out of it?
<
p>
I’m not against casinos out of any moral concerns. I’m against them for economic reasons.
<
p>My interpretation of an economy is that it is basically the movement of money between parties in exchange for goods and services. I buy something from you, you buy something from me. An economy gets bigger as more players enter it, as more money enters, and as more transactions occur. I think it is a zero-sum game to a certain extent, but that when more transactions happen, money circulates faster, and that is how economies can grow.
<
p>Because I think that an economy works better when more money is circulating, I believe that when some players in an economy just accumulate money (i.e. insanely rich people), that makes the economy weaker, particularly because those people are not often investing in the local economy, so they are taking money from the local economy. I believe that a certain accumulation of money is necessary (this is when money becomes capital, and capital is necessary in an economy), but I think that these days capital is more fickle particularly when local economies are concerned. Capital would rather invest in Indonesia than locally just to get one more basis point.
<
p>I see casinos as basically taking a lot of money out of our local economy and sending it elsewhere, usually out-of-state. I don’t think that will be good for our local economy because it quickly converts free-flowing money from our local economy into remote capital.
<
p>I also don’t see casinos taking a lot of money from people who have a lot of money. I see the casinos taking money from people who don’t have much money to begin with, usually the lower middle class — groups that tend to handle a lot of money without it being turned into capital, because they spend what they earn. (Although you can make the case that this group may not buy much locally, since they’re shopping at Wal-Mart and buying crap from China).
<
p>I also see casinos distorting the economy. There was a good article a couple of weeks ago about how casinos affect local performing arts venues. Casinos are able to pay more for artists, and subsequently charge patrons less for shows. Why? Because they aren’t concerned with the shows making a stand-alone profit, the shows are designed to get customers for the casinos. That means stand-alone venues can’t compete, and go out of business. I can attest that in Springfield, since Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun were built, the concert scene has completely dried up. But not down there — plenty of artists playing the casinos. Meanwhile our downtown is dead, our local economy based on downtown entertainment has been killed.
<
p>I don’t think casinos do much for the local economy because casinos are primarily concerned with keeping the revenue on-site, and with keeping people as close to the action. They build their own hotels, they build their own restaurants, they even build their own retail. Their primary purpose is to get as much money out of a consumer as possible. Hey, that’s capitalism, but casinos don’t necessarily play fair. They use psychologists to figure out how to get you to spend every last dollar, and then some, on their games.
<
p>I don’t see any casinos in this country that have a ring of prosperity around them. I haven’t heard of casinos being the economic engine anywhere.
<
p>I think that a lot of people who would frequent these casinos are probably spending a good chunk of money on our state lottery. That money funds local aid. I think that local aid would decrease if those people had more access to casinos. Are we prepared for that?
<
p>I understand the argument that Massachusetts residents are spending money on casinos now. However, since the groups that are backing these casinos are involved with the CT casinos, that is a clear sign that they expect more — probably a lot more business from MA residents if casinos are built here. They’re not going to spend billions simply to cannibalize customers from their existing casinos.
<
p>All that is why I don’t buy the argument from casino-backers that casinos would be good for our economy. I primarily see money being taken out of our economy. I see unfair competition for local businesses. I see irrational decisions being made by consumers based on psychological warfare by the casinos. I see a distortion of our economy.
<
p>A lot of people decry taxes as “taking money from the economy” — but taxes are almost always spent locally, so that’s not really true. And taxes often improve infrastructure, and fund things that keep the economy moving forward.
<
p>Casinos will tax the economy without those benefits. They will send money elsewhere, they will de-fund local aid, and they will leave people with less money to spend on the real economy.
<
p>I appreciate that we could be in a “cat’s out of the bag” situation since other states have casinos. I don’t have an answer for that. I just have a big problem with joining the race to the bottom though.
<
p>
and then it should be front-paged and sent to every single person voting on this issue…. and all their constituents.
Like I said, nutcakes!!!