While the government committee charged with getting the country back in the black failed to even meet very often, let alone devise a plan, there is at least one strategy for America’s future that our political class can agree on: it’s easier to get the poor to lose their money to protect declining services than to involve the affluent in creating great services for their tax dollars. It is a major reason why casino and lottery advertising now represent the daily voice of government to most citizens.
When government promotes and profits from gambling, it becomes the house which means it has a vested interest against its own people. For government to win, citizens must lose. We are betting against ourselves.
As one of the biggest public policy failures in the last forty years, we cannot fix what is broken about the American political system until government gets out of the predatory gambling business.
Government incentives play a critical role in shaping the national character. Today, we need a government that challenges citizens to take stock in America. A government in which the people have a sense of ownership to fix the problems we face. A government that speaks with a voice like this:
Les Bernal
