[UA] Explain American laws to me

[stuartanderson at uswest.net]

Tim Toner wrote:

>   The dream is to get people
> from Somewhere Else to spend all their loose change there, while the
> surrounding community lives, eats and works as normal.  But that isn't the
> case at all.  Most of the take in the Joliet casino comes from the
> surrounding population (and an interesting factoid there is that the excess
> of cash has led to a renaissance of art in that community.  Bring on the
> Medici!)  People now go to 'the boat' instead of seeing a movie, etc.  And
> it can only get worse.

    I live next to a couple of those Colorado mountain gambling towns. I used to
play cards with an older guy that lived in Cripple Creek before the gambling
(does it irritate anyone else when they call it 'gaming') came in. He was really
looking forward to the renaissance he expected the town to have. I think he
expected the place to look like the set of _Maverick_ and have lots of touristy
cowboy stuff happen along. I was dubious.
    A year after the gambling came, he would bitch about the fact that it used
to take him an hour and a half to go to the post office--because he'd see
friends and shoot the shit--and now it only took him twenty minutes. There was
no one for him to talk to besides busfulls of depressing old people. I said,
"I'm starting to see how that would bother you, Gus." He said he was more likely
to run into his old friends at the Wal-Mart an hour away from his house than it
was on the sidewalk in front of the houses they shared.
    Two years after, he wanted me to help him find a place in the Springs. He'd
lived in Cripple Creek all his life, but the casinos made so much money that the
town's property taxes skyrocketed, pushing old Gus and a number of neighbors
out. It was sickening. He was so betrayed. They promised him a celebration of
the town's heritage, then came up with dump trucks full of tacky and just
started throwing it out.
    Now--that being said, don't take the anecdote as a diatribe against
gambling. I'm not against it; neither was Gus. He and I both had half-formed
notions of people coming up to sit in an old-timey saloon and play legal poker
with us. It's the *marketting* of gambling that gets me.

    I understand that America was founded by religious fanatics. I understand
that the legacy of that is a rich tapestry of hypocrisy woven deeper and wider
every generation. We bleat about family values and simultaneously bleat about
our rights to wound others as if it all made sense. Vice fuels our culture, yet
we refuse to acknowledge any prurient pleasures. I have a sickening suspicion
that the reason we legislate against vice so unevenly is because we want to
protect our license to exploit people. Guns are big business in this
country--what's a few dead kids? Again, I have no desire to start a GC debate. I
have guns, I have kids, I'm a responsible grown-up, it's nobody's
business--yadda yadda yadda. But if we took the same stance on weapons that we
do on drugs, it would be illegal to have a paperclip and a rubber band in your
possession simultaneously. The inconsistency makes no sense until you follow the
money. To make really nice guns, you have to have a machine shop, requiring some
expertise and investment up front. Anyone with seeds can grow weed. It *likes*
to grow. So make it illegal. Jack up the price. It's now a value-added
commodity.
    Betting is fun. Betting is natural. I bet betting is the second thing people
thought of after money was invented. The first . . .well--one vice at a time.
But any two idiots can bet on anything in the world. That's a lot of loose cash.
Let's make it illegal. A value-added commodity. If you sit down to play a game
of cards, some will win, some will lose. Mathematical analysis and anecdotal
evidence suggest that it all comes out even in the long run. But if cards are
illegal, someone sneaks around putting players together. *That* guy always makes
money. You've turned a legitimate interest into an illegitimate industry. In
America, industry wins, regardless of legitimacy. We talk about a lot of sins in
America, but never about greed or avarice. Exploitation is an art form here.
When someone is exploited and hurt by the business of vice profiteering, The sin
is theirs. We focus on the weakness in them that makes them vulnerable to
exploitation, rather than the greed of the predators. I can not defend folks
stupidly allowing themselves to be exploited, but I don't find stupidity to be a
vile, degrading, evil practice. Exploiting the weaknesses of others is.

    Well--there you have it. My explanation of law in America. I'll cop to being
cynical. The stars are right, man. In my defense, I like to take moral outrage,
let it steep in my brain like a poisonous tea, then serve it up as amusing
role-playing scenarios my friends get a kick out of.
--Stu



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