Back to Gaffer's Philosophy
Archives.
The Gaffer's Philosophy:
Part 94 More On Law:
March 15, 2004:
In this essay I will continue with my list of needed laws. There are still some areas that need to be looked at. For example Health care Fraud is an ongoing problem for most Americans. I will deal with this in a separate essay later. For now we know that the entire health care industry is bogged down in corruption and criminal dishonest. Many people want to single out particular segments of this industry like insurance companies for scrutiny, but I think the dishonesty is much more widespread than that. We need to look at everyone involved, including doctors and medical facilities. In my essay on health care I will do that and I will offer some solutions.
In another area I think we also need to look at all of our laws and government activities which pander to human pathology. I have in mind gambling in particular. That humans will gamble is an inevitable fact. Gambling is a human emotional pathology. Any thoughtful shrink will tell you that. In addition we have ample evidence of it in the destroyed lives of those who are addicted. Some will argue about some kind of invisible line between a little harmless fun by normal people and the behavior of an addict. Go ahead and argue. I will not join in.
That alleged invisible line is not the point. My point is about our government's involvement. In all cases I know of, the government sponsored gambling is the result of an evasion of responsibility. Instead of using legitimate methods of funding government activities they formulate easy money schemes. They con the population into thinking they can get something for nothing. In so doing, they victimize the least able and most vulnerable members of the culture. These are the poor and simple minded people who are forever looking for an easy way out. In many documented cases, the money that is spent on gambling is money that should have been spent on food for the addict's children.
The worst part is, the money from government sponsored gambling is rarely used the way the governments claim it will be. In Michigan, for example, they claim the money is for education. In fact, the local schools get no more state aid, when we consider inflation, than they did before the lottery. What has changed is the state's bookkeeping. Where is the money going? Try to find out if you can? A look at the latest state budget does not show the lottery income and expenditure as separate items. Like always, our government's funding is a financial black hole.
No real tax is going to be painless. It is going to hurt, but the point is to distribute the pain equally. That means to make the cost of running government as fair for everyone as possible. A con game lottery does not do that. It punishes the dull and ignorant who are already punished enough by their life condition. It exempts thoughtful people who are not dumb enough to gamble.
So, for a reasonable law, I would act to prevent the government's direct sponsorship of gambling of any kind. Now what about other gambling. Recently, we have had an outbreak of gambling facilities run on Indian owned land by Indians. We are told this Indian land in our midst is the land of sovereign nations, wink, wink, nod, nod. This sovereign nation bull is another issue that needs to be addresses separately, but not here. Some of this Indian owned or controlled land has magically appeared in the middle of cities. The government happily winks at that because it brings revenue.
The biggest argument is, these casinos will create jobs and bring money to the city or state. Here is that childish notion again. It's the notion that we can get something for nothing. It comes out of our simple minded notion about wealth. We have covered this before. Let's do it again quickly. Money is not wealth. Money is the token that represents wealth. Wealth is real property. Casinos do not create real property. Like banks they simply transfer money, the tokens of wealth, and take a tidy profit for so doing.
Workers create wealth by changing raw materials into useful products. General Motors hires workers to run their factories. There, the ideas and inventions of engineering are applied to raw materials to create useful products, cars and trucks which are a form of wealth. That is industry. That‘s one way wealth is created. Another group who create wealth are America's farmers. They do it by using the raw materials of nature to produce food and other farm products. That is also wealth.
Wealth is real property. That's all. A billion dollars will not buy one loaf of bread if there is no bread. There are many third world countries where that fact is too well known. No number of gambling dens are going to bail out a city, if there is no wealth to be gambled away. Gambling is not an answer to any human problem. It is only a tool for victimizing sick people and rewarding special interests. That's all.
Even so, you may say, the Indians have a right to have casinos on their own property. They are protected by the treaties we made decades ago. I agree, so they have aright to have gambling dens. So does the government, because it has power of another sort. Now, I ask, what about me? If the government and the Indians can run casinos, anyone should be able to do it. I think we should change the law to allow that. Then the only task would be to regulate and tax them. Then everyone will get rich without lifting a finger.
You may notice that I have not presented my thoughts on needed laws in any sort of order. These are from a list I made just as they occurred to me. They can be put in order later if we need to. For now, I will just continue with the list.
One thing which annoys me is the huge number of so called blue laws that various locals have on their books. Here is an explanation of blue laws I found in Microsoft's bookshelf.
U.S. state laws regulating private and public conduct and morals, especially Sabbath observance. The term is derived from the blue paper on which some 17th-cent. laws were printed. Blue laws, which usually forbade work or sport on Sunday, were most common and most strict in Puritan New England. They declined after the American Revolution but many were revived in the 20th cent. during prohibition. Many states retain blue laws today.
So a blue law is a law which is intended to impose some arbitrary behavioral standards on an entire local population. Many of these laws have to do with the purchase and use of alcoholic beverages. These are an attempt to impose a teetotaler morality. Even after the prohibition debacle with it resultant human tragedy, religious nuts continue to attempt this impossible dream.
Now, I will argue that these laws are wrong on ethical grounds. It is simply wrong to impose our moral philosophy on other people regardless of how wonderful we find it to be. I will again make the case that our laws should only be to protect the rights of the citizens and the community. No other laws are reasonable.
However, I must also point out that these blue laws are costly. They place an unreasonable burden on the business community for no useful end. In Michigan, merchants must lock up their store of alcoholic beverages on Sunday morning. They must keep track of time and open the stores at 12:00 noon to avoid losing business. All of that costs effort which is money spent. That is just a small part. A larger part is the police resources which are diverted to the enforcement of these laws. These troops could be out doing real police work.
The point is, it is wasted resources to no end. Through considerable effort, we make it inconvenient for people to drink on Sunday morning, but we don't stop them from doing it. We also make it inconvenient for the shopkeeper, the enforcement, community, and the citizen, but we change nothing. People who drink still do it. Drunks still get drunk and winos still sit on the curb with their brow paper bags. It is effort spent for nothing.
So, I will suggest that we get all of these blue laws off of
our cluttered up law books. These are laws from a bygone era.
It was the era of Calvin and Luther and the drowning and burning
of crazy old women called witches. It was the era when to not
attend church meant being ostracized by you peers, most of whom
would wish they had your courage. Let's get rid of that crap and
try to find a real ethic that will sustain us as a people.
Back to Gaffer's Philosophy
Archives.
|
|
|
|