Who Cares About a Recession or High Gas Prices! It´s All Daddy´s Money Anyway!

I went to the casino yesterday. I was sitting at a slot machine. The chair next to me became open. A flamboyant, bejeweled, middle aged woman walked by, saw the gentleman next to me winning and took the chair next to me. She loudly talked to him and to all of us in our row. She was excited and wanted to win, like my neighbor.
Two young people in their early twenties stopped by, intermittently, to talk to her. She started winning and she started cheering for herself. Soon, the two young people sat on her right as machines became open. They all were putting lots of money into the slots. As they continued, it became obvious these two were her step children. The flamboyant woman left to cash in her winnings as her step daughter took over her machine. The two young people, side by side, were both losing. The boy said to the girl, “Who cares. It´s all Daddy´s money anyway.” They laughed to themselves.
Their comment struck me. As I looked around the casino, this huge casino, I saw it was packed with people, American Citizens. They were young, old, mostly Anglo but many ethnicities. There were close to three thousand people here. The casino´s parking lot was filled to capacity. This casino is one hour north of Dallas, on the Oklahoma border, out here in the middle of nowhere. Most of the license plates were from Texas. That meant not one of these people were worried about the $4 per gallon gas it took to drive here or the amount of Daddy´s money they were losing.
Today, I looked up the number of casinos in the U.S. The number was 1507. If all of the casinos averaged just 1000 people and if each of the people averaged just $100 loss, then that tells me, that just yesterday, Americans lost $150M in casinos. Additionally, I checked the revenues for the six Cherokee Casinos in Oklahoma. For 2008, their total revenues = $418.6M. This report details how the profits support Native American jobs, casino operating expenses, Native American community services, and Profit.
You ask, "Why is she telling us all this?"
I am writing this because it suddenly struck me.
The media is telling all of us to be worried about the Recession and high Gas Prices. We are supposed to be worried about jobs. We are supposed to be worried about terrorists. So many people are worried that Latinos are taking over this country. We keep having these workplace sweeps. So many people say we don´t have labor shortages and our young people are going to do the jobs the 12M are doing.
Yet. I sat in the casino and no one was worried about anything. No one worried about the recession. No one worried about Gas Prices. No one was worried about jobs. No one was worried about terrorists. No one was worried about Latinos and Brown people, especially since all the workers in the casino were brown. I knew those young people sure were not worried about jobs and or money. And they certainly would NOT do any jobs migrants are doing, certainly NOT in the fields, and probably not even the Casino jobs.
As I said, their words struck me! "Who Cares! It´s All Daddy´s Money Anyway!"
PS: And according to the Cherokee Casino report, their massive profits are all going to Native Americans.

Americans Living Beyond their Means Create Climate Ripe for RECESSION!

My hero Robert Reich is sounding more and more like Lupita every day! From Robert Reich´s Blog:

The Widening Trade Deficit With China, in an Election Year
America’s trade deficit with China looks like it will exceed $250 billion for 2007....the trade deficit numbers are deceptive. Much of what we buy from China today we used to buy from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. China has been importing more and more parts from these countries and merely assembling them. But because the final goods are exported from China, they’re counted as Chinese... Remember, we’re dealing with big global companies that are seeking the lowest costs from anywhere around the world — companies often headquartered here in the United States. ..The real problem isn’t our trade deficit with China. The problem is that America as a whole is living beyond its means. If anything, China has been an enabler – lending us heaps of money to continue our buying binge, including (at least until the bubble burst) homes with low-interest mortgages. That binge seems to be coming to a close. But if American politicians succeed in forcing China to raise its currency another 10or 20 percent, the binge will end faster than you can say the word “stagflation.” But not all Americans feel they've been living beyond their means. For most, wages continue to stagnate, inequality is widening, and jobs are less secure. The median wage, adjusted for inflation, is below what it was in 2000. Almost all the benefits of American economic growth have gone to the very top. Don't make China a scapegoat for this, either.