Legalize Gambling

Gambling needs to be legalized in California. Right now they are talking about adding slot machines to racing tracks, and I can’t possibly see what would be wrong with that. There is already gambling going on at the race track, and it seems like putting slots in wouldn’t the society any more than a track already is. Plus, race tracks are falling off the map in California with places like Golden Gate being closed in favor of selling houses.

If horse racing wants to survive it needs to be able to add slot machines. But the issue is bigger than that to me, and shows yet another option for California to make money off the sins of its citizens.

I found the exact numbers from the Nevada Gaming board on the money they make per year, but I couldn’t really figure out how much revenue they made, as opposed to the amount that could be taxed. I have the link to those reports at the bottom of this blog.

Nevada is expected to make $620 millionin the first nine months of this year from gambling taxes, which comes to $826 million over the fiscal year if the number stayed the same for all 12 months. Sorry for the lake of the real number, but the link below should help if you are really interested.

With the amount of people in California, and the amount of tourists already coming here, it would seem like the state would make much more than $1 billion per year with Gambling. This would also increase revenue in many other ways (sales tax, more tourism, ect).

It seems like it would be another good solution on how to bring money to the state. Legalizing marijuana would bring about 1.4 billion revenue (and savings in the prison system). Both of these would put California on the cutting edge of the nation becoming sane again. Right now they are the leaders of the insane with the green movement, but I hope that things can turn around.

Link to Gambling revenues: http://gaming.nv.gov/gaming_revenue_rpt.htm

High-Speed to LA

As a Libertarian, it’s really hard to be optimistic about the direction our country is going. Both the left and the right are so far to the center that neither are close to my philosophies.

Gambling, Drugs, Prostitution, and Nuclear Power are all basically illegal in a country that could use every one of them. We are worried about funding as well as clean energy, and those issues can be solved if we just learn that living in a Republic is better than living in a Democracy. If we just taxed the sins then everyone could pay less in taxes, and the people who drag society down will at least be paying taxes instead of wasting tax dollars in jails.

California, where I live, is a perfect example of why a Democracy doesn’t really work. Here we can vote on ballot measures for spending in the state, which reminds me very much of the Ben Franklin quote, “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

During the election we voted on a high-speed train going from LA to San Francisco. It would cost the state billions of dollars, and the tickets for it would be $50. On Southwest I can fly the same distance in about the same amount of time (airport time included) for only $10 or $20 more. So, in my opinion the train wasn’t worth it to me, because I wouldn’t be for it if it was an option in the free market.

When I told my sister this she told me that she voted for it because it wasn’t me paying for it, it was the collective pull of many people. But the way I see it, if I wouldn’t pay for it myself, why would I want to tax it on the rest of the state?

This has gotten off topic, but I’m going to begin posting a lot of articles on here about my Libertarian beliefs, because this is the internet, and the internet breeds Libertarians. The free exchange of information really does seem to create a more Libertarian way of thinking. I believe that is because it allows people to see past the common misconceptions of the world that we have.