Scott Taylor: Why Oregonians Need To Be Told “NO”
Monday, November 24, 2014
Photo Credit: iStock 
He is a smart and pleasant man in person. Unlike some of my more conservative friends, I don’t hate him or wish he had cancer. I don’t think he’s trying to screw us over for personal gain.
Of course, I could be wrong. My opinion has been challenged before. I think he makes some really bad choices for us. I think he sends mixed messages to Oregonians.
I would like to focus on one in particular message today. I call it the “poor man’s tax.” This tax includes woman, I just call it that. Have at me.
Oregon spends millions encouraging people to engage in gambling- to play a game at which they will most certainly lose- often insurmountable costs. We need to ask ourselves: how can state promotion of gambling possibly be a good idea?
Most who play are not formally educated and earn a middle-to-low income wage. These are not low class people. These are not bad people who deserve to be cheated or exploited by the state they reside in and to which they pay taxes.
Guess what? You’re not going to get rich or solve your financial problems playing the numbers. You are going to lose your money. Plan on it.
The reason that most wealthy people don’t sit in Dotty’s playing video poker for hours is simply because they don’t want to give their money away and become poor. All other factors being the same, having money is better than not.
Financially secure individuals have figured out how to make money, grow money and save money. That’s what the Governor and the people we pay to run this state should be doing.
The problem comes back to the dreaded “No” word.
We can’t figure out a way to just say “no.” The politicians want to promise the electorate nice new shiny toys and distract them from the government’s incompetence. So they make a ton of money on gambling, tell everyone “yes” to everything and pay for it with money squeezed from those who can least afford it.
The state convinces folks they can become rich if they gamble, and throw in some meaningless disclaimer language to assuage their guilt (and possible liability) such as “lottery games should not be played for investment purposes.”
No, really? Thanks for letting us know!
They put together slick campaigns preaching “responsible gambling,” yet set no limits to enforce such ideals, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, poor Johnny Q Public spent his paycheck on video poker. Let’s pretend we care and send him to a gambling program funded by- you guessed it - gambling proceeds!
The job of the Governor and his team is to take tax revenue and spend what we have wisely, not what we wish we had.
The challenge is, as I mentioned above, people in this state, and country for that matter, don’t like to be told “no.” We want what we want and we don’t seem too concerned with what it takes to get it.
I’m a capitalist, so my opinion is very unpopular with some people. I get it. But I think many of us can agree that building a successful business requires the boss saying NO on a regular basis. It’s never easy until you have experienced the positive results longer term.
I challenge the Governor to try this once in a while, because despite his former nickname as “Dr. No,” when it came to vetoes, I don’t think he’s saying “no” much anymore.
If you think that the people that play an inordinate amount of state-sponsored games of chance aren’t being exploited, you may be in denial. You may be one of those people.
Don’t even get me started on the “sin taxes” on tobacco and alcohol. Cannabis is going to be a big earner for the state and give a new meaning to Reefer Madness, with everyone getting high and happily paying more taxes to just say YES.
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