THE PUBLIC MIND: GAMBLING WILL NOT BRING ECONOMIC GOOD TO COMMUNITY

To the editor:

For a long time now, the attendant benefits of gambling enterprises are purported to be many and substantial. At the same time, negative spin-offs are down-played as being non-existent or minimal. The projected economic gains seem to rule the day.

Basically, gambling, as the root of any enterprise, is NOT an economic good as envisioned in economic theory. It is a parasitic concept, notwithstanding the arguments in favor of all the tangential benefits.

The flurry in recent years of gambling based enterprises as revenue producing devices is symptomatic of our decline as a nation. Gone, it seems, is our lust to be philosophically involved in the productive, revolutionary social process. We are increasingly caught up in the fantasy of the "get rich quick, big hit." The excitement of participation in a deliberate quest, embracing reality, is rapidly escaping us, Dwight Eisenhower used to say, "The prize is in the quest." We are abdicating our civic responsibility to support legitimate government processes by hoping to fund them through the lottery (again, a parasitic enterprise).

What's troubling about this is that we are groping in legislatures, elections, halls of learning, churches, etc. for direction in our dilemma...while we are avoiding recognizing the boulders in our path.

Gil Degenhardt

Cape Girardeau