April Fool's Day is tomorrow, and appropriately Prince
George's County is focused on bringing a casino that will secure a funding stream
for its largest stakeholder, government itself.. With a full panoply of
gambling options in place, Prince George's County will be able to offer a quick
dose of construction jobs followed by a thousand or more, part-time 12.00 an hour jobs -
jobs that pay perhaps as much as 20,000 a year. As someone who is looking for
work I am eager to apply even as I will have to move out of the county to
afford to work at the casino. But a job
is better than no job so this is a good thing.
And
there is no doubt that adding gambling is good for National Harbor. Gaming will
allow National Harbor to compete for customers in need of a large well supported
meeting space. Conventions will be enticed by the wide range of options that
National Harbor can supply its convention cliental, from shopping to betting.
As to how this will benefit small, independent hotels and restaurants outside
the control of National Harbor, the best we can say is that Darwinian
capitalism will force them to improve their offers or wither away.
Of
course I wish we were bringing a 21st century suite of employment, like an international
bioagricultral life science research facility that partnered with NASA, the
University of Maryland, FDA, and USDA APHIS and ARS (BARC and NAL). Instead of
being the county that brings an opportunity to learn about the odds of making
money by doing nothing, we could be the global destination that provides one
stop solutions to food, fuel (energy), feed, forage, fiber, flowers, fish and forests - solutions
that could feed the world.
And
while we are at it, we might take the time to ask if our political elite has stopped squabbling long enough to
decide where the new national headquarters of the FBI will be. Or is the ingrained short
term self interest of our political machine going to allow other counties to
make a clear united pitch and grab the prize of real jobs? We cannot mall our
way to economic success, nor can we gamble on games to better our lot in life.
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