Polonius: "What do you read, my lord?"
Hamlet: "Words, words, words."
HOW OFTEN have our betters followed the Atlas Shrugged formula for naming legislation, causes or even themselves? Remember the Congress in that Ayn Rand novel, tantrum and (100 pages too long) magnum opus? Her not altogether fictional Congress would pass a Preservation of Livelihood Law that ruined many a livelihood, a Fair Share Law that confiscated property, and a Public Stability Law that shattered public stability. The aforementioned Miss Rand may have exaggerated (and how!), but she had the politicians' number.
Now remember the all-too-real Congress during the last administration when it passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It was a stimulus that didn't stimulate. Who can forget the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that raised prices on most of us and protected 70-year-old men from being uninsured during pregnancy?
Some of us are old enough to remember the noble Knight of Chappaquiddick, Ted Kennedy, proposing the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have done away with employee free choice by killing the secret ballot during union organizing votes. Ted Kennedy & Co. would rather have had their union friends looking over your shoulder as you signed a card authorizing a union in your shop. Which you'd do if you knew what was good for you. Nice looking car ya got there, bud. Shame if anything happened to it.
You have to admire the brazenness of those who give these low proposals such high-sounding names. See also Pro-Choice, Planned Parenthood, and Pregnancy-Related Services, aka abortion. (Ted Kennedy was a big fan of all that, too.)
Now come various outfits, right cheer in Arkansas, trying to get their various proposals on the ballot. One of them would set up casinos in certain Arkansas counties, lighting up the Ozarks and Delta with neon signs better fit for the desert in Nevada. But we'll always have with us those who'd seek to expand gambling in Arkansas--and sometimes they win. See the lottery.
The other day, Arkansas' Newspaper reported the hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to these outfits, and the number of signatures they already have. Given enough signatures, and Gentle Reader might get to vote whether to legalize casinos near Pine Bluff, Hot Springs, Russellville and West Memphis. The committees pushing--and we mean pushing--the casinos are called:
• Driving Arkansas Forward, and
• The Arkansas Jobs Coalition
Driving Arkansas Forward? Why not Driving Arkansans into Bankruptcy? Casinos aren't in the business of losing money to players. How is erecting a Caesar's Palace in Pine Bluff or a Harrah's in West Memphis going to move Arkansas forward? Perhaps the DAF is thinking along the lines of tax dollars going to state and local governments? But those tax dollars have got to come from somewhere. That is, somebody. And how is taking yet more tax money out of the pockets of Arkansans and giving it to the various governments moving forward? What would moving backward be?
And the Arkansas Jobs Coalition? Perhaps there'll be many jobs in the casinos. But how many jobs would be lost elsewhere? That is, if people start spending their entertainment dollars (or the rent money) in casinos, what happens to movie theaters, bowling alleys, water parks and restaurants? Maybe a better name for this outfit would be the Arkansas Casino Jobs Coalition.
On another ballot issue, you'll see the Arkansans For A Fair Wage organization, which wants to raise the minimum wage in this state. And not by a little. It wants to increase the minimum wage from $8.50 to $11 per hour.
As has been noted before, those hurt by a continually rising minimum wage are mostly those on the minimum wage. For when pizza joints and local burger shacks have to pay more for unskilled workers, they tend to hire fewer unskilled workers. Or not even open a restaurant in the first place. Restaurants aren't in the business of losing money any more than casinos are. If you raise the cost of doing business, owners must find a way to cut. And the first step is usually letting the busboy go.
It seems that most Arkansans think wages are fair now. Maybe the aforementioned outfit should change its name, too, to something more reality-based. Like, say, Arkansans For Fewer Busboys and Waitresses.
Keep alert, y'all. We get the feeling that these word games are going to continue until, oh, sometime in November.
Editorial on 07/22/2018