Thanks but no thanks anyway/I know that you're NOT okay

Proposition 3. It would allow for casinos in four major cities in Ohio. The teevee is currently being carpetbombed with commercials for it, including a really horrible one with that inimitable "local TV ad" aesthetic that features two women ("actresses" you couldn't call them) in a bus talking about how CRAZY! it is that they have to go out of state for their annual spree. I personally don't understand the idea of State Pride--I mean, I understand it, I suppose, but it seems to take tribalism to self-parodic parodic heights. Why not City Block Pride?

But what FUCKING BOTHERS THE SHIT OUT OF ME is that all the ads, pro and con, focus on the question of whether these casinos will or will not create jobs for Ohioans. Apparently, the social justice issue has been ceded entirely, and I find this deeply troubling. Yeah, jobs. Great. You know, this is one reason* why I could never be a libertarian. Would it be a terrible faux pas for me to note that this awesome boost to the economy will be in the service of a system designed to more efficiently syphon money from poor people to filthy-rich, plutocratic bastards? I mean, we could also create jobs by building legalized crackhouses throughout the state, and the fact that we don't seems to indicate that we're not totally insensible to moral concerns--but in this instance, we've just chosen to forget about them. Pardon me, but that is FUCKED UP. Ugh. No on 3.

*The other, more general reason is that progressives have worked DAMNED HARD to make the country look a LITTLE less like an Upton Sinclair novel, and call me crazy, but I think that's a good thing.