WHEN GOVERNMENTS GET INVOLVED IN SIN, THEY PROMOTE IT

Taxes are unpopular so governments tend to do things to increase revenues (actually for things people want but won't pay for), they have to appeal to shenanigans.  A popular one is to increase appraisal of property, sometimes far beyond the sale value of the property.  But some time ago, some governments started to approve of the sin of gambling (slot machines, low stakes poker, black jack, etc.) and boast how money they take in to help supposedly gambling free schools.  And there are, of course, contractors will to set up and operate this for you for a nice fee.

More recently, states have  been legalizing marijuana to be sold for a fee and the states doing this excitedly talk about how much money they are taking in from this sin.  At first it was for" medicinal" purposes.  Well, OK, I guess.  But inevitably it is now spreading to state approval, much to their glee.  My understanding is that the whole thing is illegal under Federal law, but no matter.

As a social libertarian, I am conflicted about these matters.  Gambling can certainly be addictive and people lose what money they have and become a problem to their families and even the state.  I doubt that putting smoke of any sort into your lungs is good for you.  I suppose a habit of a joint, maybe two, per day is probably not damaging much just like a shot of booze, or perhaps a second, a day isn't, but there will be many the don't stop there and will go for oblivion.  We know that many car accidents are caused by alcohol, and soon I expect we will see the same result for abuse of marijuana.  For some reason, we human beings seem to need to escape the reality of daily living.  But problems related to addictions are not just restricted to those addicted but automobile accidents, fights, medical expenses, emergency rooms, etc. are involved.  In some additions like smoking tobacco, the person at least remains functional though the exhaled smoke can be injurious to others, but addictions like alcohol and marijuana can incapacitate a person.

An excellent article by Michael Gerson on the pitfalls of the legalization of gambling and marijuana is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-corrupting-citizens-for-fun-and-profit/2014/07/14/da321826-0b87-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions.  It is not often I agree with Michael Gerson, but this is one place I do.  The question is, how do you stop it?

FACE BOOK IPO

I thought that IPOs were supposed to raise money for a company going public. If this is so, then the IPO was a great success because it ended up making the most money for Face Book. Unfortunately for gamblers who are used to making a killing on IPOs, it didn't happen this time. Some of them are taking out law suits. I think judges should throw such suits out. I don't care if institutions knew something more about Face Book than the rest of us. I knew enough to stay out of the IPO. First the IPO price for the stock had a P/E of 100 which is huge. a P/E of 40 would have been generous. Second it was known that Face Book is having a hard time getting advertisements onto cell phones and more and more people are looking at Face Book on their phones. This has been said to be a big challenge for Face Book in the future. It seems to me that when you gamble, you have to accept the results.

There may be big investors in the underwriters that say they will switch accounts unless the underwriter makes them whole. Well, this is something between the underwriter and the gambler, but it is not something for the courts.