Quote Originally Posted by Dave Byrd
Casinos certainly do create poverty. That's for sure. We went to Oklahoma a couple of weekends ago to meet some friends and met up with them at a Choctaw-owned casino across the border so they could lead the rest of the way to the restaurant. It was sad to see all the folks who could least afford it standing there, pouring money down the drain of a slot machine.

I've never visited Vegas, and have not been to Atlantic City in 20 years, but many senior citizens take free buses from New York to Atlantic City, presumably to invest their social security and pension checks in the casinos. I was at a casino in CT (or possibly PA) about 5 years ago.

From what I've read in Carter's books, money was very tight during the Depression for that family just like it was for everyone else. They were certainly less poor than the rock-bottom door-to-door meal beggars, but they were not rich. His father was not a wealthy farmer by any means. Wealthy in comparison to the poorest of Plains, yes. You ought to come down here sometime, BA, and let us take you to Louisiana where Bird's father and two previous generations of ancestors are from and look around at the vestiges of the same sort of history Carter came from. Might be interesting for you. It'd give you insight into why she's such a Carter fan, too, and a Clinton one. People love to say that line about Clinton having been our first black president. The truth was the first one was Jimmy Carter.
Thanks, Dave, I'd love to do it some time. That's a vacation I'll talk to my better half about. We need one. We went to Savannah, Georgia about two years ago and man, it was hot. Otherwise, we had a nice time. If it wasn't so hot down there, I'd consider moving to GA for retirement.