Are jobs at cost of values too high a price to pay?
By Paul O'Connor
JOURNAL COLUMNIST
Sunday, May 9, 2004

RALEIGH - Democratic Co-Speaker Jim Black has unveiled a novel economic-development strategy. In the hyper-charged politics relating to new jobs, Black says that community values belong in the back seat.

Of course, he's not saying it that way. That's just the gist of his attitude toward video poker. For years now, he's bottled up Senate legislation to kill the insidious industry, and he says that's because he fears the loss of thousands of jobs.

"If it were your job, you'd feel differently," he said to this columnist at a press conference Tuesday.

Black's philosophy opens the door to new questions about economic development. If we don't have to worry about defying community values - such as opposition to gambling, the addictions it creates and the families it destroys - then what other job-creation strategies could we pursue?

The most obvious is the drinking age. A legal drinking age set at 21 blocks some of the most obvious customers of beer, wine and liquor from buying products that create jobs. Let's drop the drinking age to 16, as it is in Europe, and create a lot of jobs at breweries, beer and wine distributorships and convenience stores. And we could put light beers in school vending machines as a way of fighting teen obesity. It would get kids off those high-calorie sodas.

The next idea is the sanctioning of gay marriage. Allowing it would create jobs. If you doubt that, try to find a caterer in Cape Cod this summer. You can't. That's because of the pent-up demand for gay weddings that will be tapped once Massachusetts allows gay marriages next week. Think of the potential new market for divorce attorneys. If we keep the lawyers busy, they won't have time to sue doctors.

How about legalizing marijuana? Don't laugh. Think about the economic impact that tobacco's had on North Carolina. Grass creates the same market with jobs growing, processing and packaging it. This could be just what rural North Carolina needs, even if it does offend our silly values about drugs.

The legislature may support incentives for movie producers to shoot their films here. Why not try to lure the multi-billion-dollar porn movie business? That industry has thousands of high-paying jobs. And, to make sure that a bunch of Californians don't move to Wilmington, the legislature could limit the tax incentives to jobs created for North Carolinians.

Finally, there's the suggestion that Rep. Sam Ellis, R-Wake, made a few years ago in response to lottery legislation. If we really don't have any values - community, church or family - then why not legalize prostitution? Talk about an industry that creates a lot of jobs, none of which can be outsourced to India. And they're high-paying jobs that don't require much education, so we wouldn't have to build new schools to lure the industry here.

Of course, when asked if he would support legal prostitution, Black was noncommittal. Maybe the industry hasn't approached him with campaign contributions yet.

That's what this whole video-poker thing is about. According to Democracy North Carolina, Black got $100,000 in campaign contributions from the video-poker industry in the 2002 election cycle, enough to keep his seat in the House and help his Democratic friends who kept their seats.

So, you see, this really is all about jobs - those of Jim Black and his allies.

• O'Connor writes editorials for the Journal from Raleigh. He can be reached at ocolumn@mindspring.com


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