On the dark side of Las Vegas, Nevada's poor feel neglected

[ursi]

Source: The Toronto Star

LAS VEGAS–Just a few blocks west of the gluttonous Las Vegas Strip, where the casinos will make about $18 million off gamblers today, is a squat, yellow house on a winding street called Biltmore, where beat up cars with flat tires are common and dust hangs in the air.

This tiny home is where Irma Roach lives with her husband, her mother, grandson and two Mexican boarders. The front window is covered in cardboard because the family cannot afford drapes.

"We're in a really tight situation," says the sinewy 59-year-old, who stays fit from boxing with her grandson. "But so are a lot of folks out here," Roach says, adding that although life is hard, she has her health.

Health, sure. But not health insurance. Laid off, too, as a telephone operator. Likewise for her husband, a casino cook. They live off her mother's social security cheque.

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/News/USElection/article/294865

[ursi]

1. we can blame our Governor and his neocon pal Sheldon Adelsohn and

the other casino moguls for this ...they feed off the low income workers down there:

snip...

Nevada just happens to be the biggest gambling destination in the world, and it's growing fast. Forty thousand new rooms expected by 2010. The last fiscal year ending in June was another record breaker: nearly $13 billion in profits statewide, $6.7 billion on the Strip alone.

But Nevada also leads in other areas, such as gun deaths, suicide and now home foreclosures. It has one of the worst public school systems in the U.S. Bankruptcies are high. It ranks below average for the number without health insurance.

"The state is intriguing. It's very wealthy. Yet the services are near the bottom," says William Epstein, professor of social work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

snip...

[LanternWaste]

2. Las Vegas... where the biggest pastime is

Las Vegas... where the biggest pastime is a voluntary tax on the willfully ignorant called 'gambling'.

I can only imagine how much good the money wasted in Vegas would do if directed down the right paths...

[Jimbo S]

3. So much for trickle down economics

All that tourist money pumped into that town and I can't believe the deep poverty that surrounds the Strip.

Whenever I discuss economics with anyone, I use this example as to why I believe supply-side economics is a fallacy.

[KamaAina]

4. John Edwards should get over there right now

what a perfect illustration of his theme. There, the "two Americas" are separated by mere blocks.

edit: Figures we'd be reading this in a Canadian paper (hence "social security cheque").