Uh Oh…I Think I’ve Been Misconstrued…

Or as Charo used to say, “Mis-Con-Screwed.”  It seems that yesterday’s post has left some thinking I am all for 9 year olds playing poker online.  Nothing could be further than the truth.  I don’t think people who are too young to know what they’re doing should spend money like that.  Take those dang ring tones - 99 cents here, 99 cents there, and that stuff adds up.  The daily latte from Starbucks, too.  And what else are young people spending their money on nowadays that they shouldn’t be spending it on?  Probably lots of things (in my day it was 45 RPM records and Dairy Queen sundaes). 

You know the old saying that a fool and his money are soon parted, and while I mean no disrespect to young people, they lack the education and experience that “older people” have when it comes to spending money.  Of course, there are plenty of “older people” who waste their hard-earned money on a variety of vices, sins, extravagances and the like.  But that takes away from my point here in that young people should be taught to value money and not spend it frivolously (so that as they mature they would continue not to spend it so frivolously). And in that regard they should not spend it on gambling online.

But…I still believe they shouldn’t be spending it on all those other things I mentioned.  And yet, we only have the law prohibiting the ONE thing.  We rely on parents, society, and the “village” to take care of the rest.

That’s my issue.  We only make laws where we think we’re too weak to “discipline” others.  In my way of thinking, that means we KNOW that gambling is an irresistible temptation (because so many of us fall to its charms), and so to protect US (not the kids), we set up laws prohibiting this or that.  It’s the same thing with a lot of other so-called vices. 

Whatever happen to common sense, by the way?  Just sayin’ is all.

Sorry if you found my previous post as “unconscionable.”  And by the way, that’s how you spell it (at least I think that’s the word you wanted).