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Back From Vegas - America Is Screwed

Posted by Paul B | July 16, 2008 .

I can’t believe how much trouble America is in…but more on that later. Anyhoo Vegas, what a place.

Only been back a day so I’m still suffering a bit from the 8 hour time difference, not to mention going from 106 degree+ heat to the magnificent 67 we get for our British summer! Absolutely loved Vegas, everything was bigger and better, the people are nicer and the level of customer service was out of this world. I’m not sure if that’s the same across the whole of the US but all I can say is that I loved it. In all our time there not once did we experience any bad customer service, just on my way to work this morning I’ve had a grumpy bus driver and a shop assistant who served me whilst texting her friend. America has definitely got that very right! We stayed at the Bellagio which was perhaps a little bit too posh (I’m a country lad at heart) for me but I think by the end of the week we were fitting in well. I spent 2 days gambling hard and losing badly before I eventually decided enough was enough and left the wife to it. I knew it wasn’t my time. She did great on the video poker and came home a winner, think I’ll stick to making my money online! The amount of money some of those guys were handing over on the tables was truly scary, it really puts the levels of wealth in the world into some proportion. I’ve now seen somebody lose more than my annual income in the space of 5 minutes! Amongst the trip highlights were the helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon, being driven around in a limo (something just not affordable at home) and of course just the scale of some of the hotels. We particularly enjoyed the Venetian, although to truly recreate the ambience of Venice they’d really need to create the stink of shit! As it was our first trip to Vegas and seeing as how my wife is a vacation Ninja and wanted to see as much as possible we did a lot of walking, roughly 150 miles in 6 days. Next time I think we’d relax a bit more and maybe spend more time by the pool, enjoying the nightlife although we did catch a few shows.

Overall I’d recommend Vegas to anybody, just don’t bring your kids. The only downside to the place is the porn litter. Up and down the strip is littered with flyers for hookers/strippers and that’s makes the place not suitable for younger kids. If they could sort that out then they’d have a great place for a family holiday. I don’t think that’s what they want though, from speaking to a couple of taxi drivers and our Limo driver the overall impression is that Vegas is changing rapidly and not for the better. Whooping frat boys who don’t know how to behave either sober or drunk are wrecking it for a lot of others. That combined with the fact that so many states have legalised gambling and the extra hassles in flying have meant that Vegas and Nevada are struggling. Gambling income is down for the 6th month in a row. The general consensus is that in 3 or 4 years time Vegas will be a very different place and that makes me feel even better that we visited when we did. Sure I’d love to go back and see the City Centre development when it’s finished but not if the place has been over run with dickheads.

Las Vegas Sign
Sell photos on photrade | By paulb

So what was I saying about America, oh yeah, it’s screwed! Sorry guys but you have the worst TV of any country I’ve ever visited, way too many adverts. It’s not the number of ads that are the only problem but rather the type as well. Almost every advert I saw was for “how to avoid paying your debts and keep your house”. Almost every news program was about how bad the US economy is or moaning about the $4 a gallon cost of fuel (This made me laugh, back home you can multiply that number by 5). What I found so odd was all this borrow and not pay back mentality. To moan about the price of fuel whilst sitting (alone) in your 4 litre pick-up. The companies that have lent you the money that you’re some how going to avoid paying back employ people. When they don’t get their money back they have to cut back on staff or go bust, just look at the 2 biggest mortgage providers. That means more unemployment and cycle that just gets worse. If you’ve borrowed too much to buy a house you can’t afford the real solution is to either sell that house directly or have it reprocessed. Either that or earn more money. You need to find something to rent or buy that you can afford That’s just the way the world works. In the same way if you can’t afford your current gas bill the right solution is to get a smaller car, use it less or horror of horrors use public transport. Oil prices aren’t going down anytime soon so get used to it. Vegas provides a great opportunity to see some of the richest and poorest in American society.

From the high rollers gambling thousands of dollars on a single hand to the beggars trying to survive of a few dollars a day it’s all there. There will always be the mega rich and mega poor in society but where I think America (and the UK) has it wrong is how it deals with those in the middle. They take away the incentive to progress and do well. I noticed that whilst I was there Nevada are cutting back the immunisation program for kids starting school. Those people stuck in the middle now have to find extra money (it was quite a lump) to pay for their own whilst if you can just earn that little less it’s still going to be paid for you. Where’s the incentive? A booming economy is built on the back of small business, with what’s happening now and the very likely presidential result life is just going to get tougher for those that in other circumstances would be creating the wealth and jobs in America. You’re going to end up paying more taxes to bail out others because the government is going to have to step in with funding for private institutes when people find ways of avoiding their debts. It goes round and round until it eventually bottoms out. To be fair I just think that the US is further ahead in the cycle than the UK, we’re definitely heading exactly the same way. I guess the only difference is that we don’t have anywhere near as many people popping up on TV to try to sell us a service that helps us avoid our responsibilities!

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