Addiction stimulates the economy in Illinois

The Chicago Tribune on November 11, 2010 published an article Gambling our way to prosperity? in which the lame duck session of the Illinois Legislature is "expected to push through legislation expanding casinos in the state" following on the heels of recent legislation that legalized video poker.

Meanwhile, another issue reported about, but kept carefully apart from the gambling issue by time and/or space is the fact that the Illinois Department of Human Services seems to be suffering the most when the state's budget is being cut. The World Socialist Web Site focused on this issue in an article titled Illinois budget cuts gouge education, social services back in July of 2010. This article pointed out that mental health was primarily targeted:

The largest of the detailed spending cuts was made to the Department of Human Services, which is to lose $312.6 million, or nearly 8 percent of its funding. Although these cuts are expected to impact a wide variety of programs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that programs for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled were particularly targeted. -- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/illi-j09.shtml

When these two issues are kept at a distance from one-another, it's easy to overlook their engineered interactivity. When considering the reaction of the business community to the state-wide smoking ban, one can get a sense of the motivation and back-room influence the business community has on the state's decision to most severely cut the budget of the Illinois Department of Human Services in the area of addiction, whether it be substance or behavior.

Mental health services deal with such economically influential addictions as gambling, over-indulging in consumption of mind-altering chemicals, food, and even hoarding. The Department of Human Services particularly deals with people who can't afford to pay for private assistance in these matters.

So it's easy to conclude that providing such services has a two-fold negative effect on the state's economy. First, it costs the state to help people fight their addictions, and secondly it costs the economy to have people gain control of their addictions and rein-in their spending habits, thus reducing the state's tax revenues through sales taxes on such things as cigarettes, alcohol, the state lottery, and even the revenues gained by law enforcement seizing drug money.

So when wondering about half-hearted attempts at law enforcement, national border security, the war on drugs, and the poor treatment of the good people at the Department of Human Services, just follow the money.

Computus Interruptus

You get frustrated when you have to do work, especially when you have one of those really boring jobs at a state agency and you don't feel like quitting in the middle of computer solitaire or World of Warcraft, The solution becomes old-school.

You write your assignments long-hand on paper and pass them to an office clerk to type for you. It's that simple! You can continue your awesome hand in Solitaire, position in chess, or battle whatever. You and your computer can while-away the hours until theclock strikes three-thirty, then off you go to enjoy the rest of the sunny day.

So what if the office clerk has assumed more responsibilities due to budget cuts, or that even your own boss and everyone else types their own memos because they have computers! It's your life to take by the reins and galivant.

The problem is you are wasting valuable taxpayer dollars, and wasting paper. Ruining the environment by using excess paper and performing redundant tasks adds up to serious waste over time.

So stop it!

Stop tearing off a sheet of paper, writing something that should be typed by you, then handing it off to someone else to repeat what you just wrote, on their computer. Type your own damn Shit!

Predicted “Staycations” didn’t include IL State Fair.

Soon after the economy pinched a loaf last winter, the news media started repeating the trendy new word "Staycation" until it became a cliche. It was an accurate prediction for Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Ohio and possibly Kentucky, that local state fair attendance would go up.

Not so for Illinois and Michigan.

I went to the Illinois State Fair last week, and spend most of my money on the admission and parking fee. $12.00 Attendance was reported down by 15% on WMAY this morning. They must have gone to the Missouri State fair which was up by the same amount from last year.

While Michigan’s state fair is not expected to start until August 28th and run through Labor Day, The Detroit Free Press reports that Governor Granholm is faced with a $1.8 billion deficit, plans to cut the fair’s budget. Eviction notices have been sent to the tenants, apparently scheduled for immediately following this year’s fair, freep.com reports.

The admission fee is broken down into the categories of “Super Saver Combo Pass,” $25.00 for gate admission and all day rides per person; $25.00 admission of 2 adults and 2 children; $9.00 for one adult; $4.00 for a child 3-12 years of age; $4.00 for a senior 62 or older. Groups of 25 or more get in for $7 per group member.

Meanwhile, Missouri’s state fair attendance was up fifteen percent, according to kansascity.com. Governor Jay Nixon’s office reported that nearly 110,000 people attended the Show-Me State’s fair this year, nearly the population of Springfield, Illinois. Missouri’s state fair had an admission charge of $1.00

Indiana’s state fair this year was 17 days long and so far had an attendance record of 905,645. This past Saturday the attendance was announced at 73,645 according to ChicagoTribune.com.

The Kentucky State Fair is currently ongoing and attendance numbers are not yet available.

Food at the Illinois State Fair

It's irresistible!

Brain Flight from SPFLD

After graduating from the University of Illinois at Springfield, I thought it would be easier to get a job here. I have BA and AAS degrees, you would think those would be easy-ins for me here, but that wasn't true.

I wound up working for a temp agency that placed me in a minimum wage clerical position. When I finally was hired in a real job that matched my skill level, it was a company based in another state that hired me for a local position.

At first I couldn't figure out why I was having so much difficulty. I didn't want to leave the state, but I was getting close to deciding that I didn't have a choice but to leave for a bigger city. It wasn't until I began to think about what these employers in Springfield were thinking when they received my resume, then it dawned on me they must be thinking "Why on God's green earth is a college graduate applying for a job in Springfield of all places?"

Employers here must be so used to seeing their own children and their childrens' friends planning on leaving town after graduating and only coming back to visit on holidays and funerals, that there must be something wrong with someone who has two college degrees applying for a job in Springfield.

So, now I work in Springfield for a business from out-of-state where the profits leave the state instead of the highly qualified employees. Oh, the irony... and morons.

Newspaper Buckles!

Let me begin by telling you my story. I was laid off from AT&T Cable Advertising in South Bend Indiana in 2001, when they sold my Photo Clasified Channel to the Warner Brothers Network. The sale was a deal sweetener to sell the entire South Bend cable operation to Comcast.

Six years later I make a phone call to the old office, checking up on my employment references. To my astonishment, the only person left at the South Bend Cable Advertising office was the office manager. No, not the General Manager, the office administration manager!

Comcast completely cleared the slate when they bought the cable operation, I was only the proverbial "canary in the coal mine." Now everything at South Bend is controlled out of Indianapolis.

Now, Back to SPFLD and the State Journal Register.

BlogFreeSpringfield.com reports that some top managers have resigned. My guess is that editorial control is going completely electronic and remote. The local material will probably come from some "good" local freelance writers.

Local divisions such as the Business and Food section appear to already be using more nationally syndicated material from outside the community, and local artists, writers and photographers appear to be utilized less.

The shift in ad space toward the big multinational clients, especially pharmaceuticals, is attempting to appeal to an older audience of newspaper subscribers. There might even be a shift in the types of investments that get more attention in the business section. More like television these days, daily and weekly print media outlets serve only themselves.

At the cable company, I found out my channel was going to be sold by reading about it in the newspaper, over a month before I was supposed to get my two-week termination notice. Out of kindness I stayed and kept the operation going until the very end. My boss told me I helped bring in $500,000.00 in annual revenues.

The only benefit was a mild severance package and unemployment insurance. If I had resigned, I would not be in a position to bargain for anything. And I'm sure neither was anyone at Michiana Cable Advertising when the Comcast tsunami hit.

Everyone I knew there is gone. They were pretty good friends and I miss them, but when I was laid off, they treated me like a Leper. I’m sure they regret it now that they realize the precariousness of their own employment security. How is your job security, my media friends?

Now I extend an open invitation to those emancipated from the Illinois State Journal Register: Come hither and build SPFLD.net, we the media outcasts shall take the Internet, and overcome the mainstream corporate behemoths!