That Crab Pot Analogy

Lately I’ve been hearing that crab pot analogy a lot. Paul Foster mentioned it in his TEDx talk, and Jim Tolbert wrote about it in this letter he wrote to Brutus over there at ElPasoSpeak.com. (Which, by the way, is a very interesting letter. You should read it.)

And I agree. We should celebrate the successes of the community and of individuals in the community. But . . .

That doesn’t mean we should sit silently by while delusional policy makers drive us into a ditch.

That arena is a bad idea. As far as I can tell, it only benefits some real estate speculators and sports management hobbyists. And it’s going to cost at least $180 million, plus ongoing operations and maintenance, and take more money from the pockets of local businesses competing for the same entertainment dollars.

Government should not be picking winners and losers in the local marketplace, especially when the losers are local businessmen.

If this be treason, make the most of it.

Crab bucket image by Elpipster [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

5 comments

  1. Just Saynig:
    Many El Pasoan’s spend their money going to Sunland Park Casino/ Race tract, Western Playland and Ruidoso to name a few…so why not take a gamble on an arena???

    1. Because it’s not a good bet. We’d have better odds feeding $180 million into the slots.

  2. Please provide some of those better odds.

    P.S. You totally screen comments like Lionstar. I thought you were different!

    1. Everybody gets screened once. When you post with a different screen name every time, the algorithm doesn’t recognize you.

  3. The city arena would actually cost taxpayers more than $600 million when considering the interest on the loan. Plus, politicians always lie when pushing these things so there would be other surprise costs as well. Plus, it would probably become the Foster/Hunt Mexican-American Soccer Arena that costs $270 million and they wouldn’t have to pay taxes for the arena even after it would be practically gifted to them for their new hobby soccer team they are trying to buy.

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