Sports Betting Is Just The Tip Of The Iceberg

 The number of sports betting commercials seen on tv would have been unthinkable when I was a kid, or when I was in my 20 or 30s or more, or 10 and perhaps 5 years ago. And what we should note about sports betting is that those who participate in it are only interested in what they can win. Their betting shows little concern for the welfare of the players involved.

Of course some sports betting is nothing more than a kind of social interaction and is the result of comradery. In such cases, the emphasis is on the social relationship and friendship than on winning money. But outside of that, sports betting not only can cause deep personal problems for some, it acts as a sign of the times. Indeed, what Martin Luther King Jr. said about some investors certainly applies to those who are addicted to betting or count on a significant amount of winnings from their betting (click here for the source):

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just."

Of course if sports betting was the only kind of betting that illustrated the self-centeredness about which King spoke, it might not be worth mentioning here. But there is a bigger casino to target here. That casino is the Stock Market. So while sports betting is the tip of the ice berg, the Stock Market is what lies underneath the top of the water and threatens ships that pass by.

We should note that unless one buys originally issued shares, a business never sees the money involved in a stock transaction even though a stock price might positively affect the financial future of a business. Rather, when buying shares from someone else, the seller is the only one who receives money from the sale of stocks. And while many people have some sort of financial adviser who is acting in their behalf in the purchase of stocks, the same motivation of buying solely to increase one's own profits is in play. There is little to no concern by those who own stocks in contributing to the welfare of a business and its employees outside of the ROI those workers produce. And for many, if not most, publicly owned businesses, the purpose of those businesses is to maximize the ROI for its investors. And so such a motivation can turn shareholders into the stock market equivalent absentee landlords.

And so what we see with most shareholders, not including activist shareholders who have some other priorities, is the same kind of motivation that Martin Luther King Jr. spoke against in the above quote.  And lest one thinks that my ranting here is out of an ideological opposition to the Stock Market, one only needs to talk to enough employees of publicly owned companies to confirm what is being said here. Publicly owned businesses exist primarily for their shareholders and the job of those executives who represent the shareholders is to maximize the ROI of those shareholders regardless whether it is at the expense of the businesses' other stakeholders.

We should note that such a mentality is not lost on those becoming adults. Having read some of Dr. Anthony Bradley's twitter account I see his deep concern for the lostness of young men in this country. And, IMO, why shouldn't they feel lost when our society and economic system teaches us that work is counted as being less important than wealth and that our culture is telling us that when looking for jobs and careers, we are to look solely for what we can get out of a job or career rather than including what we can contribute to people. In fact, the consumer society that we have been living in for at least a couple of generations now has taught us that same lesson. That our significance is found in what we can get and consume rather including what we can contribute and give to others.

So it isn't just our latest spike in sports betting that is passing on this same message, basically it is the same message that our economic system is teaching us. And the spike in sports betting is telling us how much the message is sinking into the minds of many of us.

Our demise as a species will be caused by our refusal to share power and wealth. And at this time in America, we have too many messages from multiple sources telling us telling us not share our wealth, not to seek the betterment of others. It is certainly ok to invest in order to get a return.  But when the only motivation for investing is to maximize our ROI with little to no interest in the betterment of those who are affected by our investment, we see a system that will eventually cause its own demise as well as our own.