Native

Sometime back I watched an interesting documentary about a Native American tribe who had transformed their impoverished community by building a casino on their reservation. Basically so much money was rolling in people were fighting to prove their membership of this tribe. What seemed sad is that yes the casino provided wealth but is wasn't doing much else. Most of the community was still affected by unemployment, they weren't producing much. But the casino meant enough money was coming in. It was fragile though because it relied on the State's laws on gambling.
I was chatting to my brother last night. We were talking about how you can measure a nations true wealth. It occurred to me that we have become very similar to that Tribe. Our casino is bigger, its the Stock Exchange but there are plenty of parallels. Beyond the south east and the orbit of the financial sector all meaningfull industry is gone and the government is often the main employer. The casino has is ups and downs and the whole place depends on it. However much we may despise the bankers there isn't much of a fall back is there. If the roulette wheels stopped turning we would be in the dodoo. Then the next question, is it an 'if' or is it a 'when' the wheels stops turning?