Re: Poker = A legitimate profession - Help me PROVE please?
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I wouldn't bother trying. I tell people I'm a proofreader. If I dressed less shabbily and shaved more often, I'd say air traffic controller.
Gamblers contribute nothing. Economics guy Nassim Nicholas Taleb disputes this, saying "gambling injects currency into economic life in the form of the expectation of future cash transfers and that, and not just narrowly defined 'productive' activities, may make the world advance."
Perhaps so, but I challenge any poker player to feel that.
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Aaron Brown (a frequent 2+2 poster) wrote a book called "The Poker Face of Wall Street." Among other things he pointed out the very real and positive impact of what was essentially gambling on the developing frontier in the 1800s. Specifically this revolved around "soft money banks" in a new town. Because the banks didn't have any hard assests to back up their currency and the currency was only accepted in the immediate area everyone was "gambling" that the town would be a success. If it wasn't the result was a domino effect where businesses went under and the bank soon followed leaving everyone broke. Lots of other examples in the book that give you a different perspective on the potential positive effects of "gambling."
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