The week before last, I traveled to Las Vegas for the annual Progressive States Network/EARN conference for state legislators. It was a great event - lots of terrific legislators are planning to do a lot of really progressive things in the upcoming legislative sessions. But as I say in my new newspaper column this week, I left struck by the city of Las Vegas itself - and specifically struck by how it is such a perfect symbol for the predicament our country now faces.
Vegas* is a monument to our nation's environmental and economic hubris - and gluttony. It is the product of our long-held "what me, worry?" attitude about things like energy and water, its lights helping make Nevada the fastest growing carbon emitter in the country, its desert location threatening the existence of Lake Mead.
Likewise, Vegas' central industry - gambling - represents both desperation and the root core of what crushed our economy in the first place. People come to Vegas hoping beyond hope that they can bet their way out of economic pressure, and that gambling impulse is what now guides our financial industry towards catastrophe.
But the thing is, Vegas isn't just limited to Vegas - Vegas as a concept is people everywhere wasting energy in their homes, buying gas guzzlers, using too much water spending too much on credit and betting too big with their 401(k)'s. And so the question, as I say in the column, is whether we as a country can mature beyond that Vegas attitude during this moment of crisis? Are we ready for all the lifestyle and public policy sacrifices that this new era will demand? I think we are, but it's going to take a radical societal and legislative shifts.
Read the whole column here. Not surprisingly, it has elicited some angry responses from people who live in Vegas - such as this one in the Los Angeles Times that refuses to concede even the most basic point about the problem of fast-growing population centers in the most ecologically unsustainable environment's possible. But that' sto be expected - and if the column generates debate, then that's a good thing.
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* The best part about Vegas IMHO is that it is a major union success story in the service industry. While that doesn't negate my point about the entire concept and geography of Vegas, it is worth pointing out at this moment when the commentariat seems intent on bashing organized labor.