Sex, Drugs and Gay Marriage Stimulate Recovery
Russia Today
June 09, 2009

Gay marriage is profitable. Prostitution remains taxable. Marijuana helps the budget. The deeper the crisis, the more American politicians are forced to think outside the box to fill their coffers. Yahoo StumbleUpon Google Live Technorati Scoop del.icio.us Digg Sphinn Furl Reddit

A UCLA Williams Institute study found that same sex marriages boosted the Massachusetts state economy by over $100 million. A second study confirmed that once gay marriage was legalized, young, affluent same sex couples were twice as likely to move to Massachusetts. Co-author of the study, Gary Gates, stated that "the timing of this movement to Massachusetts suggests that those couples were flocking to the first state to allow them to marry."

Alas, no such hope for California, as Proposition 8 banning gay marriage was upheld last month. The Golden State is desperate to finds the means to close its staggering $40 billion budget deficit. The solution? California politician Tom Ammiano has one. “With any revenue ideas, people say you have to think outside the box, you have to be creative, and I feel that the issue of the decriminalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana fits that bill”, says Ammiano.

While California only allows the use of marijuana for ‘medical’ purposes, Ammiano has introduced legislation that would allow anyone over the age of 21 to buy, grow and sell marijuana with the state regulating and taxing its sale. The estimated revenue is at least $1.3 billion in taxes.

In Nevada, they are neither ready to legalize gay marriage nor marijuana. Their solution- prostitution. Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman recently called to reopen the debate on the legalization of prostitution in Nevada’s largest cities, including his own. Prostitution is legal in rural areas of the state, but not in larger cities. Goodman stated that “those in industry” believe that this could generate as much as $200 million a year in taxes. The Entertainment Capital of the World is among the hardest hit cities by the US economic slump, with real estate prices falling by one-third.

State governments are trying to make money wherever they can, however, and can, as president Obama said: “The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist …in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth”. In Massachusetts, Nevada and California, many concur.