I am no fan of casino gambling (look how it turned around Detroit — not), but if you’re going to have it, you might as well get the best possible taxpayer deal.

Here is a bit of The Cincinnati Enquirer’s coverage of the Kasich-Rock Gaming deal:

Calling an end to a months-long taxation spat that led to a month-long suspension of casino construction in Cincinnati and Cleveland, Rock Gaming and Ohio Gov. John Kasich unveiled the terms of their truce on Wednesday, headlined by the developer’s agreement to pay an extra $110 million over a decade to Ohio covering both of its properties.

… In the end, it was difficult to say who “won” the dispute. After calling the 2009 casino amendment a “raw deal” for Ohio, Kasich secured extra $10 million to $12 million annual payments over the next 10 years from two projects that were already projected to generate a combined $385 million in gambling taxes a year.

Rock Gaming ultimately paid more money, but nothing close to what Ohio officials threatened.

Under terms of the agreement reached Saturday, Rock Gaming will make five annual payments of $10 million to Ohio, followed by five annual payments of $12 million. Those payments are on top of normal business taxes, a 33 percent tax on gambling revenues and a $50 million one-time fee for each property for a license.

In exchange, the Kasich administration agreed to drop Ohio’s bid to apply its Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) against total betting as lawmakers have been suggesting during the budget process – sparing Gilbert’s casinos a combined $25 million annual additional tax burden. Instead, the CAT will only apply to the casino’s winnings.

The results:

• It’s isn’t definitively stated whether the casinos will open on their targeted completion dates, or whether the recent delays will cause the openings to slip. The guess here is that there won’t be any slippage, given that the targeted opening dates are so far out (Spring 2013? How can it take so long? Are the local bureaucracies or job work rules in the way?). That’s a good thing, because the state receipts lost by missing by a few more months would wipe out much of the $110 million gained.
• Kasich gets a “see, I told ya” against those who said the voter-approved constitutional amendment(s) meant that nothing was negotiable.
• The “it’s difficult to say who ‘won’” statement means that Kasich at the very least avoided a potentially significant embarrassment.

There’s no indication that extra payments from Rock Gaming can also be obtained from Ohio’s other casino operators, but it’s hard to see why not.

Initial Claims: seasonally adjusted 414,000K, down from previous week’s upwardly revised (of course) 430K. Not seasonally adjusted claims were 395K, down about 12% from last year’s level.

Housing info (Census Bureau release):

BUILDING PERMITS

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 612,000. This is 8.7 percent (±1.5%) above the revised April rate of 563,000 and is 5.2 percent (±2.4%) above the May 2010 estimate of 582,000.

Single-family authorizations in May were at a rate of 405,000; this is 2.5 percent (±1.1%) above the revised April figure of 395,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 190,000 in May.

HOUSING STARTS

Privately-owned housing starts in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000. This is 3.5 percent (±12.4%)* above the revised April estimate of 541,000, but is 3.4 percent (±8.7%)* below the May 2010 rate of 580,000.

Single-family housing starts in May were at a rate of 419,000; this is 3.7 percent (±9.5%)* above the revised April figure of 404,000. The May rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 134,000.

HOUSING COMPLETIONS

Privately-owned housing completions in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 544,000. This is 0.4 percent (±14.6%)* above the revised April estimate of 542,000, but is 22.5 percent (±9.2%) below the May 2010 rate of 702,000.

Single-family housing completions in May were at a rate of 431,000; this is 2.9 percent (±17.0%)* above the revised April rate of 419,000. The May rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 108,000.

More later.

It’s here.

It will go up here at BizzyBlog on Saturday (link won’t work until then; the title won’t have “ATMs” in it, though it’s a good if imperfect hook at the moment) after the blackout expires.

Special thanks to PJM for getting the column up so quickly after submission.

_________________________

Supplement: Not emphasized in the column was the point that it isn’t just existing businesses which make decisions on how to structure themselves. The decision on whether or not to hire people is one over which start-up and early-stage businesses must also agonize.

The default decision in today’s economic landscape is not to hire if it can at all be avoided. How is it accomplished? Three ways:

1. The founder or founders do things themselves or use free spouse/partner/family help.
2. They outsource as many functions as possible to other companies, who then get to wrestle with the hiring/non-hiring decision.
3. They use temporary help services (495,000 of the 550,000 jobs added since the recession ended are temp jobs).

To slightly amend a quote from the column: ” If you believe that having additional employees — or any employees — around will become cost-prohibitive in 2014, you avoid hiring them today.”

Those who do come onto the payroll are given the clear understanding that it’s part-time, involves no employee benefits, and that it could end at any moment.

Also: In a radio appearance on a station down in Georgia during the past week, the host told me the story of an entrepreneur she knew who had to let about 20 people go when his business seriously contracted during the recession. She said that he now survives with about four employees (I don’t remember the exact number she said), but that he has decided not to staff up in the future — even if it means not growing as fast as he would like — so that he doesn’t have to repeat the wrenching experience of terminating good people. The guess here is that this entrepreneur is not alone in his outlook.

______________________________________

UPDATE: It’s good to see Speaker John Boehner’s peeps have a sense of humor (internal links and bolds are in original) –

Guest Post: Blame Washington Democrats’ Economy, Not the ATMs!
Posted by An Automated Teller Machine (ATM) on June 15, 2011

I didn’t do it.

President Obama says I’m to blame for high unemployment – part of the “structural” problems with the economy. Yes, he actually said my electronic brethren and I – who dispense cash and make lines move a little more quickly at the airport – are part of the reason 1.5 million fewer Americans have jobs than when the “stimulus” was enacted.

But before the president fingered us as responsible for job losses, he sought to take credit for the sluggish economy.

And even DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said this morning that Democrats own the economy. I don’t. I’m just an ATM. I don’t own anything.

So if there are any “structural issues” with our faltering economy, as the president said, it’s likely because of his policies – not ATMs. For example:

• SPENDING TOO MUCH: Democrats want to spend more of your money (and rack up more debt). I want you to spend it. The Democrats who run Washington spent almost a trillion dollars on a “stimulus” that didn’t work (and bragged about it during “Recovery Summer”) — and they want to spend more! They haven’t passed a budget that spurs job growth and stops spending money we don’t have (note: Republicans have), and even worked with an army of lobbyists to fight spending cuts. You won’t catch me spending any of your money; I just want you to have it.

• TAXING TOO MUCH: Democrats want to take away more of your money through tax hikes. I just give you your money. Democrats imposed massive job-crushing tax hikes, penalties, and mandates in their health care law. And many want new tax hikes on small businesses. ATMs? We just give you your money. Sure, a lot of ATMs charge higher fees than we used to – and I apologize for that, seriously – but it’s only because Democrats in Washington made us do it (see Dodd-Frank regulations – and the next bullet). Democrats treat you like an ATM; I am an ATM.

• REGULATING TOO MUCH: Democrats complicate life for job creators by creating more red tape. I simplify things. The regulatory onslaught of recent years has paralyzed small businesses. From ObamaCare to Dodd-Frank, the national energy tax to the government takeover of the internet, excessive regulations – imposed and proposed – raise costs and create an environment of uncertainty  that hurts job growth. Me? I just let you walk up, punch in some numbers, and take some cash. Simple.

ATMs and airport kiosks (and even teleprompters) are tools that help make life a little easier. Republicans have a plan for jobs that would make life a little easier for families and small businesses (Jobs.GOP.Gov) by removing barriers that are holding back our economy.

Instead of treating the American people like an ATM – and then blaming us for our economic woes – maybe the White House should take a cue from Republicans and focus on jobs?

Or perhaps ATMs really are smart enough to have opinions of their own …

From Rome:

Jun 15, 2011 / 05:54 pm

A leading Italian politician is giving his support to plans for a museum in Rome to commemorate the memory of the wartime pontiff, Pope Pius XII.

“I’ve taken on the impetus of this important idea that wishes to give the proper place in history to this great Pope,” Italian Senator Stefano De Lillo told CNA.

“During his life he was exalted by all, and at the time of his death the Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir, said that he died a ‘grande giusto’ – a ‘great, just man.’”

The plans for the museum are at an early stage but they have already been discussed at an international conference organized by Sen. De Lillo this month. The idea has also gained the support of the former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks, however, is the continually recycled accusation that Pope Pius didn’t do enough during the war to save Jews from persecution. Sen. De Lillo hopes the new museum can help set the record straight.

“There are so many writings from Italian and Roman Jews who thank the Pope for having permitted them to seek refuge in convents, institutes and churches throughout Rome. It is estimated that at least 5,000 people were saved through the direct action of the Pope.”

“We can say that a museum of this type can help give back a just historical truth, in full harmony with our elder brothers of the Jewish religion, with whom our rapport is extremely good,” the Italian lawmaker said.

The museum idea was initially given to Sen. De Lillo by the 90-year-old New Jersey nun, Sister Margherita Marchione, who has been campaigning since 1995 to clear the name of Pope Pius XII. In fact, over the past 16 years she’s become one of his leading biographers.

Sen. De Lillo says the museum would “bring together all of the documentation that the sister possesses, along with other documentation possessed by other sites.”

He also wants to mark what he sees as the bravery and loyalty of Pope Pius towards the citizens of Rome during the war. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

Item from June 3: “‘The world is getting warmer’: Romney” (related BizzyBlog post):

“I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that,” he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Well, guess what, oh Objectively Unfit One, you can “believe” all you want, but the facts are not pointing in that direction:

Scientists predict ‘sunspot hibernation’

For years, scientists have been predicting the Sun would move into solar maximum, a period of intense flares and sunspot activity by 2012, but lately a curious calm has suggested quite the opposite.

According to three studies released in the United States on Tuesday, experts believe the familiar sunspot cycle may be shutting down and heading toward a pattern of inactivity unseen since the 17th century.

The signs include a missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles, said experts from the National Solar Observatory and Air Force Research Laboratory.

‘This is highly unusual and unexpected,’ said Frank Hill, associate director of the NSO’s Solar Synoptic Network.

‘But the fact that three completely different views of the Sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation.’

The point of bringing this up isn’t to say, “aha, it’s global cooling” (though we may indeed be heading there). It’s to say that the sun has always had far more of an impact on the earth’s temperature than anything we humans do or don’t do, and that no quarter should ever be given to those who attempt to co-opt and misrepresent “science” in the name of advancing statism.

Yet we have GOP presidential candidates (sadly, Romney’s not the only one) who either believe in globaloney (the belief that the earth is irrefutably warming, that humans are contributing to that warming, and that radical changes in the economic world order and/or our standards of living are necessary for our continued survival) or have in the recent past while attempting to act on those bogus beliefs. They, certainly including Mitt Romney, must be rejected.

I am pleased to report that yours truly, as well as one or both of the illustrious proprietors of Weapons of Mass Discussion, will be attending the We the People Convention in Columbus on July 1-2, 2011. I appreciate the invitation to blog from the convention on both days, and to serve on a panel on Saturday afternoon.

Other links: Overall schedule; detailed breakout schedule.

On Friday, June 10, Matt Hurley, Mark Garbett and I interviewed Tom Zawistowski, the event’s director, during the second hour of the TIB broadcast. I was impressed with Tom’s forthrightness, his direct answers to direct questions, his transparency, and his clear passion for his cause. Though WTP will be a challenging logistical undertaking, it seems that Tom and others running the event are up to the challenge.

One important theme Tom brought out was the importance of bringing the activism seen so prominently in last fall’s national elections to the state and local level. That hit home, so to speak, for me, because, though I have the requisite boatload of excuses, I have tended to ignore too many state and local matters, and hope to figure out a way to remedy that (both on the blog and occasionally in person) without unduly sacrificing bigger-picture and national stories.

I’m looking forward to the festivities on July 1-2, and hope as many readers as possible can attend.

___________________________________

UPDATE: Herman Cain will be there (HT WoMD). Boo-yah!

As the economy languishes, here’s an idea that might actually improve things.

________________

Note: This column appeared at Pajamas Media and was teased here at BizzyBlog on Monday.

________________

We had awful unemployment and jobs news on June 3. A week earlier, there was yet another mediocre economic growth report. Friday, May’s Monthly Treasury Statement, but for $45 billion of almost indecipherable accounting gimmickry, would have shown yet another single-month federal deficit of over $100 billion. These are just the latest signs that the economy is not doing well, and that Washington’s elites continue to avoid getting a grip on the nation’s deteriorating fiscal situation.

As expected, President Obama is blaming everyone else for the country’s economic problems. On the Monday after the employment news broke, The Daily Caller reported that the president went into woe-is-me mode, referring to “challenges that have been unaddressed over the course of the previous decade” (translation: George W. Bush), as well as, per the Caller, tagging “investors, consumers and even the media.” In reality, it’s the Obama administration’s policies which have created what Daniel Henninger at The Wall Street Journal has called “The Cloud Economy,” which “is flying without instruments because of the White House’s policy choices.” Given that the departure of Austan Goolsbee leaves the administration with “no economist in a prominent position,” the situation doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon.

As wrong as Obama is about placing pervasive blame, he is accidentally right in the sense that a lot of individuals and companies could be more productive — which leads to the column’s title.

I cannot tell you how many times people have told me that they or their bosses will only accept certain communications by email because they need a digital record “to protect themselves.” From what, the bogeyman? As a result, it takes heaven knows how many email exchanges to slowly work through what could have been accomplished in a single phone call.

I cannot tell you how many stories I’ve heard from employees berated by their bosses for leaving someone a brief voice message instead of sending an email, which of course has to be ever so carefully worded, to “cover our butts.”

I also can’t tell you how many complaints I’ve heard about coworkers, bosses and subordinates who won’t answer the phone — ever — and suffer no consequences.

And I’ll bet that more than a few people reading this have sent unnecessary emails to coworkers or associates whose locations were almost within whispering distance.

In March, Pamela Paul at The New York Times wrote what sadly may not be a minority opinion: “Nobody calls me anymore — and that’s just fine.”

Certainly it seems as if decision-makers at companies which deal directly with the public are heading in that direction, with what I believe could be serious long-term consequences for the bottom line. Recently, Consumer Reports, found that 71 percent of people they surveyed “were extremely irritated when they couldn’t reach a human on the phone. Sixty-seven percent said they hung up the phone without getting their issue resolved.” Those percentages have to be low. Further, “‘There’s a feeling on the part of Americans that companies are deliberately making it difficult for them by burying phone numbers, sidestepping calls and steering customers to online FAQs instead of live human beings,’ said Tod Marks, senior project editor.” You don’t say? It’s not a feeling, Tod. It’s a fact.

Of course I recognize that there’s a cost to babysitting lazy customers who could have found answers in a minute or two on their own. But there’s also a loyalty-building aspect to serving a sincere but ignorant customer and solving their problems. Too many companies have decided to shut such people out completely. As a result, lots of people have no idea how to leverage a great deal of the technology and knowledge which is right there at their fingertips. The economic cost of such ignorance cannot be small.

So pick up the darned phone. Answer the darned phone. And just for the heck of it every once in a while (I know this will be a real toughie), stop sitting, which after all is supposedly as dangerous as smoking, get out of your chair, walk a few feet and have a conversation with your coworker. Y’know, face to face.

I’m not alone in my productivity-related concerns. During July 2009, East Valley OB/GYN in Chandler, Arizona banned internal emails during “Conversation Fridays,” calling it “an opportunity for us to refrain from internal emails and pick up the phone to talk to one another to get our jobs done.” Imagine that. I have confirmed (by phone, of course) that Conversation Fridays also took place last year. The practice claims that “Many companies have established programs like this as a way to synergize including VeriSign, US Cellular, and others.”

In 2003, British company Phones4U went much further, completely banning staff email. I don’t know whether the ban is still in place, and perhaps it was an overreaction, but owner John Caudwell claimed that the ban would “save staff up to three hours a day which translates to a saving of £1m (about $1.65 million at the time) a month.”

Techies may ridicule these companies as Neanderthals, but one thing is true about both which is not true of everyone: They’re still in business.

I would hope that President Obama might heed my call for increased efficiency through judicious use of the telephone and face-to-face contact. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone will be able to pry the Blackberry from his cold, detached, indifferent hands.

This should be Obama’s “grocery scanner” moment (actually, his second; although, for the historical record, the Bush 41 “grocery scanner” moment is, per Snopes, false):

Hey guy, people were using ATMs instead of visiting tellers for decades before you, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid inflicted the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy on America three years ago.

Obama’s response to the question gives one the impression that he believes the trend towards automation only got going in earnest during the past couple of years. Where has he been?

There’s so much more that’s wrong with the video segment in question (go to Breibart to see the 86 seconds to which I’m referring, and here at MSNBC to see the entire NBC Today Show segment). Both Obama and Ann Curry are dreadful. Hopefully I can get to some of that later.

________________________________

UPDATE: Well, I was writing up a related post that ended up being good enough to turn into a Pajamas Media column, which I just submitted a short time ago. I’m told it may go up at PJM fairly quickly (but not before tomorrow), so most of what I wanted to say will have to wait until it comes out.

There is one point I didn’t make in the column which I’ve been meaning to make for some time, and it’s embodied in this Obama quote found in the middle of Breitbart’s interview snippet:

We are now in a process where the economy is growing again and we’ve created 2 million jobs in the last 15 months.

First, the usual error correction: Over “2 million jobs” were created in the private sector (actually 2.144 million) during the past 15 months, but only 1.817 million overall (both figures are seasonally adjusted).

But the big point is in the bolded words: “we’ve created.”

The heck you have. Businesses have created them.

Say what you will about Bush 43, but he understood that government doesn’t create private-sector jobs (except occasionally for some economically inefficient crony-capitalist jobs emanating from federal largesse, which amount to very little in the grand scheme of things):

• State of the Union Address, 2007 — “We are now in the 41st month of uninterrupted job growth, a recovery that has created 7.2 million new jobs so far.“
• State of the Union Address, 2008 — “To build a prosperous future, we must trust people with their own money and empower them to grow our economy. As we meet tonight, our economy is undergoing a period of uncertainty. America has added jobs for a record 52 straight months, but jobs are now growing at a slower pace.”
• State of the Union address, 2006 — “In the last two-and-a-half years, America has created 4.6 million new jobs — more than Japan and the European Union combined.”

Ronald Reagan, of course, had that same understanding, and was more blunt about who got the credit:

• State of the Union Address, 1986 — “Tonight the American people deserve our thanks for 37 straight months of economic growth, for sunrise firms and modernized industries creating nine million new jobs in three years, interest rates cut in half, inflation falling over from 12 percent in 1980 to under 4 today, and a mighty river of good works – a record $74 billion in voluntary giving just last year alone.”
• State of the Union Address, 1987 — “The unemployment rate – still too high – is the lowest in nearly seven years, and our people have created nearly 13 million new jobs.“

With Obama, it’s all about him and his supposedly wondrous federal government. Apparently, nothing happens without his and their involvement.

Hmm — maybe that’s why almost nothing happens.

UPDATE 2: The inevitable and logical response from the ATM industry (HT Instapundit).

From Sacramento, California:

Jun 12, 2011 / 05:58 pm

Ten years ago, Dave Hanson retired from his job as a corrections officer at California’s Folsom State Prison. Now the 71-year-old works full-time to create sculptures of Padre Pio, St. Francis and other figures for schools and institutions across the country.

“At one point, I began to inquire about Padre Pio,” Hanson told CNA. “I knew only that he was a saint and had displayed the Lord’s stigmata. The more I studied him, the more committed I became.”

“After completing the bust, I was able to place copies in various Catholic schools in the Sacramento area, and am currently placing one at the Padre Pio Academy in Ohio,” he explained.

Hanson’s years as a corrections officer made him want to bring beauty and goodness into the world through his art. But his Catholic faith also helped him see his “day job” as a calling from God.

“If you wish to provide a Christian service to someone, prison is the place to work,” he noted.

A turning point in Hanson’s career came when he made a sculpture of an angel, in response to a heartbreaking case in which a mother was convicted of beating her son to death.

He inscribed the words, “Angels sleeping,” without knowing that a homeless children’s center would later place the statue close to where the children slept.

“It gives me chills to think about it,” he reflected. “God knew, and wanted that statement there.”

He continued to place his angel sculptures in various schools and children’s areas while continuing his work at the prison.

Years before, Hanson said, visual art had become “lodged in his soul” when he discovered the world of classical masterpieces as a young man.

“I just kept practicing and taught myself how to sculpt through trial and error,” he remembered, with a soft chuckle.

After graduating from college, he ran his own statue and fountain manufacturing business in the 1970s. During those years, he became dismayed at the lack of moral leaders in the U.S. He felt compelled to present examples of virtue through his sculpting. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

This is from the “ohiodemocrats” YouTube channel, so it must be official:

Are you kidding me?

It’s amazing that the state’s economy “only” shrank 3.37% while this guy was in charge. Based on this presentation, we’re lucky it wasn’t 10%.

As has been the case virtually from the beginning, the Associated Press’s Scott Bauer has been clearly unhappy with 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, commonly known even to the Wisconsin Supreme Court as the “Budget Repair Bill.” Today, the court ruled that the law as enacted by the Badger State’s legislature and signed by Governor Scott Walker can go into effect on July 1.

Looking back at what’s available of Bauer’s body of work on the matter during the past four months, his consistent mischaracterization of the bill’s contents, saying that it would “eliminate collective bargaining” when it doesn’t (shown here and here), is truly striking. What’s even more striking (pun intended) is how he and his employer described the law in the report’s headline and first sentence in at least one early version this evening:

Wisconsin’s Polarizing Union Law To Take Effect
(more…)

This morning, I noted how unimpressed Investors Business Daily is with the report of the Fortune 500-dominated “Jobs and Competitiveness Council.” My word: Lame.

I guess I need to work on my sense of humor about the economy and the massive failure known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Yesterday, this exchange in North Carolina (video at link) was supposed to be an exercise in comedy:

We see first-hand what happens when you try and permit a project in this country. And, um, it can delay things from months to years, and in many cases, uh, it can cause the project to be abandoned. Um, I’m sure that when you implemented the Recovery Act, your staff briefed you on many of the challenges of the permitting process and the impact of putting Americans back to work. And that’s exactly what we see in American business.

Obama (smiling): Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.

To be fair, it’s not correct to say that the GE’s Jeff Inmelt and others “erupted in laughter” — but they did get a chuckle out of Obama’s response. And the humor in government’s failure to perform is …?

To also be fair and very critical, Obama fudged his answer. What he told the New York Times last fall in an item with an inadvertently revealing title (“The Education of Barack Obama”) was the following:

But he did identify what he called “tactical lessons.” He let himself look too much like “the same old tax-and-spend liberal Democrat.” He realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” when it comes to public works.

In Ohio, the lack of shovel-ready projects was so apparent that in April 2009, Governor Ted Strickland tried to steer some of the Buckeye State’s money to drawing up plans for new ones, a situation I described as “pencil-ready projects.”

Anybody with a brain on Obama’s staff should have been able to tell him that there’s no such thing as a shovel-ready project. Anyone who has ever held an executive position in government or with many years of national political experience should have already known that — but, oh yeah, Obama had no executive experience when elected, and had had a total of 143 days of experience in the Senate when he declared his presidential candidacy. Team Obama, up to and including the President, either didn’t know this and thus didn’t deserve to be in their positions, or did know and didn’t care.

As to the results — while the lamebrains enjoy themselves, this is what has happened:

The graphic, benchmarking Team Obama’s prediction of what would happen when ARRA passed vs. what it predicted would happen if it didn’t vs. what really has happened, definitively shows that doing nothing would have been preferable.

Yesterday, Rush put the current situation in its proper bleak perspective (link won’t work by next Monday evening:

We’re living through a manmade economic disaster, not a cyclical disaster. This really is a president steering a hurricane. They tried to tell us that George W. Bush was steering Katrina to hit New Orleans ’cause he didn’t like Democrats. This is an economic hurricane that is being steered by this administration, and the damage that’s being done here is real, and it is purposeful.

You can take “purposeful” to mean “steered by public policies proven ineffective in the past” or as “deliberately damaging, where the damage to come was known beforehand.” Who can prove that it isn’t the latter?