Republicans like to pretend that the private sector can solve any and every problem. The post office loses one of your packages? Privatize it. Public education getting you down? Dismantle the whole budget and give out private school vouchers. Ron Paul even believes the Civil War wasn’t necessary and the private sector could have solved slavery even though it hadn’t for the two centuries before the Civil War.
So whether it’s underfunded hospitals or racial integration (Paul also believes the private sector could have solved segregation even though, again, it hadn’t for a century), the private sector can–as my grandmother would say–do great wonders and eat rotten cucumbers. But how about gay marriage?
You don’t have to be an economist to know the wedding industry is big business. In fact, any cash strapped father knows how expensive it is to have a daughter getting married. Weddings are big business, and gay weddings…forget about it, the catering alone would create five jobs.
All of the different sectors involved in the wedding industry (food service, formal wear, dry cleaning, limousine services, Vegas, and a hundred other industries I don’t know about because I’ve never had to plan a wedding) have been hard hit by the economic downturn. Vegas is in the toilet, food service is in the toilet, don’t even mention high end clothing retailers…so what this industry needs is a shot in the arm. And that shot in the arm is big, gay weddings.
It creates jobs, boosts business, and gives people an outlet to spend discretionary economy that desperately want to spend it. It’s a win-win, and that’s just for the day of the wedding. It will save a bundle in healthcare and insurance costs when gay people are allowed to get married. So what do you say red states…who wants to stop scourging for work and go cater a gay wedding?
That’s a good point, it does seem like a win win to create jobs while also advancing Civil Rights
Whatever helps get this passed, I’m all for it.
Don’t forget the state get the money from the sale of marriage license. In MO it is $50.
That’s a good point Becky