Money is fungible.  That’s why they call it “money”

This morning I posted Jorge Costales’ response to my anti-Marlins stuff, and now Will Wilson has a response to Jorge’s response, taking specific issue with Jorge’s argument that the Marlin Money was designated for entertainment-related purposes to begin with:

Governments (politicians) earmark specific revenue and expenditure streams in order to artificially restrict the universe of available decisions. “We can’t dip into that pot of money for the XYZ program. That stream is entirely devoted to ABC.” It doesn’t have to be so; it is only a bookkeeping fix. In reality, money is money is money.

If this “designated revenue” earmark is only reason that the city of Miami would build a stadium as opposed to, say, fixing sewer lines or roads that need fixing, then by all means change the revenue designation. This is a wealth transfer to the “entertainment-related” industry, plain and simple.


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bigcatasroma
15 years ago

aka rent seeking, aka BAD FREAKIN’ IDEA.  Hey, wasn’t Florida hit with the sub-prime mumbo jumbo worse than just about anybody?  But hey, build a hole in a swamp to hold the 2,712 fans that will show up on a 114% humidity night in July.  That ‘ill fix the economic catastrophe we’re in.

fifth of
15 years ago

Nice Mamet reference.

Pete Toms
15 years ago

Just checked Sarah Talalay’s blog and everything is on hold…nothing was resolved today.

As for this discussion of what the money was earmarked for….wasn’t this the gist of Braman’s (or one of Braman’s) lawsuits?

Jorge Costales
15 years ago

This post took me back to my memories of the iconic Wide World of Sports opening [to paraphrase]; ‘The thrill of blogging and the agony of being challenged by a guy whose previous post dealt with finding game theory examples in Solzhenitsyn’s writing—great stuff btw [a sincere attempt to offset what is too follow].

Fortunately for me, Mr Wilson seemingly got off his deep-thinking PED’s before he wrote about government revenues and how they are supposed to be spent. They are not just bookkeeping fixes. They are legally binding forms of taxation, which due to a mixture of mistrust and planning, have been enacted in a such a manner that ensure funds are spent for the initially intended purpose. The phrase, ‘just change the revenue designations,’ might challenge the belief that Sammy Sosa does not speak English for pure naivete.

Good news for bigcatasroma – the stadium is supposed to have AC when closed