On people who play poker for a living

[toots]

I've gone through the same issues and come up with no satisfactory answer.

[arod15]

This is a retarded post. There are very few professions that do society good. lawyers and accounatnts are corrupt doctors wont admit you to the emergency room without insurance. WIth teh exception of teachers social workers, not for profit lawers and doctors we are all here on this earth to make money and take care of our family first. So to say poker players are any worse or better than most people is stupid. People are genearly all crooks, the only difference is poker players openly admit it. Not that im defending them im just sayting they are no worse than most....

[J.R.]

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I think of those who derive their sole income from the poker industry. Anyone who fits into this category feel free to respond.

Do you have a job in which you provide some benefit to someone in exchange for your income (engineer, lawyer, busboy, anything, manufacture fake dog [censored], anything)

[/ QUOTE ]

why are you asking the people whose incomes are derived soley from poker?

[Gamblor]

as opposed to brain surgeons who like to play poker as a hobby.

sole income => people who make their living, have all their comforts, drive their cars, all paid for by people who could have gone on vacation with their families or bought their kids a new toy or something or taken their wife out to dinner once in a while.

[arod15]

Id like to take your mom to dinner once in a while.... Serious someone shut his mic off...

[flyingmoose]

Am I the only one who sees validity to what the OP is saying?

Economic models are based on the assumption that all participants in the economy are rational. Countless psychological studies prove that losing gamblers are not rational. Essentially, we're getting money without providing a service to anyone.

I'm trying to think of a profession that provides less to society than poker, and I can't.

Of course, that doesn't mean poker players are bad people in other aspects of their lives -- and anyone who took the OPs post to mean that needs to grow some skin.

[Indiana]

Why do you need to reconcile anything with anything??? As a poker player you are no different than Tiger Woods or Charles Barkley....You play poker for yourself, not for anybody else...You play for personal satisfaction and to make $$...If you must have a bone, then realize that as a poker player you are creating jobs in economically depressed areas like Northwest Indiana or Atlantic City...

In reality, most people who make big $$ would do the world a favor if they simply comitted suicide. Its getting hard these days to truly "contribute" to society as you might aspire and not end up broke. I can tell you that every executive in my company is sucking up resources with their unneeded jobs...You decide, do you want to be a true "contributor" or do you wanna be wealthy? It is possible to do both, as B. Greenstein has proven, but your primary job is unlikely to achieve both endpoints for you.

Indiana

[toots]

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Am I the only one who sees validity to what the OP is saying?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you're not.

I've tried broaching the subject before, only to get shouted down just as he is.

[drewjustdrew]

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Economic models are based on the assumption that all participants in the economy are rational.

[/ QUOTE ]

This sounds like a pretty strict model. You mean to tell us that there is no slack built into these models for irrationality?

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Essentially, we're getting money without providing a service to anyone.

[/ QUOTE ]

"Essentially" I agree, but taken in the context of people with a desire to play, it is providing a service. Similar to someone else's argument from this thread that a fashion designer does not contribute to society. That would be MY society because I don't care about fashion. But I do care about poker. It comes down to personal preferences.

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I'm trying to think of a profession that provides less to society than poker, and I can't

[/ QUOTE ]

Trimspa spokesperson.

[toots]

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Trimspa spokesperson.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, I think you've got him there.