remember critics: it's not violent games that are destroying America, it's the watchdog groups and pro-legislators who are making such a big deal out of them that are.

岩「…Ace beats Jack」

Actually, education would be a waste of money too. Pretty much everyone already knows about the current system and how it works. The reason kids are still playing M rated games is because either the parents don't care, or they don't agree with the ratings, which is fine. If they choose not to worry, or they decide to dissagree with the ratings, that's fine. "Educating" them to what they already know isn't going to do much, and the ones who are making all the noise will intentionally disregard the ratings just so they can claim they don't understand them and then bitch.

-If shit and bricks were candy and tits, we'd all be livin' large. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard Medical School researchers Larry Kutner and Cheryl Olson

This makes me even more sad when I realize we elected them into power in the first place, and people wonder why there's so much voter apathy...

Schwarzenegger/Leland Yee, have no problem wasting as much money as they need to in the pursuit of their anti-video game legislation, especially Leland Yee, who just believes to the fiber of his ignorant being that SOMETHING needs to be done in the form of a law.

Politicians are not interested in what is logical, but what they can do to score points among their constituents, even if it is a minority group.

Well, this is the opportunity cost for society.  The thing is, that's not quite the right way to look at opportunity cost.  That would be like if I bought a burger and then you came along and looked at the opportunity cost of me buying the burger for myself.  You have to look at the opportunity cost from the perspective of who the money was for.

The purpose of taxes is not for society's benefit.  You don't pay taxes so that you can have a good education system or police system or security.  Taxes are for the benefit of your elected officials and the companies they represent.  You pay taxes to help your representatives get re-elected and to help the companies your representatives represent.  From the perspective of those politicians, could they have really spent that $65,000 on something that would have gotten them more votes?

"GP: Adam's definitely on the right track here, but we'd even move the discussion beyond the video game space. What social challenges could the Minnesota legislature have been working on instead of video games? Are there no crime, poverty, healthcare, transportation or other key issues to ponder in the Gopher State?"

I love that you brought that up, Minneapolis resident here, and the answer dennis, is yes.

Our healthcare is pretty much the best in the nation, but their are some crime issues, as well as poverty although those issues pale in comparison to that of other states/cities, the big issue is transportation.

You probably recall the 35W bridge collapse in minneapolis? Maybe not, but we had to recieve federal aid to rebuild the bridge, which is a major artery by the way, and reimburse the victims, the money could have gone towards that cause, or to repair/rebuild many of the other damaged bridges they have discovered to be in an equally bad or worse state as the 35W bridge was before collapsing.

While the bridge collapse was clearly not as devastating as hurricane katrina was to new orleans, its still another instance of failed video game legislation falling on the wallets of a post disaster state and its citizens, legislation that was obviously going to do just that. If only someone had done their homework.