On December 23, 2013, I wrote a Facebook post recommending the movie American Hustle. Last night, I realized why that movie was so great and how it connects to politics. I’ll use the Massachusetts’ race for governor as an example that is important to me now.

I think every candidate for that office will tell you how important it is to attract companies to Massachusetts that will create high paying jobs in the state. No matter where they fall in the political spectrum, they will probably tell you that we need to offer tax incentives to lure these companies to Massachusetts.

So here is the question that I will ask of every one of them that I get a chance to meet.

Every state and location in the country wants to attract business to their location that will create high paying jobs.

Every corporation that has these kinds of jobs to offer will play one state or locality against the others in order to extract the maximum tax breaks and other concessions from the candidate locations while giving up the fewest commitments on the part of the corporation.

Inevitably this has led to a race to the bottom for localities for giving the most tax breaks, loosening of regulations, changing labor laws, and even building infrastructure for the corporation while asking for the least commitments in return.

As candidate for governor, what can you tell me about how you would play this game so that the non-rich citizens of the state would get the best deal possible, instead of becoming patsies in the game the corporations are playing?

You are free to use this question with any politician you meet. Do not offer any hints or suggestions as to how you would answer this question. You want to know if the candidate has give any thought to the question. That is why I am publicizing the question. It can be an open book test. What you want to know, in any case, is whether the candidate understands the issue and whether that candidate has any reasonable and even creative ideas.

This is where the movie American Hustle comes into play. The main characters in the movie give you, for only the price of admission, a first class lesson in how to get people to come to you begging to give you their best offer. Now in the movie, the people giving you this lesson are con artists of the highest caliber. However, you can also use the techniques to accomplish honest and meritorious goals.

How I wish that this movie had come out in 2008 or earlier and President Obama could have seen it and learned the lesson. What he could have accomplished in his presidency would have been so amazing and so good for the country. Oh well, that is water over the dam, but we can still get the massive benefits if progressive politicians could only take these lessons into the future. I think Elizabeth Warren is a prime example of a politician who knows how to play the game for us.