State Lotteries are a Tax on the Poor

LOL Statistically worth buying? WTF? What statistics class did you take?

You have a better chance of an accidental death than winning the lottery. Maybe you ought to take out a life insurance policy.

I'm sorry, but this is total bull@!$%#. A "Sin Tax" on the poor? WTF is that crap? This is nothing more than bull@!$%# from the Far Far Left.

Tell me, does self-responsibility have anything to do with this? And bull@!$%# the poor aren't "informed". The poor are every bit as informed as everybody else in this country. It's how they use the information that matters and the poor tend to be uneducated and more to the point, simply don't give a damn.

It's not my job to hold peoples hands and make sure they do the right thing. Especially adults. Being poor doesn't mean they have to be stupid. Being stupid is a choice.

So get real. This posting is nothing more than Far Left Propaganda. It's more bull@!$%# finger pointing that is pointless and serves no real purpose, other than building another wall between people.

One day some of you will wake up and decide people should actually be responsible for themselves.

Sheesh......

There is a point where the expected return in terms of odds exceeds the price of the ticket. Of course, the odds of 2 or more winning tickets also goes up, because "lottery mania fever" results in more tickets being sold.

For me, if the jackpot on Powerball or Mega Millions (depends on which state I'm in at the time) is over $250 million, I'll drop a dollar or a five, just for fun.

LOL Statistically worth buying? WTF? What statistics class did you take?

You have a better chance of an accidental death than winning the lottery. Maybe you ought to take out a life insurance policy.

I always keep my life insurance policies up to date. And I spend far more on life insurance than I ever do on lottery tickets. That's because the odds of my death are much higher than the odds of winning the lottery.

Thanks for your concern and advice, though. ;-)

--
¢ommon ¢ents
AKA @CommonCentsUSA

Well, the Social Security check is taxable also.

tell everyone you know to not buy tickets..

I am not in the habit of telling people what to buy with their money. It isn't my place. I think buying a ticket is a waste of money but it isn't my money wasted.

Philosophically, the lottery could be seen as a tax but no one is forced at gunpoint to buy them so if they choose to waste their money on government funded lotteries then why should I care?

Philosophically, the lottery could be seen as a tax but no one is forced at gunpoint to buy them so if they choose to waste their money on government funded lotteries then why should I care?

Here's the reason why you should care:

The number one duty of government is the general welfare and safety of citizens. When a government turns predatory, and worse, preys upon the weakest and poorest citizens, then that is evidence, proof positive, that a government has forgotten its most basic duty.

Such a government is becoming a danger, like a once-loyal dog turned rabid. After all, a government which will victimize its own citizens is a government well on the path of tyranny.

When a government turns predatory, and worse, preys upon the weakest and poorest citizens, then that is evidence, proof positive, that a government has forgotten its most basic duty.

I think the term "predatory" implies force and no one is forced to buy a lottery ticket. It is every individual's responsibility to understand the wastefulness of the lottery. It isn't my responsibility to deny this choice to others.

I think the term "predatory" implies force and no one is forced to buy a lottery ticket. It is every individual's responsibility to understand the wastefulness of the lottery. It isn't my responsibility to deny this choice to others.

On the contrary, like a spider weaving a nearly invisible web, or a tiger using its stripes to blend in with the scenery, most predators rely on deception.

People who are capable of understanding the Lottery won't play it. Not everyone has that capability, in fact we live in a nation where 1 in 5 adults are functionally illiterate as the result of a failed education system and the lottery preys upon those types of people.

This puts the government in the duplicitous position of being in charge of education and making money off of ignorance when they run both the schools and the lotteries. The Fox, as they say, is guarding the henhouse.

People are ignorant by choice in this Country.

Again, when does Self Responsibility come into play here? Being poor may not be a choice sometimes, but being ignorant and/or stupid is always a choice.

I feel no sympathy for people who are stupid. This is 2012 and even the poorest of poor in this country have access to information and education. They choose to ignore it, so they get exactly what they deserve.

Period.....

tell everyone you know to not buy tickets...its an assault against the poor and middle class by OUR GOVERNMENT

I wish that gambling in general stops, Many leave their salaries betting against the house.

Only evil people going into evil places are found where State Lottery tickets are sold.

So everyone who buys gas at a gas station is evil? Got it. And I've been to Las Vegas several times - and I met many people there who weren't evil. Gambling isn't evil if someone can afford it, and I don't even gamble.

I can't really argue about the microwave burritos, though.

It's their choice to buy a lottery tickets instead of food. Many people enjoy playing the lottery and do so wisely. Why are those who are responsible always expected to give up for those that aren't?

Exactly, Tyler. If you spend half your paycheck on the lottery, is that the govt's fault? OR is it your own stupidity coming to the fore?

Marshall

All of that is the answer to some question but not the question I posed.

If people are too stupid to be allowed ot play the lottery, what do you think citizens are smrt enough to do without help or supervision by the government?

Marchall, Robert is correct in the above post. Similarly, using your unsafe car scenario, if folks buy the car - even though they KNOW it is unsafe - whose fault is that? They are making a choice - between owning an unsafe car or having no car at all.

Still the same scenario as with buying a lottery ticket.

I'm sorry but this premise is self defeating:

.it is targeting a specific group...

no it isn't, they are sold in gas stations and convenience stores which pretty much everyone uses. No state that I have lived in (5 that had lotteries in the past 20 years) has done any specific marketing only to poor people...

and its taxation....

how on earth is this taxation? It is completely voluntary! the only taxes are on winnings.

that is discriminatory.....it has no right to do so.

again, where is the discrimination?

You have a long way to go to prove your assertion

• you need to support that the state is somehow pressuring only the poor and middle class to buy lottery tickets
• you need to show that only poor and middle class buy lottery tickets
• you need to show that somehow the purchase of lottery tickets is equivalent to taxation
• you need to show that somehow there is no benefit to the people buying the tickets and only the "corrupt salesman to make a buck at the stupid peoples expense"

considering this article from a few weeks ago, its going to be hard to prove the first couple points

If you were to argue that lottery is a tax on people that are bad at math, maybe we could share a laugh

Marshall

So you are saying that people are too stupid to decide whether or not to buy lottery tickets.

My questions is are people smart enough to do or decide anything on their own.

You are making a ridiculous point in assuming that people are compelled to buy lottery which is the only way it could be considered a "tax" on the poor.

Nice try but the argument fails.

marshall

the lottery and automobiles are apples and oranges

no correlation that makes any sense

If people are too stupid to be allowed ot play the lottery, what do you think citizens are smrt enough to do without help or supervision by the government?

Robert, here's the problem. It's not that people are too stupid (they just might be), it's that somebody (the gov't) is fleecing people. The government should be protecting people from being fleeced, not doing the fleecing.

One of the historical examples is the Snake Oil Vendor. They're still around, you can find them in your e-mail spam filter. Creeps who would sell you pills to grow your breasts larger, stop male pattern baldness, enhance your maleness (goes well with your bigger boobies) and other such frauds, most of which, BTW, are illegal.

Should the government shut down Snake Oil Vendors? Yes, absolutely, the crap they're hawking over the internet has no FDA approval and heaven only knows what's in the Viagra knockoffs coming out of some clandestine lab in Arkansas.

Why shouldn't the government let the consumer be the victim of frauds and predatory practices? After all, predatory lending was 'legal', right? It was up to the victim to know!

Protecting the citizenry from enemies, foreign and domestic, is a primary duty of government and that includes consumer protection. The Lottery throws that out the window and is diametrically opposed to the duties of consumer protection. It is consumer fleecing.

MeanGene

This argument is ridiculous

People have free choice to make their own decisions, that is a large part of what this country is about.

Following the logic presented in this thread, "poor people" should not be allowed to but alcohol, or cigarettes, or video games or anything else that is not a "positive" contribution to their lives.

have been poor (and may be again), but I have never required or wanted a "nanny" to walk around with me and tell me not to buy a lottery ticket, or to buy generic brands or whatever.

As to your snake oil vendors, just say NO. If there is fraud they should be prosecuted and shut down but selling people things they do not need is not a crime. Otherwise, a lot of folks at Best Buy and similar stores would go to jail every day.

marshall

And I am saying that each individual should "stop it" or not as they see fit.

It is their choice, not yours or mine whether they should or should not buy that oottery ticket.

I agree that it is not a good planning process for retirement, but I know I get 3 or 4 of the scratch off tickets every couple of weeks when I get gas and the wife and I enjoy the suspense of the scratching off process, though we are likely not even for the year at most times.

We could probably use that $50 to $100 per year in a more productive manner, but "we choose" to enjoy ourselves with the lottey tickets.

This is a great country!

marshall

totally respect your opinion, just disagreed with some of the parallels you attempted to draw

see you around the vine

Sorry, Marshall, but I don't do hypothetical. It's a childish game. I believe being poor is no excuse for being stupid.

Tyler, this isn't about 'being stupid', it's about preventing predatory practices and the Lottery is a predatory practice right up there with dope dealing, used car sales and reality TV shows.

Nobody is an expert at everything. For example, my girlfriend can't set up a PC and I can't set up a sewing machine, but she can. She leaves the PC to me and I leave the sewing machine to her. Sharp needles moving at blurring speeds scare the crap out of me anyway, I ain't going near that.

Do you not think there are many that are not poor but are stupid too?

Well, Lindsay Lohan comes to mind. She's probably going to be poor enough in the near future, if she doesn't wind up dead in a hotel room surrounded by booze and drugs first.

As they say, fools and their money are soon parted.

What do you suggest we do for stupid people? Put them in a bubble to protect them from themselves?

We could go to the other extreme and have the government stop licensing Doctors, Lawyers and Airline Pilots. After all, it's the consumer's job to make sure that the Doctor has some modicum of competence, right? And it's the consumer's job to see that the airline pilot knows how to fly? If a criminal gets a shyster instead of a lawyer, then that's on him, right?

Everybody is stupid about something. That's why we have consumer protection laws. I don't know the first thing about milking a cow, which is why I want the USDA to say that the milk in the bottle at the store didn't come from a bull instead.

well here I disagree with you.

I do believe licensure should end...its all a scam to increase the cost of good to the consumer and prop up corporations and the rich.

I happen to have an FCC license (a couple, actually) which certifies that I know what I'm doing when I put a radio on the air. If I didn't, and put up a hacked piece of trash that splattered RF up and down the radio dial, then I'd knock out radio stations, TV's , cell phones and anything else that uses Radio Frequencies.

There would be much screaming, crying and gnashing of teeth, not to mention bigtime fines.

lets take your airline example.......if an airline hired a kid right out of high school....because they only wanted to pay minimum wage for him....then he would crash their plane killing hundreds they would be sued beyond belief....word would get out they hire people with no training on flying and they would go out of business.

So your solution is a remedy in the courts (run by the government, btw) instead of licensing run by the government? Airline pilots have to pass flight physicals for their licenses (no heart attacts at the throttle, please) and they have to pass tests on flight rules and regulations because generally, when planes crash, it's bad for people on the ground as well as people in the air. Passengers aren't the only ones at risk.

Congrats.....like I said, One has a better chance at dating a super Model, in your case, it was a super OLD super model.