We have all been in a convenience store and seen someone spend their food money (and perhaps rent money) on an one in a billion chance at becoming absurdly wealthy. It makes you angry. It makes you sad.
Talk about inequality. Someone becomes far too wealthy at the expense millions of people, most of whom cannot afford their habit.
I just read that last year state-run lotteries took in $56 billion dollars. There are only about 250 million people in the US. That is an average of $212 per person, or $1,060 for a family of five (like mine). Now subtract the number of citizens who are not playing, those with moral objections, those wealthy enough not to be lured by insane odds, those in the eight states where it is not legal, and those too young to play. And you begin to see that people are burying themselves for an impossible dream.
Of course, the dream itself is a lie. Many stories are coming out about how miserable lottery winners are, how many of them wish they had never won. So, many Americans are destroying themselves for an impossible chance at becoming miserable in a whole new way.
Part of the problem the media, and the undo attention we all pay to it. The "News" glorifies it, gushing at the ludicrous numbers the Lottery, and holding up the winners as some sort of heroes. They are wrong on both of these accounts.
It was recently that four people won $330 million in the Mega Millions jack pot. In fact, that is not really true. Really four people split $194 million dollars (pre-tax), while hundreds of thousands (my guess) of people lost hundreds of dollars.
Why $194 million rather than $330 million? The $330 million is based on a 26-year annuity. But the present value is only $194 million (I know, I know "only?") Greg Easterbrook explains it this way:
If your employer gave you a choice of a $500,000 salary this year or promised you $39,000 a year for 26 years, there is not one chance on Earth you would take the latter deal, or fall for the fiction that your salary should be called "$1 million," though that is $39,000 times 26.
Yet the "News" never mentions this. They are happy to use the numbers the lottery presents without any critical thinking. By the time they split it, took the present sum and paid taxes, they would be left with about $25 million. That's a lot, but it is not as sexy as "Four people win $330 million", is it?
The net result is terrible. In that Mega Millions drawing, an estimated 80 million $5 tickets lost. How many people is that who are left poorer so that 4 people can become wealthier than they can handle.
Or as Easterbrook says, "The $56 billion spent overall by Americans on legal gambling lotteries in 2006 mainly caused large numbers of citizens to become less well off so that very small numbers could become much too wealthy."
As a Christian, I cannot think of one legitimate excuse for having anything to do with this mess.
Talk about inequality. Someone becomes far too wealthy at the expense millions of people, most of whom cannot afford their habit.
I just read that last year state-run lotteries took in $56 billion dollars. There are only about 250 million people in the US. That is an average of $212 per person, or $1,060 for a family of five (like mine). Now subtract the number of citizens who are not playing, those with moral objections, those wealthy enough not to be lured by insane odds, those in the eight states where it is not legal, and those too young to play. And you begin to see that people are burying themselves for an impossible dream.
Of course, the dream itself is a lie. Many stories are coming out about how miserable lottery winners are, how many of them wish they had never won. So, many Americans are destroying themselves for an impossible chance at becoming miserable in a whole new way.
Part of the problem the media, and the undo attention we all pay to it. The "News" glorifies it, gushing at the ludicrous numbers the Lottery, and holding up the winners as some sort of heroes. They are wrong on both of these accounts.
It was recently that four people won $330 million in the Mega Millions jack pot. In fact, that is not really true. Really four people split $194 million dollars (pre-tax), while hundreds of thousands (my guess) of people lost hundreds of dollars.
Why $194 million rather than $330 million? The $330 million is based on a 26-year annuity. But the present value is only $194 million (I know, I know "only?") Greg Easterbrook explains it this way:
If your employer gave you a choice of a $500,000 salary this year or promised you $39,000 a year for 26 years, there is not one chance on Earth you would take the latter deal, or fall for the fiction that your salary should be called "$1 million," though that is $39,000 times 26.
Yet the "News" never mentions this. They are happy to use the numbers the lottery presents without any critical thinking. By the time they split it, took the present sum and paid taxes, they would be left with about $25 million. That's a lot, but it is not as sexy as "Four people win $330 million", is it?
The net result is terrible. In that Mega Millions drawing, an estimated 80 million $5 tickets lost. How many people is that who are left poorer so that 4 people can become wealthier than they can handle.
Or as Easterbrook says, "The $56 billion spent overall by Americans on legal gambling lotteries in 2006 mainly caused large numbers of citizens to become less well off so that very small numbers could become much too wealthy."
As a Christian, I cannot think of one legitimate excuse for having anything to do with this mess.
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1 comment:
"As a Christian, I cannot think of one legitimate excuse for having anything to do with this mess."
What if the proceeds went to missions?
Seriously, I call it a voluntary tax. The problem is people that are too dumb and lack self-control get sucked into it.
We need to look out for people that are weaker and abolishing the lottery would be a good way to do that.
But then what would happen to all of our children's public education that the lottery pays for? What a load.
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