The Voluntary Tax:
Today's New York Times reports on the state of state lotteries and the lies politicians tell us about just what they're good for. It's always amazed me that folks who claim to hate taxes and will vote down any increase will flock to their local lottery outlet and happily fritter away their meager weekly budgets on scams like these, but they do. Well, not all of them do. Rich folks almost never buy lottery tickets. The lottery is a government scam to exploit the poorest and least educated among us.
Most of the 42 states that have lotteries claim that some percentage of the money gambled will become part of the state educational budget. But it turns out that very little of the money is used for these purposes. The vendors get a big chunk of it, and the media which serves as the the advertising outlet also get a large share. Some of it is paid out to a tiny fraction of people who "play" it. (Your chances of winning are better in Vegas or Atlantic City.)
Today's New York Times reports on the state of state lotteries and the lies politicians tell us about just what they're good for. It's always amazed me that folks who claim to hate taxes and will vote down any increase will flock to their local lottery outlet and happily fritter away their meager weekly budgets on scams like these, but they do. Well, not all of them do. Rich folks almost never buy lottery tickets. The lottery is a government scam to exploit the poorest and least educated among us.
Most of the 42 states that have lotteries claim that some percentage of the money gambled will become part of the state educational budget. But it turns out that very little of the money is used for these purposes. The vendors get a big chunk of it, and the media which serves as the the advertising outlet also get a large share. Some of it is paid out to a tiny fraction of people who "play" it. (Your chances of winning are better in Vegas or Atlantic City.)
Labels: Government
posted by Jim | 12:51 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home