sbwertz
Member
I see someone won the billion dollar lottery. I wonder what the taxes on THAT will be?
Easy does it!!! We all can dream. If you are a heavy gambler than you should not play and if you do that is YOUR!!!!!!!!!!!! problem. You do not need to be led by the hand. Just like drugs. No one told you to turn pens. No one is telling you to play the lottery. Somewhere down the road we need to take responsibility for our own actions. What I do not like about the mega lotteries is that they let the prizes climb that high. I say cut off at $500,000 and then roll over the rest to next drawing. Even if multiple winners win it still will have an effect on their lives. As for running it, if not the gov. then who??? Private enterprise. Yea I trust that.I don't judge others who buy lottery tickets, especially if they recognize it as an entertainment expense, like renting a movie. Most don't.
I view the lottery as a tax on math-challenged people. I have never bought a lottery ticket and probably never will. I am not opposed to lotteries or gambling per se, as long as people understand what they are buying for their money, and the basic math behind it. Most don't.
I don't like the government being in the lottery business, which is antithetical to its purpose. In my opinion, all of the promises made to the electorate about funding worthy causes like education were slight-of-hand tricks that enabled the diversion of funds from previous traditional sources. The only benefit I see from the government owned and run lottery is that it is slightly better than having it run by organized crime.
The government-funded advertising just makes it worse. It is not focused on educating the people about what the lottery really is, but preying on their ignorance so it can feed the dream and grow the lottery business to get as much money as they can from peoples' pockets.
Flame away!
Actually someone is telling me to play the lottery. Even if we assume that the government is the best, safest legal entity to run lotteries, I see no justification for why the government should be encouraging people to play through intense, misleading, and expensive advertising. Is that the best use of our government dollars? Spending large sums to build and maximize the growth of an enormous lottery infrastructure? Who really reaps the rewards here? Is that "Government for the people?"Easy does it!!! We all can dream. If you are a heavy gambler than you should not play and if you do that is YOUR!!!!!!!!!!!! problem. You do not need to be led by the hand. Just like drugs. No one told you to turn pens. No one is telling you to play the lottery. Somewhere down the road we need to take responsibility for our own actions. What I do not like about the mega lotteries is that they let the prizes climb that high. I say cut off at $500,000 and then roll over the rest to next drawing. Even if multiple winners win it still will have an effect on their lives. As for running it, if not the gov. then who??? Private enterprise. Yea I trust that.
Good hope you got that off your chest and you move on to more important things in life. Please do not play the lottery. Hate to lose you to a heart attack. Be well and be safe.Actually someone is telling me to play the lottery. Even if we assume that the government is the best, safest legal entity to run lotteries, I see no justification for why the government should be encouraging people to play through intense, misleading, and expensive advertising. Is that the best use of our government dollars? Spending large sums to build and maximize the growth of an enormous lottery infrastructure? Who really reaps the rewards here? Is that "Government for the people?"
I am all in favor of dreams, fun, a little sin and a little vice, coupled with personal responsibility. I wish that as we do it, we have a full understanding of it and its implications. I decry how our government abuses its position of trust by taking advantage of the ignorance of its own people in its headlong promotion of it ... while few look at the bigger picture.
If you want to say "Easy does it!!" then I say, "Stop and think."
I have said my piece.
I'm with you Sharon, I've lived in TN for 15 years now and I think I have bought one lottery ticket... just happened to have a dollar come back in change from a purchase at a local quick stop store... splurged, didn't win anything, then remembered how long I had worked to earn that $1.I don't buy them either. I'm just not a gambler. We used to go to COMDEX in Las Vegas and I would play the penny slots, or occasionally splurge on the nickel slots! I allowed myself $20 a day, and only once won more than I spent...On the last day, at the airport, I put a dime I had in my pocket in a slot machine and won $70. That was the last year they had COMDEX, and I've never been back.