"Lotteries: America's $70 billion shame"

Five times a day, these buses leave from the Walmart. Free rides to take old people to casinos. Every day, they're packed.

 

Yeah, but I paid to go to one of those schools, and in my opinion, it's paid off.

That said: There are some amazing studies about credit cards. People will pay twice as much for something when using a credit card as they will when using a checking account. Not buy twice as much. But spend twice as much for the same item. I imagine it's the same way when financing a college education.

 

OK, but I guess I don't see it as manipulative marketing as much as basic human nature. The lottery is a chance to win a lot of easy money.

Cigarettes are a whole other story. Booze is somewhere in between those two.

 

And, none of my objections are of a religious nature.

In fact, as a small government conservative, I think, in theory, gambling should be allowed, shouldn't be taxed at as a high a rate as it is, and should not be a government monopoly, as is the case with the lottery.

But, as a practical matter, we all see what happens. Gambling and the lottery rob the poorest among us of our money.

And, every politician who says they are a champion of the poor who supports them is a hypocrite of the highest nature.

Stop with the lotteries and the casinos, and if tobacco and alcohol are going to be legal, tax them like every other product.

And, if that hurts your budget, then either raise taxes in a responsible manner, or cut spending.

 

Of course student loans are great for some people. In fact they might be great for most people.

Just like the lottery is harmless fun for some people (like me), perhaps even most people.

But as is the case with state-run lotteries, the student loan game can be depicted as exploiting some especially vulnerable portion of the broad populace.

 

No question about it, particularly with some of the rackets being run by for-profit private colleges.

 

I think the thesis of this thread is "Damn it sucks to be poor."

 

Companies selling everything from flavored cigarets, to Cognac, to soda pop have been criticized for how they market their products to kids, the poor, and minorities.

And, at the same time, our government is peddling a dollar and a dream to its poorest residents.

 

My beef with the state-run lotteries and scratch-offs is how hard the state sells them. There may be more lottery commercials and billboards than anything else.

And I know people -- who aren't necessarily poor -- who are or were hooked on those things. They drive from store to store to buy a pile of scratch offs.

It's not the finest hour when the state sucks money from people who can't afford it or can't control themselves. But then to package it as exciting and fun is distasteful.

 

The less you have, the more likely other people are going to get a piece of it.

 

And the messed up paradigm... I don't need credit cards now.

Every two weeks, we take out cash for expenses. Except, a month ago, the fridge crapped out. Needed to buy a new one.

I was going to pay cash for the new one, about $725 with delivery and haul away. Yet the place I went offered a 10 percent discount if I opened up a card. Okay... fine.

I was approved for an $8000 credit limit. Eight grand. Fifteen years before, I remember getting turned down for a department store card because of some late payments. The clerk dangled 15 percent off if I opened a charge. My application was denied. It was humiliating. You never forget that stuff.

I laughed at the 8000 limit, took my new card, came back the day it was installed, paid it off and closed the card.

The crappy part about money is, now that we have it, we get all sorts of breaks that we really needed 20 years ago.

 

I'm not going to research this all afternoon, but I did dig this up...

Who Gambles in America: Gambling Stats By Income! - Don't Quit Your Day Job...

SOI Tax Stats - Individual Statistical Tables by Size of Adjusted Gross Income