Aretae (unsurprisingly) brings Teh Smart showing the utter bankruptcy of the Progressive Vision. It's impossible to excerpt, and so blindingly obvious that anyone who doesn't have a Progressive Education will grasp it in a moment. This is The Answer to all "Social Justice" arguments. The only thing that I would add is empirical proof of his thesis: the inflation adjusted per capita GDP in the USA in 1800 was about $850; the inflation adjusted per capita GDP in Mexico in 1800 was about $840. (source)
Man, that's one scary smart dude.
Your other read is the flip side of this coin, about human dreams and hopes. I used to say in my younger and stupider days that a lottery is a "tax on stupid people". After all, the math always works against you. Always.
Well, that's not the point. Bob is convincing that a lottery is a Hope Tax. There's a social justice argument in here, too, that Progressives are quite frankly evil in creating such an intensely regressive tax system. The libertarian counter argument, of course is who are you to take a man's hope from him?
Read them both.
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There are a lot of industries that capitalize on people's hope. When someone asked Charles Revson, the founder of the Revlon cosmetics company, how he made (and charged) so much money on cosmetics made from a few pennies' worth of ingredients he said, "In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope."
Sellers of golf equipment, photographic equipment, even firearms accessories are selling hope. The buyer hopes that the next putter, lens, or laser sight will make him better at his chosen hobby.
The only difference between those industries and the lottery is who's lining their pockets with the proceeds. But hope, like poverty, will always be with us, and a smart person somewhere will capitalize on it.
Yeah, but the ones that are 'hoping' are the ones least able to afford it...
Very few people in America can't afford a buck or two a week. It's the people who dump everything they have into it while chanting "this time for sure!" who suffer. They've gone beyond hope and into delusion.
Once you forget that the lottery is entertainment and not a hillbilly retirement fund, you're in over your head.
Dave H,
"Once you forget that the lottery is entertainment and not a hillbilly retirement fund, you're in over your head."
I believe you've just described over 90% of the people playing the Lottery. Even people with decent-paying jobs, successfully meeting their obligations and not carrying loads of debt (now we're down to 25%) are still hoping for that retirement fund. The ones who only spend a dollar or two a week aren't at risk, but they still could benefit from some remedial math. The odds are an order of magnitude better putting four quarters into a slot machine.
BTW, poor choice of examples when you speak of "hope" in connection with purchasing items such as photographic or sporting equipment. The odds are significantly in your favor that such items can improve your game - photography or golf or shooting - but you can always sell the equipment and recoup at least part of your money if it doesn't. Ever try selling a losing lottery ticket?
However the odds are not infinite and I shall keep on playing as the money in my State goes towards funding University scholarships.
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