And hell, now he doesn’t have to rob people anymore. 
What’s the overall payback on lotteries anyhow - something like 40%? 45%?
Let the guy spend his whole wad on tickets. Odds are, he will end up losing a buttload of money, and this will enrich the State coffers, giving more tax revenue to be spent on social causes.
Seems like it would be a “tax-and-spend government philosophy” person’s dream to have this guy spend it all on tickets. The class envy that I have been reading about in the papers is not only disgusting, it clearly shows the extreme ignorance of those whining.
What’s that guy’s problem? If more people play the lottery, the odds of winning go down, but the amount of money for the winner goes up. And vice versa. Why’s he pissing and moaning about rich people playing the lottery when the expected outcome is still the same for him?
My favorite take on wealth is in a Dilbert Cartoon. Dogbert is explaining to Dilbert that the most common ways people get rich is to commit a crime, or inherit the money from rich parents. The best way is for your parents to commit the crime, then inherit the money from them.
-er- anyway, Besides playing the lottery, what does the wife of the person with the 4.5 million dollar house do? Does she volunteer for anything?
-er- anyway, to the OP. Since the lottery is a tax on people that are bad at math… the guy in the letter should be happy that rich people are playing.
And before we run out and start killing people based on their bank accounts and house values… it seems like the letter writer considers anyone who could buy 100 lottery tickets rich.
So I guess what I’m trying to say to the letter writer is to shut the fuck up, life isn’t fair, or, as the Dredd Pirate Roberts sez, “Life is pain, anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you something.”
p.s. I do play the lottery.
p.p.s. Did you know that some people consider it a sin against god to buy more than one number?
p.p.s.s. How do you get 1k posts? I’m trying to post a couple of times every day and I’m still < 200!!
p.p.p.s.s. Is AudreyK cute?
er, asking if someone is cute won’t get you banned, will it?
Give up having a life. Pretty much the only way.
Ooohh yeah, the whole life thing. That would explain all these people coming up to me asking me to work on THEIR problems. Who ever came up with that whole work thing…
I’m suprised Chumpsky isn’t in here, preaching Global Proletarian Revolution, & telling us all why lotteries are tools of the Evil Capitalists.
Foo! ;p
Hey Bosda,
You don’t need Chumpski for that. I see the link right now. Evil Capitalists need to further ingrain that happiness can only be achieved by having large sums of money. The poor people realize this and will never be happy, so they pose a threat to the Evil Capitalist way of life.
Now the Evil Capitalist (EC) must come up with a way to difuse the situation. How can the EC maintain the fallacy of wealth equals happiness when so many are poor and therefore unhappy? I give you the Lottery! Now, for $1.00 a poor person can dream of being happy while still being poor. The ‘energy’ of the poor to change their lot in life is sapped by the remote possibility of becoming wealthy and happy.
Same thing can be said about Dilbert, in fact it was, by Tom Tomorrow. He ran a cartoon saying that Dilbert cartoons provided an outlet for the angst and frustrations of white collar workers. By providing an outlet he diminished the will of the workers to band together and effect change.
These are not my theories, but I understand how others may believe in them.
-SandWriter
Cute
Define for me what exactly an “Evil Capitalist” is. For that matter…who are “the poor”?
Simple.
“Evil Capitalist” = “Anyone with more money than me.”
“The Poor” = “Me.”
Thus we see the inherent wisdom of taking more money from Evil Capitalists and giving it to The Poor.
“the poor” anyone living at or below the poverty line. The poverty line is a number based on annual income set by the United States Government. I could look up the number for this year, but since you seem to be the one looking for, er, demanding the information then I’ll leave it to YOU to find the data.
As for “Evil Capitalist,” you’ll have to ask Bosda about that one. To me, Evil Capitalist, means anyone who makes more money than me. Your Definition May Vary.
This is a lot of breath to waste over one rather idiotic letter to the editor, IMHO.
I personally don’t have any problem with rich people buying lottery tickets. As a co-worker of mine is fond of saying, “The lottery is a tax on people who don’t understand math.” The rich man’s ticket is no more likely to be a winner than the poor man’s. If he wants to pay more taxes, fine with me. But he should be able to collect his winnings if he wins, just like everyone else.
The odds of winning this particular lottery were around 100 million to 1 against. If they have two drawings a week (normal), and you buy one ticket to each drawing for 20 years, the odds are still 100,000 to 1 against your ever winning.
If you buy 100 tickets each time, the odds are still 1000 to 1 against your ever winning. It’s not like you can buy a win.
I don’t have a cite, but a little while ago Drudge had the actual payout amount on his cite. He elected to take the one time payout. Out of the around $300 million the payout was $111 million. Ouch.
I for one am happy that someone who is intelligent and hardworking won the money. A successful small businessman is more “worthy” of the prize than most I would think. It pains me when I see lottery winners on the news who resemble to redneck family from the simpsons (Cletus?) who will most likely waste the money.
“Well listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed…”
He won the4 money with one ticket. He had 99 losing tickets. If he had only bought one ticket and it was a winner, would attitudes be different?
Feh. He won the lotto, good for him. Hopefully my turn is next.
Well it seems to me that the easiest solution would be to lower the poverty line. That way there won’t be any poor people anymore.
I take it you are big on revisionist history?
Except the 300 million doesn’t actually exist. That’s the payout with over 29 years with interest and stuff built in, I think. So it’s an estimated number. And I thought he got $170 million, which is more or less the real amount of money.