Posted on 07/10/2015 3:02:37 PM PDT by NRx
...But there is one set of related policy ideas that would dramatically help the poor and should not be ideologically divisive. How about a renewed effort to help the poor by refusing to cheat them?
I am referring to a broad and growing collaboration between government and business to systematically defraud and exploit the poor through state lotteries, payday lending and payday gambling.
The lottery is a particularly awful example of political corruption. Here government is raising revenue by selling the Powerball dream of wealth without work. Studies in a number of states have shown that lottery ticket sales are concentrated in poor communities, that poor people spend a larger portion of their income on tickets and that the poor are more likely to view the lottery as an investment. “This could be your ticket out,” promised one typical billboard in a distressed Chicago neighborhood.
Think on this a moment. In a place where government has utterly failed to provide adequate education and public services, government is using advertising to exploit the desperation of poor people in order to raise revenue that funds other people’s public services. This is often called a “regressive” form of taxation. The word does not adequately capture the cruelty and crookedness of selling a lie to vulnerable people in order to bilk them. Offering the chance of one in a 100 million is the equivalent of a lie. Lotteries depend on the deceptive encouragement of mythical thinking and fantasies of escape.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Lotteries are a tax on the innumerate. Always have been.
The “dumb tax.”
They forgot to add newspapers.
So someone is FORCING them to take out loans, play the lottery and so on?
And voting for ‘Rats.
That’s what I said. You can help the helpless but you cannot help the clueless.
Under the guise of "helping" the poor, it's another encroachment on state and individual rights.
Also, none other than Alexander Hamilton played the lottery. The 1st Continental Congress authorized a lottery to help pay for the Revolutionary War.
"Everybody, almost, can and will be willing to hazard a trifling sum for the chance of considerable gain." - A. Hamilton
You could randomly select someone from any large urban city, hand him or her $1 Million in cash with one proviso: that they come back to they very spot where you stand in 1 year.
I would bet anything that that person would manage to piss their money away....every last dime. Would make for an interesting sociological experiment.
Buying a lottery ticket is a voluntary activity.
If “the poor” who don’t pay income or property taxes buy them and thus contribute something to the coffers of the government who’s high spending they support, I say fantastic.
The more money they get from the lottery and from slot machines the less they have to take involuntarily via taxation.
I think allowing elites to eat fois gras and play the markets is form of political corruption.
There are very intelligent people who will pick up a two dollar lotto ticket every week but I see some real loosers purchasing 20 dollars or so of the instant lottery tickets. I think the instant lotto tickets are much more exploitative.
I am really hesitant to jump on the anti-payday loan bandwagon.
Sometimes people need quick cash, and it’s an easy option which doesn’t require messing with one’s credit rating, or involving any of the major credit rating agencies or banks.
It’s just easy, quick, and fairly anonymous. Yes, it can be painful, but it’s an option. I’ve used it to SAVE my credit rating. It was expensive, but I know those who’ve used it as a tool to save their good credit rating when they might otherwise have a ding on their regular credit.
The big banks love their usurious fees and high interest rates, too, and they’d LOVE for payday lenders to go out of business.
I’m suspicious that shutting them down would suit the crony capitalists just fine.
Marx hated money lenders as he was hopeless at management.
I’m surprised at the fact that 1/3 of ‘high earners’ ($75,000+) live pay check to pay check (4/15/15). Goes to show you that living beyond your means is the trend.
Creating real wealth required living below your means, creating a surplus value with what you have.
Those "payday loans" and check-cashing joints are also sure markers that you are in a bad neighborhood. As are pawn-shops and battered storefronts advertising "E-Z" payments.
bttt
I have no problem with the lottery. It is at least a tax that is voluntary. Besides, my wife plays it to the tune of $4 a week. Now we have won here and there including over $1,200. once. That being said, too many idiots spend several dollars a day on the lottery, but no one forces them to do it.
LOL, the only tax WaPo doesn’t like is one that’s completely voluntary.
Payday loans are criminal usury and are illegal in several states (as they should be), although lenders of course find loopholes at every turn. The lottery is an unsustainable revenue source, ultimately worsening state budget imbalances, but it shouldn’t necessarily be banned, because as you say no one is being forced against their will to play.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.