1) Don't force me into a scheme that I don't want to participate in. Maybe "most people" are willing to gamble a small amount of their hard-earned income. I am

1) Don't force me into a scheme that I don't want to participate in. Maybe "most people" are willing to gamble a small amount of their hard-earned income. I am not. I choose not to buy lottery tickets because such systems do not appeal to me and I have better things to spend $52 on. Like buying a pair of shoes for my child for the school year. 2) Your math doesn't account for the administration costs of such a system. 3) Not to get us into a libertarian "taxes are theft" debate, but if we can agree on the necessity of government services and the funding thereof, then I don't see why it should be controversial to try and find optional alternatives to taxation whenever possible. Lotteries might have their drawbacks, and we can debate whether lotteries are a good way to go about getting funding, but at least they are an opt-in / voluntary way to raise funding for those services. No one has gone to jail or had their assets seized for failing to buy a lottery ticket.