4 ms·

> some kind of limits should be enforced by governments I'm not sure why we think this works. Gambling is considered bad, and banned in many states, but many

> some kind of limits should be enforced by governments I'm not sure why we think this works. Gambling is considered bad, and banned in many states, but many of those states run a lottery. This is just a straight up theft from the poor who are least well equipped to understand they are playing a rigged game, and not rigged in their favor.

gottorf 6mo ago
> Gambling is considered bad, and banned in many states, but many of those states run a lottery. This is just a straight up theft from the poor who are least well equipped to understand they are playing a rigged game, and not rigged in their favor I think gambling is almost a natural instinct in humans, and a state-run lottery may be a relief valve for that itch to be scratched in a controlled manner.
ZeroGravitas 6mo ago
It can be seen as a way to undermine illegal lotteries. That rationale gets undermined if the state lottery is widely advertised in a predatory manner though.
mitkebes 6mo ago
I think they know it's rigged, but it's also a (very slim) source of hope. It's depressing to be poor, and have no perceivable path to fix that. Continual lottery participation is an action they can constantly take to have a chance to change that. It doesn't matter that their chances are incredibly low, it's still something they can do to have things not be entirely hopeless.
pear01 6mo ago
By virtue of its position, the state often does things it forbids all other actors under its jurisdiction from doing. Thus your comment has much less force than it would seem, even if the apparent contradiction you pointed out is somewhat amusing.
dpark 6mo ago
> the poor who are least well equipped to understand Is there some actual evidence that poor people are under the impression that they have a meaningful chance of winning significant money the lottery? I see this line a lot and it’s extremely patronizing. I’m not even pro lottery but this “poor people are too dumb to understand” does not strike me as a sound argument.
- SoftTalker 6mo ago
  Not too dumb, but badly educated about money (part of why they stay poor) and probabilities.
  - dpark 6mo ago
    Poor people stay poor because it’s really hard to climb out of poverty. It’s a function of opportunity, culture, society, and a lot more stuff. Education is a factor but I am doubtful it’s the primary one, and even where it is a major factor, it’s probably more general education than specifically about money. I feel like the “poor people don’t understand money” line of thought comes from the same people who insist that avocado toast and lattes are why millennials can’t afford housing.
    - gottorf 6mo ago
      > it’s really hard to climb out of poverty. It’s a function of opportunity, culture, society, and a lot more stuff I agree with you, but perhaps from the other direction. I think American society in particular gives an amazing amount of opportunity for people to climb out of poverty, or at least we used to, before we started "replacing what works with what sounded good". But we still do, for the most part. Most of the cultural and social factors that prevent someone from lifting themselves up are self-imposed by those individual cultures and societies, and as of late, it's become verboten to call them out on it. There exist subgroups in this country where you'd indeed have to be a truly remarkable individual to claw yourself out of it into wealth. However, it doesn't have to be that way; that's a choice society made, on what grounds exactly I'm not sure, but the choice was made nevertheless.
egorfine 6mo ago
> poor who are least well equipped to understand I fail to understand how this is someone's business. As I see it, in the US a person is free to be as dumb as possible. And have as much freedom as possible. I don't get it why anyone would patronize poor people (or any people) from making bad decisions.

gottorf 6mo ago

> Gambling is considered bad, and banned in many states, but many of those states run a lottery. This is just a straight up theft from the poor who are least well equipped to understand they are playing a rigged game, and not rigged in their favor I think gambling is almost a natural instinct in humans, and a state-run lottery may be a relief valve for that itch to be scratched in a controlled manner.

ZeroGravitas 6mo ago

It can be seen as a way to undermine illegal lotteries. That rationale gets undermined if the state lottery is widely advertised in a predatory manner though.

mitkebes 6mo ago

I think they know it's rigged, but it's also a (very slim) source of hope. It's depressing to be poor, and have no perceivable path to fix that. Continual lottery participation is an action they can constantly take to have a chance to change that. It doesn't matter that their chances are incredibly low, it's still something they can do to have things not be entirely hopeless.

pear01 6mo ago

By virtue of its position, the state often does things it forbids all other actors under its jurisdiction from doing. Thus your comment has much less force than it would seem, even if the apparent contradiction you pointed out is somewhat amusing.

dpark 6mo ago

> the poor who are least well equipped to understand Is there some actual evidence that poor people are under the impression that they have a meaningful chance of winning significant money the lottery? I see this line a lot and it’s extremely patronizing. I’m not even pro lottery but this “poor people are too dumb to understand” does not strike me as a sound argument.

SoftTalker 6mo ago
Not too dumb, but badly educated about money (part of why they stay poor) and probabilities.
- dpark 6mo ago
  Poor people stay poor because it’s really hard to climb out of poverty. It’s a function of opportunity, culture, society, and a lot more stuff. Education is a factor but I am doubtful it’s the primary one, and even where it is a major factor, it’s probably more general education than specifically about money. I feel like the “poor people don’t understand money” line of thought comes from the same people who insist that avocado toast and lattes are why millennials can’t afford housing.
  - gottorf 6mo ago
    > it’s really hard to climb out of poverty. It’s a function of opportunity, culture, society, and a lot more stuff I agree with you, but perhaps from the other direction. I think American society in particular gives an amazing amount of opportunity for people to climb out of poverty, or at least we used to, before we started "replacing what works with what sounded good". But we still do, for the most part. Most of the cultural and social factors that prevent someone from lifting themselves up are self-imposed by those individual cultures and societies, and as of late, it's become verboten to call them out on it. There exist subgroups in this country where you'd indeed have to be a truly remarkable individual to claw yourself out of it into wealth. However, it doesn't have to be that way; that's a choice society made, on what grounds exactly I'm not sure, but the choice was made nevertheless.

egorfine 6mo ago

> poor who are least well equipped to understand I fail to understand how this is someone's business. As I see it, in the US a person is free to be as dumb as possible. And have as much freedom as possible. I don't get it why anyone would patronize poor people (or any people) from making bad decisions.