Dip’s Hits

(Dip has released this rant early because one of his editors has lost his way. It will be updated and republished soon).

North Carolina is implementing a State Lottery. The reason is

“For Education”

Even better, it is represented (no, I’m not making this up) as “North Carolina Lottery For Education”.

I’m opposed to a lottery. I’d like to explain why- and maybe end up convincing you that it is wrong as well. I’m going to use North Carolina as an example, because it is in the headlines right now.

Advocates for the lottery are spouting: “Every other state on the Eastern Seaboard has it.” And “NC is the largest state which doesn’t have one.”

Do you remember when your Mom would find you doing something stupid, and you would say “Billy did it. Billy’s Mom lets him do it!” Now that you’re grown- and Billy is working construction down South somewhere with his bad leg (yes, he *did* jump off that bridge)… Please remember her lessons. That being- just because someone else is doing it, doesn’t make it right. In fact, if the mob is doing it, it may likely be wrong. Please reference Looting (LA, New Orleans, etc.). Another supporting reason was that “North Carolina borders with states that have the lottery.” I would call that a bright spot in a canvas of ignorance. In further proof of lunacy, it turns out that one of the states-that-border-NC and another on the Eastern Seaboard that has the lottery (South Carolina) used just that kind of “Billy Did It!” excuse for why they needed a lottery (their SC example was that Georgia had it… ssssssh that NC didn’t so they couldn’t use the excuse that they were surrounded by lottery states).

“Gambling is wrong. You aren’t allowed to run gambling rings. So we’ll just set one up with poor odds, and ban all others. We call it The Lottery.” John McCoy

I don’t know who John McCoy is, and whether he was being facetious… but he hit it right on the head. Actually, there needs to be some clarification… State Lotteries are sold as “every dollar is put into a pot, and the state gets interest on the pot until the money is paid out.” Wrong. Big wrong. The bad odds are above- basically, only about 50% of the money you put in gets paid out. Well, Mr. Greedy, you’re upset that you don’t get the 50% which goes to education Uh, no. I’m upset about where the rest of the money goes- it goes to pay expenses such as advertising, printing, paying lottery consultants, special promotions, actually paying the people at the gas station a cut to have the tickets, etc. I don’t know the exact figure of what actually goes to state coffers (much less education), but let’s say it is probably 10%. NC estimates that it will provide about $300 million in revenue after expenses. That’s not even 2% of the current budget, so it seems to be a lot of work for a mere 2% increase in revenue. My personal guess is that that there are a lot of back door politics involved with those who benefit from the lottery and that it isn’t altruistic at all.
Update! There’s already a scandal with one of the companies vying to be our child-education-benefitting helper. Speaker of House Scandal

When you’re spending others’ money, it is easy to spend it on what you want- and not what it is allegedly being taxed. For example- there is an endorsement on your driver’s license for operating a motorcycle. Since the State does not provide motorcycle training, where does this money go? To the NC general fund. How about those personalized license plates? It costs a bundle for you to have the privlege of supporting your school team on your license plate- but it is for roadside beautification, right? Wrong. That program makes so much money that only a tiny amount goes to beautifying the roads. Not that I’m against that- I’m against lying to people. When there’s a charge, it should be quickly disclosed as to where it is going.

Though I am somewhat religious, I’m no fruitcake yelling “sinner!” at every passerby. In fact, I’m probably yelled at more than any of you reading this. So, let’s take religion out of it (which as far as I know universally condemn gambling).

Do people really playing the lottery want money for education? If they did, they could write a check right to their local school. Ever heard of the PTA?

All of us complain about the Federal deficit. Did you know that you can write a check to the government directly to pay down the debt? It’s true, but does anyone actually do it? No. Because that is stupid monetary policy. You don’t spend more than you have. You also pay your debts. Which is why no one pays to reward overspending. But, that’s what you’re doing when spend money on the lottery. Well, that’s what you think you’re doing. As I mentioned above, of that dollar you spend, the State gets $0.02.

Politicians should do what the people want! Uh, no. If that were the case, we wouldn’t need politicians, would we. I mean, we would just have a referendum on everything and then the masses… I mean… the public (who are clamoring for education- is it lacking?) can decide.

Let’s try an example. I can ask a group of children “would you like candy instead of vegetables for dinner?” I think that referendum would pass. No, citizens aren’t children… but the reason we elect officials is to make the right decisions. Then again, maybe that’s the problem- we have the wrong people in office- I don’t want to start on national politics- let’s stick with local ones. North Carolina doesn’t need a lottery- and any politician who thinks it does is doing NC harm by this decision.

North Carolina also has a tax on FOOD. Yeah, it’s pretty unbelievable. Do you know why there’s a ‘temporary’ (40+ years) tax on food? Why would the state do such a thing?

“For Education”

(add section on regressive nature. add info about gambling for rich people=stock market. add photos of lottery winners)

Billy’s Mom made the wrong decisions for Billy. Fortunately for NC, he moved to SC because they had a lottery. We don’t want Billy back.

Some references:

An NCSU Economist

(add this tripe:

Playing the lottery is an exhilarating and enticing way to chance winning money. Most games don’t cost very much money; few cost over $1 or $2 per play. However, they allow players the chance to win huge sums of money. For those who dream of quitting their jobs and being independently wealthy, the lottery is an affordable way to take some chances and move toward a goal.

from http://www.assortedlotteries.com/

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 at 10:49 am and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.