General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTo the folks decrying the lottery and those who buy tickets
give it a break, we don't want to live in your dreamless society anyway. Next thing ya know you'll be telling the kids Santa Clause s a fake.........and I'm sure you do, why should they have a lock on fantasy...
eShirl
(18,466 posts)ZombieHorde
(29,047 posts)It's also about fun.
graham4anything
(11,464 posts)those that are saying that are the people that don't want a Nanny state
(yet they are telling us not to purchase the tickets for our own good)
it is the same reason the same don't say that the economy is getting better and that housing prices are going up.
Good news is bad news ton the Sad Sams/Debbie downers
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)And overwhelmingly it's the poor and middle class buying the tickets.
It takes a special sort of blindness to avoid seeing it's a tax on the poor and middle class.
Saying that buying tickets is objectively not a smart thing to do is not the same thing as saying you are banned from doing it.
Too much gambling is objectively very bad for people just like too much sugar is objectively bad.
You approve of government edicts to cut sugar consumption but think the goverment should at the same time be in the business of running a gambling operation.
CrispyQ
(36,224 posts)I read that somewhere & it cracked me up. I buy tickets now & then, but not regularly. I don't make a point to buy tickets when the pot is high, just when the mood hits me & there is no one in line at the service counter.
Twice I have matched 5 out of 6 numbers.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)But I'm too cheap...
Texasgal
(17,029 posts)I mean shit! I bought ONE ticket for fun, I knew I wouldn't win! It was fun to dream though!
I come to DU and apparently I am stupid and have no regard for humanity.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)I really don't care whether it's foolish or not - it's fun.
Cirque du So-What
(25,811 posts)than dissuading anyone in that holier-than-thou crowd from sniffing haughtily whenever the lottery is mentioned.
Uzair
(241 posts)But you're wasting your money.
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)your preachy screechy falls on deaf ears
but it's MY money to spend as I see fit.
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)the money goes to open spaces/outdoors here, so not a big deal to me.
my husband does call it a tax on people who can't do math, but i can dream of the day i get to rub it in his face
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... or pinball machines, or a whole lot of other things.
Of course I only spend about $10 a year on lottery. Those with gambling problems should seek help.
Pragdem
(233 posts)There's no popular thing to do in this country that goes without criticism. We don't need a government-sponsored Hate Week; the cynics take care of that for us during every national event.
lame54
(35,130 posts)The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made their living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets. Winston had nothing to do with the Lottery, which was managed by the Ministry of Plenty, but he was aware (indeed everyone in the party was aware) that the prizes were largely imaginary. Only small sums were actually paid out, the winners of the big prizes being nonexistent persons.
George Orwell - 1984
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)So the comparison is a tad off.
There are things Orwell has it pegged by the way, and most people do not pay that much attention to the lottery
lame54
(35,130 posts)and Orwell's vision is constantly unfolding
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)And we really did not even bother going after that story.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)holier-than-thou crowd.
WCGreen
(45,558 posts)If you don't go over board and spend you food money for the lotto. but buying a ticket for the weekly drawing isn't all that bad. consider all the entertainment you create inside yourself parsing out the payoff to friends, lovers and relatives. And think about all that time you get to ponder on what you will do if you win....
Phillip McCleod
(1,837 posts)that's bound to shut all the debbie downers up quick.
does the term 'flame bait' mean anything?
FFS