There was a story over the weekend in The New York Times about lottery sales being up around the country as Americans seek to get ahead in a bad economy by dropping some cash on a ticket.
We play periodically and, if we’re lucky, we make back what we spent. But let’s face it, the lottery is fool’s errand — especially when you’re stretched economically.
But that’s the game states use to get us in.
In any case, there is something odd about states using this sort of gimmick to fund their budgets, rather than asking people who can afford it (read that to mean the higher-income folks). There are those who call the lotter a “poor-people’s tax” and, given the demographics of the players, I can’t argue.
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Hank Kalet 
Interesting, a died in the wool liberal admitting that the gooferment is screwing poor people.Not upset enough to DEMAND reform. Not too upset to INSIST that the fraud cease. And, certainly not VOCAL enough to point out whne the top prizes are no longer available.Yup, I guess its us hypercritical Libertarians who demand honesty with sales propositions. So blame us Libertarians for being cruel and heartless in not protecting the poor from exploitation by the wealthy upper class. If only there was a governemt to protect these poor people from exploitation!Oh, it IS the gooferment that\’s exploiting the poor in society.Shaking my head at the double standard!
I guess goofertarian forgot that the people of NJ voted for the lottery more than 30 years ago. I, a liberal, voted against the lottery at that time. But then again, no one is forced to buy a lottery ticket, no one puts a gun to your head. Isn\’t that what goofertarianism is all about? Free will? Nah, it\’s a cult of people who just don\’t want to foot the bill for a functioning civilization. They want a free ride or they don\’t want a functioning civilization. It\’s so easy to blame everything on government. Well, Grover Norquist\’s plan was to starve the beast (government) so he could drown it in a bath tub. He may get his wish with all the bank and financial institution failures. The next big failure could drag us all down into the toilet. Never fear, goofertarian will blame government for the failures of private financial institutions.
November 1969 — Voters Approve Lottery.New Jersey voters overwhelmingly approved the establishment of a State Lottery as part of the general election. The 81.5% majority in favor of a Lottery was one of the largest in New Jersey political history. Hmmm, I\’ll bet that some of those 81.5% were goofertarians.