Sunday, June 15, 2008

The N.C. Lottery is for IDIOTS....


The N.C. "Education" Lottery is for IDIOTS! You may quote me on that statement.
As far as state sponsored lotteries are concerned, they are all for IDIOTS. Send me the $600.00 dollars a year a "poor" family spends on lottery tickets and I will pray a health and wealth prayer over them. They will be more likely to get rich from my prayer than from any lottery in the nation. Or better yet, give the monies to a local church or missions organization, you'd have a better chance at reaping blessings from God than from any future lottery winnings. It is a system of underhanded taxation set up by worthless politicians. If you are a politician that happened by here and support the lottery you are a worthless piece of trash and should be run out of office with a pitch fork and fire burning torch. The NY Times has an OpEd that ran earlier in the week.
The rest of the OpEd is very good also, but if you love debt and stuff, it could be painful.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:32 AM

    Jimmy,

    That's some mighty strong language there...

    I like it!

    The lottery is nothing but a backdoor tax the government has instituted to swindle the very class of people, the poor, whom they are supposed to be protecting. To take advantage of the desperate conditions these people live in and to blatantly exploit them by dangling the (im)probability of riches to me is just reprehensible.

    We were studying Mark 14 last week: the story of the woman who annointed Jesus with the perfume, and while He commended the woman for her actions, if you read the passage closely, you will find that He continued to exhort those present to HELP the poor.

    This state government does little of that. I've got some ideas:

    How about free community college education?

    Heck, how about a real public school education?

    How about some decent jobs?

    How about raising the minimum wage? [I almost can't believe I said that, but let's face it, most employers think a business is them sitting at home while they get other people to do all the work for substandard wages while they reap the benefits.]

    And how about no more sweetheart deals to big corporations who come here, only to leave when the tax breaks run out?

    If anybody out there still thinks the Lottery is a good idea, they are desperately in need of a Statistics class. The only people who are making out in this whole deal is the company running it.

    Chris

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  2. Great post and the Op-Ed piece is right on the money (sorry for the pun!). Our experience with gambling began overseas and it was devastating to see how it effected the poor there when a very corrupt government didn't even allow locals to legally participate! D has been called names and mocked because he doesn't participate in the "pool" at work every work. Pitiful. Thanks again for the post.

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  3. Thanks Chris for the kudos...

    Fay,

    To me it is not about the gambling, but if you are going to gamble, go to Vegas where the odds are so much better. Even Vegas is going to get most of your money, most of the time.

    It is more about the loss of morals in the leaders of our state and federal governments. Here in N.C. the legislature/governor ALWAYS seem to be more interested in finding some backdoor way to take more cash out of the pockets of the citizens. What they should be doing to limiting the desire and need for state and local services, while producing an environment where families and businesses can thrive with LESS state government.

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  4. I'm not disagreeing with you; you know my circumstances enough to know I've struggled with debt for many years. I'm just tossing out another perspective here.

    In the past year, Vanguard has lost over $2,500 from my 401k. They lost $253 in the past two weeks (since May 31st, 2008). That's more than I spend on lottery tickets in a year (about $208 a year). I'd love to bring my whole paycheck home and just pay taxes on consumption, but I'm more than a little afraid that the government will raise taxes to offset any losses in income tax. And I'm sure the IRS would have something to say about a church's non-profit status if it decided to get into the pay-day loan business. The accounting costs alone to comply with federal and state mandates would be prohibitive to the church; and wouldn't these loans still be encouraging debt?

    The author makes good points, but his solutions stand about as much chance of working as mine do in winning the Power Ball lottery. It's not that the lottery causes people to go into debt; most of us were in debt before the lottery became another option to Vanguard, Wall-Street, and the IRS.

    I'll admit it, I'm just as much an idiot for trying to save for retirement, for voting the party ticket every election, and for trying to outsmart people who are better trained at taking my money than I am at keeeping it, as I am for voluntarily funding an education lottery. I'll also admit that it's stupid to get into debt; it's voluntary slavery. But until the faith community can promote Christ as effectively as the world promotes the lottery and lavish lifestyles, I don't see anything changing.

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  5. Larry,

    My deal still stands for you. Send me the $200.00 per year and I will pray the same prayer for you.

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  6. Will I get a handkerchief or a pack of mustard seeds to put under my pillow?

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  7. I ALWAYS preferred a silk hanky as a point of contact.

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  8. But your hair looks too real. Don't you need a toupee in order to make your prayers work better? According to what I see on TV, God cannot be coerced...I mean, pursuaded, to release any blessings unless I send it to guys with fake hair.

    You know I love you, right? :) I'm your favorite Zaccheus.

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  9. No fake hair here, but I would love one of those handmade Italian suits.

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