Recently we have seen a news article about the lottery raising money for education. Here is the truth about the lottery. The lottery is a tax on the poor.

Ask yourself this one question. Why do I play the lottery? To make it rich you say. How many rich people in America have made it rich playing the lottery. Hardly any. In fact, most statistic show that people who win money usually lose it all in a few years. Why? Because people who do not know how to invest, save, work hard, save, invest, etc. revert to the same bad habits when they win a lot of money. It is squandered.

And do not be fooled when the lottery people get “excited” about how much money is going to education. Of course they are excited. They are excited because you are taking money of your pocket and putting into theirs. How excited would they be if we took 100% of the lottery money and gave it to education. Their excitement would soon wane and turn to anger. They want people addicted to gambling. They want poor people thinking they can make it rich and change their fortunes by playing the lottery.

These people are not nice. They are no better than the snake oil people of old. Those who sold miracles cures in a bottle. Did they sell the snake oil to the healthy? No they preyed upon the sick, the worried, the destitute. They too the last few dollars away from them and lined their own pockets.

If you want you lottery dollars to go to education then just make a donation to the Board of Education or give a gift card to a teacher to buy supplies for their classroom. Do not give it to these snake oil people who try and dress up their tax of the poor as a gift to education.

Now here is a better idea. Go down to the local restaurant that serves up oysters. Sit down to a plate full and eat until you find a pearl. Pearls are worth a lot of money especially if you get a string full. Crazy you say? Not chance of finding any at the restaurant? In fact, there is a 1 in 12,000 chance you will find a pearl in your oyster. But to win the lottery it is 1 in 72 million. So get eating the oysters and make your odds better. That way you do not have to pay the poor people tax and make those lottery people very rich. They make a really good salary and they did it on the backs of the poor.

Johnny Franks
seechatt@yahoo.com

* * *

The last I heard, you play the lottery, not out of force, but your own choice.

According to your logic, only poor play the lotto, so we should get rid of it. Because we, the not so poor, should make the decisions for the poor, because the poor cannot make good decisions. Further, we should band together and close all fast food restaurants and all cheap fattening foods because poor people are fat.

We cannot stop now, Wal-Mart and other discount stores must go. Poor people shop at them. In turn they support China and put more poor people out of work. Wow, poor people are a pain in the neck to take care of.

Or, the non-liberal, socialist approach. Let the Poor make their own decisions, and just maybe, they might survive. I am not sure though, there have only been poor people in this world since, let's see, maybe when the world began.

I am off to Vegas to stop this madness. Because as you know, that city is full of poor miserable people.

J.J. Lenca
mijimaj@bellsouth.net

* * *

Let's humor Mr. Franks' silly idea for a moment and say the lottery is indeed a tax on the poor. To be honest, I don't care. Their voluntary "contribution" to the education system is well received, needed, and even fair. I have worked very hard in my life and I pay a great deal to the government each year while I see many who haven't worked so hard receive free money in the form of Earned Income Credit and other programs. If they want to spend a portion of this money on the lottery, then I'd say go for it.

Are people throwing away their money by playing the lottery? I believe it's a matter of perspective. Some people buy tickets with the mindset that they're helping education, and the chance of winning is a game that's entertaining. If others buy tickets strictly based on a chance of winning, then, of course, they are throwing money away. However, that's not the point.

The point is that it's their choice. Poor does not mean stupid. They know the odds, so why don't we give poor people who play the lottery more credit?

Jake Langston
jklangston@hotmail.com