I keep NOT winning the lottery

[Virge]

What's up with that?

Sometimes I worry that those machines in my grocery store are just some kinda money-making scam.

Or am I just doing it wrong?

Go rob a few gas stations. The odds are better. If you get caught at least you won't have to worry about getting fed.

[Hardheaded1]

The cruelest tax ever imposed was the lottery, rich men would only buy a ticket as a joke. . . . . What a disgrace.

Although your rant is on target as to the shamefulness of government using such immoral methods for revenue, your rhetoric is inaccurate.

In no wise can you call a lottery a tax. Men and women eagerly line up to buy a lottery ticket and no one compels them to do so.

No other tax is voluntary, except to the degree that one chooses to obey the law or not.

A lottery displaces tax revenue, but not equally or fairly, but it is not a tax.

On a brighter note, I did win the lottery just now when browsing for an actor's picture and this one came up instead. I win the Google Lottery!!! Woo hoo!

[Butterfingers]

Although your rant is on target as to the shamefulness of government using such immoral methods for revenue, your rhetoric is inaccurate.

In no wise can you call a lottery a tax. Men and women eagerly line up to buy a lottery ticket and no one compels them to do so.

No other tax is voluntary, except to the degree that one chooses to obey the law or not.

A lottery displaces tax revenue, but not equally or fairly, but it is not a tax.

On a brighter note, I did win the lottery just now when browsing for an actor's picture and this one came up instead. I win the Google Lottery!!! Woo hoo!

I took some license in referring to the lottery as a tax, if Ronald Reagan a then President of these United States could refer to inflation as "the cruelest tax of all" I feel free to label this government scam and abuse of the hopeless in the same fashion.

[Hardheaded1]

Understood, but inflation is not voluntary, as it happens to all.

Not so with the lottery. You cannot rape the willing. Greed is it's own punishment.

And the poor are far from hopeless. Hapless perhaps.

If they choose to spend an inordinate amount on the lottery, then it is on them. That doesn't make the government right, but it also doesn't mean the poor wouldn't look elsewhere to waste money.

[Butterfingers]

Inflation was an excuse to and false reason to usher in supply side economics, the voodoo doll was the image of the American worker and we did get something stuck in us.
The Nazis would deprive prisoners of water, then watch as they would drink salt water or mop water.
Desperate people do desperate things.
Also consider that being poor today is not the same poor that either of us might have had contact with, we knew that if we applied ourselves that we could do well in the country that we grew up in, it was called the American dream, today the poor feel hopeless, the rungs have been removed from the ladder.
You are smart and educated, I count myself as smart though lacking in formal education, in days past a guy who was not the sharpest knife in the drawer could earn enough to support a family, today it is not the case, I hear of story after story of people who have degrees who flip hamburgers for a living.
You are correct, no one "makes" a person buy a ticket, but desperation and a sense of hopelessness make them very tempting.

[Virge]

Inflation was an excuse to and false reason to usher in supply side economics, the voodoo doll was the image of the American worker and we did get something stuck in us.

What's the alternative to supply side economics? A "managed" economy? If you thin that is more "fair" to the poor you are wrong. We're in a managed economy now and it's gotten more managed and manipulated in the past 6 years. Just yesterday on 2 news stations I saw that 49% of the wage earners in the US are living paycheck to paycheck. That's why I gave up being a wage earner and took up capitalism. Poverty has increased at every step under every managed economy ever inflicted on people and you know it.

Why does that happen? Because that's exactly what it's supposed to do. By managing the economy it becomes harder and harder for individuals to strike out on their own and compete with the big companies in good with the politicians. THATS not the fault of supply side economics or capitalism. That's the fault of the lying freaks who sell everyone on the idea that the big sweet loving government is going to take care of everyone and make things better...more "fair"... more "equal." It's the fault of the people who are so gullible they believe that and vote for more of what they don't earn and even though they really don't get shit from they government they keep voting for the people who tell them they are going to give them free shit....

Just like the lottery, isn't it? Go to an electronic casino or stand in line to see who's buying the most tickets or betting the most money in the game machines...It's the same ones using their votes to get something for nothing rather than get out and bust their butts to make more than the government and their employers lets them make.

And the funny thing about is there's loads of legal money to be made by anyone who gets out of the slave trap of working for a living and starts working for themselves. It doesn't take a degree and it doesn't take a whole lot of money to start -- IF you get out of the states who "manage" things so bad they make it impossible to start small businesses by high priced licenses fees and regulations.

Have you seen the ads on TV trying to recruit businesses to New York with no sales taxes, income taxes and property taxes??? That's government trying to manage the economy. All they are doing is bringing in businesses that will have advantages of no taxes that existing companies don't have which will lead to the existing ones being out competed by the ones that come there.

When I go out on the road selling to stores one of the first things I check is what cities and counties have laws that would require me to have a frigging license to do business in their towns. Most of them I don't have to check. If it's got a high crime rate and lots of unemployment it probably has laws for out of town vendors to pay for the privilege of doing business there. Screw that.

[Butterfingers]

Supply side is a managed economy, the government funnels the wealth at t the rich by cutting their taxes, even if it means carrying a huge debt. Why all we have to do is borrow from China, so the rich make money on the backs of slave labor in China and sell the goods to the working poor in America and China who gets a good cut from what is sold off of the shelves at Walmart loan our government money to subsidized the workers at Wal mart with heath care and food stamps.

The definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods, well, now many people have very little for discretionary spending while our shoes are flooded with inferior and dangerous goods from a communist nation,

I for one liked it better when the worker in America made what was sold in America and could earn a decent living doing so.

[Boysstuff]

The highest I have won was £186 but I don't win as often as I would like. Fingers crossed.

[Virge]

Supply side is a managed economy, the government funnels the wealth at t the rich by cutting their taxes, even if it means carrying a huge debt. Why all we have to do is borrow from China, so the rich make money on the backs of slave labor in China and sell the goods to the working poor in America and China who gets a good cut from what is sold off of the shelves at Walmart loan our government money to subsidized the workers at Wal mart with heath care and food stamps.

The definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods, well, now many people have very little for discretionary spending while our shoes are flooded with inferior and dangerous goods from a communist nation,

I for one liked it better when the worker in America made what was sold in America and could earn a decent living doing so.

You're wrong in the first paragraph. Supply side economics and a managed economy are not the same thing. They are opposite from each other.

Supply side economics supports lower regulations and lower overall taxes in order to encourage businesses to produce more for markets and more jobs. It encourages investment and entrepreneurialism both of which create jobs and strengthen the economy.

Managed (or planned) economies depend on some degree of socialism and impose government regulation on all aspects of the economy from investment to production to prices and even wages.

In some parts of the US that are oriented towards supply side economics it costs as little as $40 to get city, county and state business licenses combined. In other words, less government involvement in the economy.

in others it may cost as much as $1,100. In some states new businesses are required to buy individual city, county (for each city or county they do business in) and state licenses and some have non refundable "application fees" up to $400. Some have even higher rates for out of state companies. Also they impose other regulations which require additional permits and licenses. Some even require building, fire and plumbing inspections before any licenses are applied for at non refundable "fees" up to $700 each. It even has reached a point that some cities have begun imposing municipal income taxes on everyone working within their jurisdictions.

Which of these best promotes ground up growth of their economies? The regulations and fees of managed economies ALWAYS favor the larger established businesses with the capital to afford them while culling out smaller businesses that would compete with them.

Businesses in the US did not leave for nations like China because of supply side economics. They left because government managed economic policies and regulations as well as the highest corporate taxes in the history of the earth made it less profitable to remain here than move their operations to other nations.

If you want to bring businesses back to the US from China, etc. it will not be achieved until corporate taxes are drastically reduced and the cost of doing business inside the USA becomes less punitive due to regulations, taxes, fees, and licenses. If you want to blame anyone for the jobs that have left the USA, blame the right people... the ones who're telling you the solution to all economic problems is more of the same government oversight and taxes that caused it to begin with.

[Butterfingers]

I will not argue with one who believes this, think what you will.