Eliminate the Idiot Tax for the Sake of the Idiots
by Michael D. McCumber
There is even a tax on being stupid in society today! It is better known as the state lottery.
You will never hear liberals talk of eliminating state run lotteries, contrary to their "unequivocal" compassion for the lower classes. The reasons are simple, lotteries generate a lot of money earmarked for social spending by government, and they help to keep the lower class in the lower class. The lower class is undeniably very loyal with their vote for one political party (guess which one), so it is to the liberals benefit to have more poor in need.
Those who participate in the lottery daily are, more often than not, low or lower middle class individuals. For these people the lottery can be an unyielding addiction, and one that costs a lot compared to their incomes. The fear of their "picked numbers", and note the plurality, hitting on a day when they didn't buy their tickets is completely too much to risk for them. The "Idiot Tax" payers, or lottery players, have all heard spinned yarns about the day when someone didn't play their number and it hit, which caused them to miss out on a lifetime of fortunes. Hence they rarely miss a day, rain snow sleet or sunshine, in sickness and in health, they are more loyal to their cause than the postman. To make matters worse, there is more than one lottery product available for daily consumption. In Pennsylvania, we have no less than four lottery products, which run daily, with additional special programs throughout the year. All conveniently purchased at nearly every gas station, convenience, and grocery store across the state. Best yet, for those charmed enough to live convenient to another state, they can, and do, play the game in both states.
The lottery for them is a chance to break free of the constraints of barely having enough money to get by. It's the only way they can propel themselves to be wealthy, or so they believe.
From the people I know that play the lottery, they buy no less than five dollars of tickets each day! There are 365 drawings a year folks! Lets just take 350 times 5 and get a nice large number of $1,750. Naturally, this is the amount they average paying the idiot tax each year. Now one woman I talked to is now in her upper thirties and she has been very loyal, daily, to the lottery since before she was twenty. So lets take that times 15, I always seem to take a conservative approach to everything, and we get a gorgeous sum of $26,250. This is without any compounded interest. So let us plug in a formula and account for a conservative 4.5% per year and see what we get. After 15 years of NOT paying the idiot tax, a person would have a healthy savings account of $47,565.88 at 4.5% per year. And if you are curious? I have a chart below of how much money would have been saved after 25 and 30 years. This is needed because I know an elderly gentleman who has been addicted to it since it probably began, and he bests the system by playing it in two states, not one!
The "Idiot Tax", or "Gullible Tax" for those wishing me to be more politically correct, can be devastating not only to the tax payer, but for those who depend upon them for a living. Though you can't buy lottery tickets with a credit card, you can buy everything else with it. So the go around is to pay in cash for lottery tickets, and put the food and other necessities on the charge card. This furthers the pain of the lottery on these misguided individuals further when you compound the interest they may pay on debts incurred by this. At times the debts get so high that the individual cannot meet a necessary payment such as an auto loan, rent, mortgage, or utility bill. But please have no fear "older Pennsylvanians"! Amazingly you will still see these same individuals buying their tickets even in the mists of getting bill collectors threatening action! I even heard one lady say that it only increases her need for the "big hit" and hence she buys more. When I asked how she has the money for this and not her bills, she stresses – it's only little money and the bills are big money. Blessed art thou the Lord, that I have a grandfather who taught me that money was money, little or a lot!
Though any financial adviser would tell you that in a financial crisis you should always pay your mortgage, auto loan, and utility bills before your credit card payment, they do quite the opposite. They see the Credit Card as their money spigot; if it's closed they are closed. Hence they will risk losing their house, car, over their credit cards. This ensures they will have funds ultimately for the lottery.
Sadly still, the "Idiot Tax" mostly affects people who simply cannot afford it. To them, there is little recreation involved with it. Sure, even some upper class individuals may purchase a ticket every now and then, but they rarely develop the passion for it like the lower class people do. They understand, or have experienced, that saving money and compounding interest or capital gains on it is a sure way to get riches, not betting daily sums of cash on a dream that rarely materializes.
Further, hitting the lottery is not the best thing that can happen to these people. I have a friend of a friend who hit the lottery and received 10,000 dollars - after six very loyal years of playing the lottery I might add. After Uncle Sam took his share, he planned on paying his bills, which I assume, are credit card debts, but instead paid down on a new car, which under normal circumstances he couldn't afford. One year after hitting the 10,000 dollar lotto he now has a car payment he can't afford, his car insurance is much higher, and his credit card debts are growing unabated. He is worse off now then if he would have never hit the 10,000 lotto! Give an "Idiot Tax" payer 10,000 dollars and see how he can be made poorer I guess! If he ever lost his job folks, which can happen eventually, he would declare bankruptcy and that would cost all of us money one way or another. .
Sheba...
by Michael D. McCumber
There is even a tax on being stupid in society today! It is better known as the state lottery.
You will never hear liberals talk of eliminating state run lotteries, contrary to their "unequivocal" compassion for the lower classes. The reasons are simple, lotteries generate a lot of money earmarked for social spending by government, and they help to keep the lower class in the lower class. The lower class is undeniably very loyal with their vote for one political party (guess which one), so it is to the liberals benefit to have more poor in need.
Those who participate in the lottery daily are, more often than not, low or lower middle class individuals. For these people the lottery can be an unyielding addiction, and one that costs a lot compared to their incomes. The fear of their "picked numbers", and note the plurality, hitting on a day when they didn't buy their tickets is completely too much to risk for them. The "Idiot Tax" payers, or lottery players, have all heard spinned yarns about the day when someone didn't play their number and it hit, which caused them to miss out on a lifetime of fortunes. Hence they rarely miss a day, rain snow sleet or sunshine, in sickness and in health, they are more loyal to their cause than the postman. To make matters worse, there is more than one lottery product available for daily consumption. In Pennsylvania, we have no less than four lottery products, which run daily, with additional special programs throughout the year. All conveniently purchased at nearly every gas station, convenience, and grocery store across the state. Best yet, for those charmed enough to live convenient to another state, they can, and do, play the game in both states.
The lottery for them is a chance to break free of the constraints of barely having enough money to get by. It's the only way they can propel themselves to be wealthy, or so they believe.
From the people I know that play the lottery, they buy no less than five dollars of tickets each day! There are 365 drawings a year folks! Lets just take 350 times 5 and get a nice large number of $1,750. Naturally, this is the amount they average paying the idiot tax each year. Now one woman I talked to is now in her upper thirties and she has been very loyal, daily, to the lottery since before she was twenty. So lets take that times 15, I always seem to take a conservative approach to everything, and we get a gorgeous sum of $26,250. This is without any compounded interest. So let us plug in a formula and account for a conservative 4.5% per year and see what we get. After 15 years of NOT paying the idiot tax, a person would have a healthy savings account of $47,565.88 at 4.5% per year. And if you are curious? I have a chart below of how much money would have been saved after 25 and 30 years. This is needed because I know an elderly gentleman who has been addicted to it since it probably began, and he bests the system by playing it in two states, not one!
The "Idiot Tax", or "Gullible Tax" for those wishing me to be more politically correct, can be devastating not only to the tax payer, but for those who depend upon them for a living. Though you can't buy lottery tickets with a credit card, you can buy everything else with it. So the go around is to pay in cash for lottery tickets, and put the food and other necessities on the charge card. This furthers the pain of the lottery on these misguided individuals further when you compound the interest they may pay on debts incurred by this. At times the debts get so high that the individual cannot meet a necessary payment such as an auto loan, rent, mortgage, or utility bill. But please have no fear "older Pennsylvanians"! Amazingly you will still see these same individuals buying their tickets even in the mists of getting bill collectors threatening action! I even heard one lady say that it only increases her need for the "big hit" and hence she buys more. When I asked how she has the money for this and not her bills, she stresses – it's only little money and the bills are big money. Blessed art thou the Lord, that I have a grandfather who taught me that money was money, little or a lot!
Though any financial adviser would tell you that in a financial crisis you should always pay your mortgage, auto loan, and utility bills before your credit card payment, they do quite the opposite. They see the Credit Card as their money spigot; if it's closed they are closed. Hence they will risk losing their house, car, over their credit cards. This ensures they will have funds ultimately for the lottery.
Sadly still, the "Idiot Tax" mostly affects people who simply cannot afford it. To them, there is little recreation involved with it. Sure, even some upper class individuals may purchase a ticket every now and then, but they rarely develop the passion for it like the lower class people do. They understand, or have experienced, that saving money and compounding interest or capital gains on it is a sure way to get riches, not betting daily sums of cash on a dream that rarely materializes.
Further, hitting the lottery is not the best thing that can happen to these people. I have a friend of a friend who hit the lottery and received 10,000 dollars - after six very loyal years of playing the lottery I might add. After Uncle Sam took his share, he planned on paying his bills, which I assume, are credit card debts, but instead paid down on a new car, which under normal circumstances he couldn't afford. One year after hitting the 10,000 dollar lotto he now has a car payment he can't afford, his car insurance is much higher, and his credit card debts are growing unabated. He is worse off now then if he would have never hit the 10,000 lotto! Give an "Idiot Tax" payer 10,000 dollars and see how he can be made poorer I guess! If he ever lost his job folks, which can happen eventually, he would declare bankruptcy and that would cost all of us money one way or another. .
Sheba...
