State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities, investigation finds • Hacker News Board

Re: State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities, investigation finds

#201

Post by cercatrova » Wed, Jul 13, 2022, 3:14 AM UTC

landemva wrote: post #118

cercatrova wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Socialism is when workers control the means of production. That's not really the case in this example. Top down also doesn't mean government control. Corporations are driven top down, from a CEO down to the subordinates at each layer. Given a defining goal, they can be very efficient. If each subordinate was supposed to figure out what to do, it's not very efficient or effective.

Does this fit better with present discussion: Top down government control of individual's food choices.

Sounds good to me, as long as it creates positive effects. There is nothing wrong with banning sugar laden foods if we know they will cause obesity, for example.

Re: State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities, investigation finds

#202

Post by soulofmischief » Wed, Jul 13, 2022, 10:32 AM UTC

dillondoyle wrote: post #179

soulofmischief wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then maybe you don't follow under the demographic of "needy" My mother also spends $2 on them. Sometimes a couple times a day. She also compulsively gambles and has endangered my life before trying to satiate the urge. I also grew up absolutely dirt poor, she was homeless half the time, but two unwavering constants in her life have been cigarettes and gambling, and they are far from unrelated when speaking of industr…

Sorry that sucks. I'm intimately aware of addiction and how it can sadly smash families and people from all backgrounds and economic situations, so I'm empathetic to that problem. And I'm for sure not disadvantaged myself. I didn't know where to comment a reply this seemed most relevant. I guess what I'm trying to get at is a lot of the threads here, to me, read as elitist & missing the full picture. E.g. for instanc…

I will agree that I cannot understand people who do not at least themselves understand the entertainment value from gambling.

I enjoy gambling, I play poker and blackjack. You can consistently be the best player at the table in poker, but blackjack is an obvious scam.

I never show up expecting to win, I don't derive entertainment from imagining I won, I derive entertainment from the competitive experience of the game itself, elevated by stakes.

I also healthily limit myself to gambling only once in a very blue moon. But that's because my motivations are different, and not driven by desperation.

We aren't the ones who need protecting. It's the desperate who are not in a position to make rational decisions and self-regulate.

Re: State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities, investigation finds

#203

Post by TimPC » Wed, Jul 13, 2022, 1:08 PM UTC

zozbot234 wrote: post #195

fsckboy wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if the marginal utility of wealth declines for an individual, it declines for a population. you have to show that these things add, but it has been. in ye olden times there may have been strict class distinctions based on birth etc., but the notion of class you are using is hazy and undefined but basically is based on wealth, which does not slot neatly into categories but is continuous and differentiable and is a sta…

In theory, poverty traps can lead to increasing marginal utility of wealth, and make it quite rational to e.g. gamble on a lottery. However, the notion of a poverty trap is not very popular these days. The concept only ever had traction wrt. people in extreme poverty, and even for those it has now been shown that small increases in income are hugely beneficial. There's no need for what used to be called a "big push"…

Poverty traps are still very real and exist in most welfare systems. Small increases have to be targeted to not push someone over a clawback boundary in order to be beneficial. If you give someone $100 and they lose their subsidized housing as a result that’s still a poverty trap.

Re: State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities, investigation finds

#204

Post by s17n » Wed, Jul 13, 2022, 4:05 PM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #72

s17n wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to transfer anything, though - just get rid of the marketing, take a couple percent to cover administrative expenses, and spend the rest on payouts. If you need money for education, tax people in a fairer way.

> If you need money for education, tax people in a fairer way. I don't think anyone is compelled to gamble by the Georgia Department of Revenue. This is essentially Georgia saying, "We know we can't stop you from engaging in this vice, so we're at least going to make it beneficial to society in some way." Colorado and a number of other states are doing the same thing with cannabis revenue. I personally hate gambling,…

But you don't have to "harness it for good" - just give the money back to the gamblers instead (by distributing ~100% of revenue as prizes).

Re: State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities, investigation finds

#205

Post by kingkawn » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

Entinel wrote: post #15

kingkawn wrote: post #9

I remember when my friend’s neglectful abusive father won a million dollars in the lotto and my friend said, “there is no God.”

If it makes your friend feel better, lottery winners more often than not destroy their own lives.

Yeah in this case his son’s life