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Well, I finally picked up a job, though not a teaching job. Nope, I'm now manning the register at the fuel desk of a truck stop. Not the most glorious or interesting of jobs, but it brings money in while I continue to look for a teaching job.
Anyway, one thing that has struck me in the past few weeks is how many people are hooked, yes, hooked on playing lottery "games". Scratch-offs and lotteries, hundreds of people daily come in and drop big bucks on these "games".
The sad thing is, most of them are poor. I have one old man, I'll call him Bill, toothless, patched clothing, who comes in every evening and pumps at least ten dollars into our Scratch-off machine. Ten dollars a day, seventy dollars a week he wastes on these things. Another woman, "Gladys", is another daily visitor. In her late fifties, early sixties, she is a working woman, though judging from appearances her job doesn't pay that much. Yet she faithfully drops down twenty-thirty dollars on the lottery and/or scratch offs. And don't get me started on how much the truckers and farm haulers drop down on these things.
I know why these people put down this kind of money down, playing odds that abysmally long, they need some hope in their life, lives that are otherwise cruel, mean and painful. Playing that scratcher ticket, holding onto that lottery ticket, it allows them to dream of that one big day, that day when their big payoff comes in and they can get out from under the grind of a job, the weight of poverty. That's what lotteries and scratchers sell, hope and dreams.
Of course the truth is that these people are simply wasting their money, lots of money. Enough money that money from scratch offs and lottery, along with gambling revenue, is now what funds education in my state, as it does in many other states. In fact that's how they wooed the public to vote to allow lotteries and scratcher games, "Hey, it's extra money for education!"
The trouble is, it isn't "extra" money, it is replacement money. The money brought in by the scratcher and lottery and gambling revenue isn't piled on top of the education budget drawn out of general revenue, nope, it replaces the money drawn out of general revenue. Education doesn't get extra money coming in from lottery and scratchers, it gets virtually all its money from lottery, scratchers and gambling, at least at the state level. And of course, when these revenues go down, as they did a year ago, then state money for education drops as well.
As a teacher, this puts me in a bit of a quandry. I find these lottery and scratcher games to be despicable. They prey upon the hopes and dreams of the poorest among us, and wring out millions of dollars from those least able to afford it. I've never voted for the adaptation of these games, and personally I think that they should be abolished.
Yet a significant part of my profession, from the buildings built with this money, down to covering part of my salary, is derived from money taken from the pockets of the poor. I find this to be unacceptable, but it has gotten to the point now that the revenue derived from these games is necessary to keep education in this state going.
So, what say you? Are you OK with this taxation upon those who are poor and hopeless? If so, if we did get rid of these games, how do you replace the revenue? Personally, I would like to see it all abolished, and hike the taxes on corporations and the wealthy in order to make up the difference. However if that were to take place in my state, the corporations would take their jobs and move over the state line, as would the wealthy. So perhaps this would need to be a nationwide repeal:shrug:
What's your thoughts?
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