Households earning less than $13,000 a year

Spend an average of 9% of their income on lottery tickets.

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/powerball_has_its_dark_side/



• Standard Ghetto lunch: Soda, bag of potato chips and a lottery ticket. Been that way since they put in the f'ing lottery. Guess before it was numbers, but that's no apology for it.

  Use%20of%20apology%20non-standard%20here

• It is hard to understand that a lottery ticket holding the promise of an instantly attainable large lump sum might appeal to a poor person, isn't it? You are a douche OP. R1 the same.

• Treu, R2, but 9% of earnings is very stupid.

• I'm not saying it's a wise use of money (it's clearly not), but a huge lump sum of money would make a big difference in these peoples' lives, whereas saving an extra $1000 a year by not buying any tickets... won't. Someone with $11,000 to spend isn't really any better off than someone who only has $10,000 because they spent 10% of their income on lottery tickets, but someone who wins the lottery will be much, much better off than the person with $11,000. Of course it would be better to spend the money on something else, but you can't stop people from hoping. If you're making less than $13,000 a year, that might be all you have.

• Well, they clog up the fucking lines in every fucking gas station dithering about what game to play or how much they "won" on their last ticket. I HATE fucking lottery idiots. If you don't know what the fuck you're doing or what fucking "game" you want, don't get the fuck in line!! Stupid fuckers.

• The lottery people annoy me also, and my own Mother is one of them. Obsessed with it. I think to each their own and whatever makes you happy, but god damn it is annoying waiting behind someone doing their lottery crap.

• The economists at my university describe the lottery as a tax on the stupid.

• That's bullshit but even if they do, it's probably because it's the only hope they have in life.

• Two of the poorer neighborhoods in my area provide free shuttle buses to gambling boats. These bus operators also serve senior apartments. A gambling friend said you're better off gambling with stocks or pro ball teams.

• Lottery is a tax on the poor. They don't pay taxes anyway, but use all the public services, and since lottery money often goes to public schools and such, let them play.

• I am very poor. I have been looking for work since 2011, and managed to find a part time, seasonal job that I love, but unfortunately, I live well below the poverty line. I never buy lottery tickets, except maybe twice a year when the powerball gets so high or something. I don't waste a dime on anything I can't wear, eat, heat my home with, or put in my gas tank. I don't suffer in the slightest.

• [quote] I never buy lottery tickets, except maybe twice a year when the powerball gets so high or something. So you never buy lottery tickets except when you buy them?

• Oh shut up R12. I am sick to death of the "poor baiting" and judging every single thing people who are poor do. Being poor is a situation, and doesn't make people less worthy of respect, nor does it give the "havers' any moral authority.

• [quote]I am sick to death of the "poor baiting" and judging every single thing people who are poor do. Uh, R12 didn't say anything about the poor. He pointed out an illogical statement. Are you the same idiot who made the stupid statement? Is that why you are so hostile?

• r13 Correct providing they don't mooch off the people that work for a living. If you're taking government aid then you take the good with the bad.

• Actually poor people pay taxes all the time. Sales taxes, on everything we buy. Our gas, our phones, our clothing. We pay property taxes. Rich people don't pay taxes, because the government has given them lots of loopholes. The middleclass ends up paying the income taxes and because of the greedy rich, our middle class gets smaller every year. So, let them keep funneling all of our money to the top and keep watching as we turn into just another third world country. Our legislature and courts are bought by the rich...this country does not have a chance. You think India is bad? Give us another 20 years of being controlled by the 20%...

• You're more likely to be hit by a meteor than to win the lottery. Why would anyone play those odds?

• [quote]You're more likely to be hit by a meteor than to win the lottery. Why would anyone play those odds? Why do so many union workers vote for antiunion politicians? Why do Log Cabin/GOProud exist? Why do working class dogs vote for job-killing, 1%-worshiping Republicans?

• Here in Oregon, they have billboards that say 'Lottery games should not be used for investment purposes.' Scroll down the link for an example.

  http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/stuff2/%3Fp%3D1602

  in%20Portland%20

• When I was at a convenience store once in Florida (*sigh* yeah, I know...) I was in line behind a young couple who were buying a friggin' ton of scratch off tickets. Ten of these, five of those, etc. It went on and on. They bought dozens of tickets. Me, standing in line behind them with my quart of milk, waiting for them to finish. They finally finished their sale and left and I asked the clerk, WTF is up with that?? (Personally, I only play lotto.) Anyhoo, the clerk said that they live nearby and come in all the time buying HUNDREDS of dollars of scratch off tickets and usually come back in cashing in hundreds of dollars of tickets. I have no idea if they come out ahead.

• Racist thread. F&F

• R21, your racist for thinking white people can't be poor.

• WW to R22.

• Its a free country.

• [quote] Actually poor people pay taxes all the time. Sales taxes, on everything we buy. Our gas, our phones, our clothing. We pay property taxes poor single people without any children pay taxes all the time. If you don't earn a lot but have a child you qualify for almost every type of government assistance and tax credits. My childless sister makes $10,000 a year. She barely survives. She got sick and was in the hospital for 6 days. All together it cost over $20,000. She does not qualify for medicaid. The maximum income level for a single childless person to qualify for medicaid is about $236 a month. The maximum level for a single person with one child is over $1,100 a month. My sister who has paid taxes for 30 yrs and has always lived within her means (she drives a 12 yr old car and doesn't have any credit card debt - if she can't afford something she doesn't buy it) is now going to have to declare bankruptcy

• R25, at her income level, she should qualify for charity care through the hospital. She shouldn't end up paying any of the hospital bill. If she does have to pay, it would be about 10% of the total, max. Every hospital does this. Now, the doctor's bills are a different matter, the assholes. With most of them, though, she can probably get away with paying them $5 a month. I've been doing that for almost five years and, as of now, I still have about 10 years to go. Ironically enough, it was the anesthesiologist, the radiologist and the ER doctor who wouldn't go along with the charity care agreement. I saw the ER doc for about three minutes and the other two I never saw even once. I hope the three of them are happy paying someone to process my $5 a month payment for the next ten years.

• r25 That ain't real tax, and they get back a million times more. Every time a poor person rides a bus they get a subsidized ride paid for by taxpayers. If you pay 10¢ tax on groceries and then ride the bus, you're likely getting a $2.00 ride and the tax payer is picking up $1.50 of it. So you're 10¢ you paid on your groceries, still leaves you mooching $1.40 from your bus ride.