What is the role of government in encouraging the lottery

[Plane]

A lottery ticket is your best shot at riches

A: False. Sadly, this isn't the no-brainer that it should be.

In a 1999 survey by the Consumer Federation of America and financial services firm Primerica, 40% of Americans with incomes between $25,000 and $35,000 -- and nearly one-half of respondents with an income of $15,000 to $25,000 -- thought winning the lottery would give them their retirement nest egg. Overall, 27% of respondents said that their best chance to gain $500,000 in their lifetime is via a sweepstakes or lottery win, the survey said.

Consider this: If you take that $150 a year and put it into a 401(k) or IRA at age 30, you'll have $28,000 by age 65, assuming a reasonable 8% rate of return, says Jim Holtzman, an accountant and certified financial planner with Legend Financial Advisors, in Pittsburgh. That figure doesn't even consider the added boost of contributing to a plan in which a company matches contributions.

To save that $500,000 nest egg, you'd have to tuck away a little less than $100 a month starting at age 21. What's more likely: that you can find an extra $100 a month -- or that the 1-in-several-million odds of even the smallest seven-figure jackpot suddenly tilt in your favor?

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/RetireEarly/WhyPoorPeopleWinTheLottery.aspx

[Xavier_Onassis]

Consider this: If you take that $150 a year and put it into a 401(k) or IRA at age 30, you'll have $28,000 by age 65, assuming a reasonable 8% rate of return, says Jim Holtzman, an accountant and certified financial planner with Legend Financial Advisors, in Pittsburgh. That figure doesn't even consider the added boost of contributing to a plan in which a company matches contributions.
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150 per month for 35 years at 8% gets you $28,000 by age 65?

Someone copied the figures wrong, didn't they?

[Amianthus]

150 per month for 35 years at 8% gets you $28,000 by age 65?

Someone copied the figures wrong, didn't they?

$150 per YEAR, not per month.

[_JS]

In my personal view the Government should have no role in lotteries. Marketing for lotteries is encouraging citizens to throw away their money. Also, marketing techniques tend to target those who are most likely to play or those groups whom are seen to be the best chance to expand the product line. In the case of lotteries that is often the working class and ethnic minorities. What business does government have in promoting what is essentially a heavily regressive tax?

I voted against Tennessee's constitutional change to allow the lottery and I'd do so again (but unfortunately it won).

[Xavier_Onassis]

Basically, gambling sucks as any sort of income supplement. The best way would be to gamble with a group of non-professional friends, since this would not involve paying half to the government as in a lottery, or a huge vigorish to some casino. But of course, the winnings would not be that great unless your group of friends was really, really wealthy.

The games that Florida has for the lottery appear to be aimed at an eighth grade level, with comic book rocket ships and toon animals.

Essentially, the lottery is a tax on people who do not understand math.

[Plane]

Basically, gambling sucks as any sort of income supplement. The best way would be to gamble with a group of non-professional friends, since this would not involve paying half to the government as in a lottery, or a huge vigorish to some casino. But of course, the winnings would not be that great unless your group of friends was really, really wealthy.

The games that Florida has for the lottery appear to be aimed at an eighth grade level, with comic book rocket ships and toon animals.

Essentially, the lottery is a tax on people who do not understand math.

Does the government work itself out of income if they teach better math?

[kimba1]

actually 150/month is quite doable to alot of people
no matter the interest rate
you still get a nice bit of money for retirement
I think the key idea we should follow is save your money.
we aint saving enough
somebody told me their is a scene in sex in the city
a lady who owns 400 pairs of $400 shoe
and it finally dawned on her she could of gotten a down payment for a house.
160k for shoes is abit steep

[yellow_crane]

actually 150/month is quite doable to alot of people
no matter the interest rate
you still get a nice bit of money for retirement
I think the key idea we should follow is save your money.
we aint saving enough
somebody told me their is a scene in sex in the city
a lady who owns 400 pairs of $400 shoe
and it finally dawned on her she could of gotten a down payment for a house.
160k for shoes is abit steep

At this time in our culture, when Anna Nicole massively trumps a story about an errant member of seemingly the only heroes we have left--astronauts--your noting the narcississtic over-indulgence of a completely unbalanced economic system merely makes comment on a sign of the times.

How do you think the reactionary forces of our sick, elitist-based economic system will initiate their voice?

Who will begin the war in America to actively define and give voice to the class structure that the now pathological capitalistic practices have brought about?

Do you think that the Middle Class in America has any chance of re-manifestation without organized labor, since it was only organized labor that instituted it in the first place?

Or are you on your way to 7-ll to purchase a lottery ticket?

[kimba1]

wellll
i did buy two tickets yesterday
106mil for the mega
nobody won
today it 136
i`ll wait next week

[Plane]

wellll
i did buy two tickets yesterday
106mil for the mega
nobody won
today it 136
i`ll wait next week

Don't forget your frends who knew you before you hit it big.

[kimba1]

If i hit it big
I`ll abuse it thee worst way possible
I`ll not spend a single penny of it and ONLY live partially on the interest.
for some reason people hate it when the rich don`t spend money like a rapper.