TW: I hate lotteries. They are a fools play. They are a backdoor tax primarily on folks who should spend money elsewhere. Yes I know folks are free and should be free to spend their money as they wish and there are worse uses but if this economy leads to less lottery spending that would be great as far as I am concerned.
From Economist:
"ECONOMISTS tend to deride state lotteries as a regressive tax. Poorer people generally spend more than the $[170] American annual average on lottery tickets. Participation in a lottery has a minuscule probability of paying off. Yet every one I know who buys lottery tickets claims they do not waste their money. They feel as though they purchase a fantasy...
I would expect that the lottery fantasy is an inferior good. The smaller your income the more you desire that winning fantasy. This would suggest that in these uncertain times lottery ticket sales would increase. But actually, sales of lottery tickets, and gambling generally, have slowed. It seems people are cutting back on lottery tickets along with other forms of discretionary spending...
Lower sales may also occur because the typical prize money has decreased. The jackpot is based on expected lottery revenues..About 30% of lottery revenues go toward funding state education, but declining lottery sales will probably not have a noticeable impact. Typically, lottery revenues make up less than 1% of state education budgets.
The regressive nature of the lottery means its decline in popularity may not be the worst thing to come out of the downturn. Perhaps this trend reflects the move toward a new era of sobriety and realistic risk calculations."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2009/01/cutting_back_on_the_fantasy.cfm#list-comments
No comments:
Post a Comment