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After much consideration I have come to the following conclusion: Dick Gephardt is the Devil.
OH and this:
STUPID PEOPLE LINING UP TO BUY LOTTERY TICKETS
Last week it was the Power Ball lottery fever. This week it�s the Big Game. Looks like the jackpot will be around $115 million for the next drawing.
OK, here�s the bottom line.
The dumber you are, the more likely it is you would play the lottery. Lotteries are a tax on the stupid.
I read in fool.com that some crowd from Duke University, led by Charles Colfelter, did a comprehensive study of lottery players. Here are some findings:
Households headed by someone who has less than a high school diploma in other words, an ignorant head of household, spend about $700 per year on lottery tickets.
Households headed by someone with a college degree spend about $178 a year on lottery tickets.
Households with less than $10,000 in annual income spend about $597 on lottery tickets.
Households with more than $100,000 in annual income spend about $289 a year on lottery tickets.
The wealthy keep getting wealthier because they keep doing the things that make them wealthy. Ditto for the poor.
From another study of lottery players--this one in Washington DC:
In 1997 $202 million was wagered on DC lottery tickets. Of that $202 million, $121 million in tickets were bought by 5 percent of the lottery players. That averages out to $4,368 per person or an average of $11 per day on lottery tickets for these heavy-hitters. The per capita income in Washington D.C. is $35,700. These folks are spending more than 12 percent of their income on lottery tickets.
Hey! I�m not complaining! Every dollar that the government takes in on a lottery ticket voluntarily purchased by a poor, unintelligent person (who probably doesn�t pay any income taxes) is one dollar less in income taxes that high-achievers will have to fork over due to government coercion.
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