"TheHondaBro" (wwaveform)
01/14/2016 at 11:24 • Filed to: None
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"TheHondaBro" (wwaveform)
01/14/2016 at 11:24 • Filed to: None | 2
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It’s come to my attention that calling it the “Idiot Tax” can come across as edgy, and I’m sorry if that offended anyone. I still don’t like the lottery and how it plays into our compulsive nature, but if any of you like it, that’s perfectly fine.
Have a Ford GT for compensation.
ttyymmnn
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:26 |
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The lottery is a tax on people who don’t understand math (statistics). That said, I bought some last night. Why not? It’s the compulsive lottery player who is a danger to themselves. That money might be better spent on food or rent.
d15b
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:27 |
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As long as you can admit that, I think it should be ok.
#BeExcellentToEachOther
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TheHondaBro
> d15b
01/14/2016 at 11:28 |
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Rainbow
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:30 |
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The funds go toward education, at least here in Georgia. I bought five tickets yesterday and didn’t win anything, but I don’t mind. A bit of that goes toward the lucky bastard who won, but it also goes toward funding preschools around the state.
Nonster
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:30 |
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I agree with you somewhat, but the Florida lottery funds the Bright Future Scholarship program which payed for the majority of my engineering degree so I only have minimal debt in student loans.
Kinda ironic now that I think about it. People buying a lotto ticket with an infinitesimal chance of winning some huge jackpot indirectly paid for my degree which led to a job with a decent salary....
wiffleballtony
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:33 |
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Chariotoflove
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:37 |
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You can look at the lottery as taking advantage of people who don’t understand the odds and actually think there is a reasonable expectation of winning. But if you look at it as entertainment that buys you a ticket to daydream for a thrill, kind of like buying a ride at the fair, it’s harmless fun. The problem is when segments of the population, who are both the least able to understand the probabilities and are concurrently the least educated and therefore have the least disposable income, spend money they can't afford hoping to make it big.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:40 |
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Have you read this? Kind of fun.
http://www.theonion.com/article/learne…
vondon302
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:43 |
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Heard on the radio about a guy who took a 3000 loan to buy tickets. If true idiot tax kinda sums it up for me.
Tripper
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:43 |
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I don’t think that your post warranted an apology. Is Oppo now part of the be offended by everything movement?
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TheHondaBro
> Tripper
01/14/2016 at 11:46 |
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There was some saltiness in the comments.
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TheHondaBro
> vondon302
01/14/2016 at 11:47 |
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Holy shit.
WiscoProud
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:50 |
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For me the difference is the person who throws $10 down when the jackpot is huge and the person who drops $100 every week regardless. My coworker knows a guy who put $1,000 down on tickets for last night. That's an idiot tax.
Steve in Manhattan
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:56 |
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Eh, I’ve said the same sort of thing, but I bought a few. No worries.
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Tripper
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 11:58 |
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I read through, I saw a couple of butthurt comments from people equating “Idiot Tax” to “The hondabro is calling me an idiot because I bought a lottery ticket”. That’s not your fault.
I’m all for “Be Excellent To Each Other”, but I can’t advocate for an apology post every time someone doesn’t like someone else’s opinion. There have been a lot of those lately.
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ttyymmnn
> Nonster
01/14/2016 at 11:59 |
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They sold the lottery to us here in Texas as the savior of public education. Our schools are in the toilet, at least the ones that aren’t in rich districts, and we’re all left scratching our heads and wondering where all the damned money went.
http://www.texaspolicy.com/blog/detail/tr…
coelacanthist
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 12:03 |
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Taxes levied on cigarettes are the true idiot tax.
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TheHondaBro
> Tripper
01/14/2016 at 12:04 |
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This is the PC generation after all...
A little apology doesn’t hurt.
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TheHondaBro
> coelacanthist
01/14/2016 at 12:08 |
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Yes.
With-a-G is back to not having anything written after his username
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 12:09 |
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No need to apologize. I have a graduate degree in physics and I completely agree that it is a tax on people who are bad at math, or even an “idiot tax,” and yet I buy the occasional ticket and join the office pools. I’m spending a cup of coffee’s worth for a few hours of inspired fun. There’s no contradiction there.
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Tripper
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 12:10 |
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Yea being PC is going to be the downfall of the human race.
I agree, and I was not meaning to knock you for apologizing. I was half expecting you to say that you were “asked” to apologize. However these “oppologies” are also validating the butthurt folks. Before you know it people will be banned for wisecracks about BMW drivers.
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TheHondaBro
> Tripper
01/14/2016 at 12:18 |
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Very valid point. I hate being PC, I just want to be human, damnit.
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Nonster
> ttyymmnn
01/14/2016 at 12:23 |
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well that sucks. At least from that article it sounds like at least some of it is going to education, but not as much as it should. But thats an area that a lot of the entire country needs help with.
You got me curious so I looked up what percentage of the Florida lottery goes to education and found this
Last fiscal year, the Florida Lottery rung up $3.9 billion in sales. Nearly 60 percent went to the prize pools, 7 percent to vendor fees and commissions, and just below 2 percent to administrative costs, including advertising. That left almost 32 percent — $1.24 billion — for education.
I’m curious how this stacks up to all the other states
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ttyymmnn
> Nonster
01/14/2016 at 12:30 |
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Florida’s education budget is over $20 billion. So the lottery is a spit in the ocean. You might find this interesting.
http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse…
gin-san - shitpost specialist
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 12:39 |
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If you go into a lottery thinking you’re going to win, you are an idiot.
If you buy a couple of tickets knowing that it's pretty much assured you're not going to win and understand this fact, I don't see the problem.
Textured Soy Protein
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 12:48 |
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If you want to criticize lotteries, refer to them as a regressive tax on the poor, because that’s what they are. That’s not to say only poor people buy lottery tickets, they do buy an overwhelmingly large portion of lottery tickets.
WillyJimmy
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 12:51 |
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Idiot Tax will do just fine.
Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 12:51 |
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Well lottery tickets ARE a tax on ignorance. You probably have a better chance of getting hit by lightening in your lifetime than winning the powerball.
So I can’t say you’re wrong in saying it’s an idiot tax.
Sometimes the truth hurts.
Having said that, sometimes I’ve played Lotto 649 with my kids just to see which of us will get the most numbers picked.
But I just view it as some fun entertainment. I don’t expect to win... though it is fun to fantasize about winning.
So from that perspective, you could also say lottery tickets are a ‘Fantasy Tax’... the fantasy of getting rich quick.
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Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 12:53 |
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Let me go check for those comments... so I can tell them “truth hurts... suck it up buttercup”
LOL
Chasaboo
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 13:21 |
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We call it the Red Neck Tax here at work.
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JDIGGS
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 13:28 |
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The math doesn’t add up from the latest Powerball drawing. And that has one Texas-based lottery watchdog calling the jackpot a scam. And even if there’s no con, recent changes have made it even harder to win the $1.5 billion grand prize .
In October, officials altered the number of white balls and red Powerballs used in the drawing. The change had a significant effect on the lottery – reducing the odds of winning from an already measly 1 in 175,223,510 to an even tinier 1 in 292,201,338.
By making that change, they’ve created a phenomenon where the jackpot and the publicity around it keeps growing.
ADVERTISING
RELATED: Powerball jackpot memes take over the Internet
The money diverted to the top prize also dropped from 68 percent to 64 percent. On the plus side, the changes do make it easier to collect on smaller winnings. For example, winning $4 got a little easier with odds improving from 1 in 111 to 1 in 92. In addition, 25 people scored $1 million by matching five numbers in the last drawing.
But the Texas-based watchdog Lotto Report feels there’s something even fishier going on with the current Powerball drawing. Vendors sold more than 440 million tickets for last Saturday’s drawing for $949.8 million, the organization says, and yet nobody won. That defies even the Powerball’s astronomical odds. Here’s watchdog founder Dawn Nettles explaining why to the New York Daily News :
For Lotto Report founder Dawn Nettles, the sales volume suggests that a winning ticket should have emerged Saturday, as 292 million combinations of numbers can be created using the five white balls and red Powerball.
Most players, instead of choosing their own numbers, buy “Quick Pick” tickets that feature randomly generated numbers.
Those tickets are often duplicated, meaning lottery players are receiving the same losing numbers as players in other states, Nettles said.
“This is a scam,” Nettles said. “With the odds being what they are, it’s a scam.”
Lottery officials did acknowledge that “Quick Pick” numbers could produce duplicate numbers, even though they deny it’s intentional.
READ MORE: Things with better odds than winning the Powerball lottery
Even so, there’s one other scandal that should give you pause before testing your luck. The security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association is under investigation for jackpot-fixing. Eddie Tipton was found guilty last summer of fraud “for working with associates to claim a fixed $16.5 million jackpot,” the Daily News wrote. New evidence suggests that Tipton, who will go to trial again this month, was working to fix jackpots in several states.
haveacarortwoorthree2
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 14:24 |
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I didn’t think the “idiot tax” comment was edgy or out of line. Calling everyone that spent $2 on a ticket “fools” and saying “get the fuck off my lawn” seemed a bit much, though.
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TheHondaBro
> haveacarortwoorthree2
01/14/2016 at 14:25 |
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I was just joking with that comment.
nermal
> ttyymmnn
01/14/2016 at 14:50 |
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Yep, just like gambling, you need to look at lottery as entertainment. I was in it for $20 total, $5 each for a work and a friends group buy, and $10 for myself.
I feel as though I got $20 worth of entertainment from the entire process, so I’m good.
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nermal
> Tripper
01/14/2016 at 14:51 |
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“Be excellent to each other” != “Be a weenie”
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ttyymmnn
> nermal
01/14/2016 at 14:59 |
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Exactly. Did you pick your numbers, or let the computer do it?
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nermal
> ttyymmnn
01/14/2016 at 15:00 |
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Let the computer do it.
Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop
> TheHondaBro
01/14/2016 at 15:06 |
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No, apologize for apologizing!!!!!
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TheHondaBro
> Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop
01/14/2016 at 16:16 |
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I’M GONNA CRY.
pip bip - choose Corrour
> TheHondaBro
01/15/2016 at 06:45 |
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really it IS an idiot tax , which i pay quite often.