We aren't willing to pay $2 extra in taxes for important things but will happily pay $2 for a chance to win a $1.9 billion lottery, amirite?

Nah you're paying $2 to surf mansions on Zillow thinking, "i could live there"

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Friend of mine said the price of the ticket is more so you can daydream for a few days of what you'd do with the winnings

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Hopium can make you feel good for days. :-)

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Dude thank tou for coining hopium im using this from now on.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Wait, I can do that infinitely for free! I'm starting to think this whole lottery thing might be a scam! /s

by Anonymous 1 year ago

The lottery is literally a tax on the stupid.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

- Said no lottery winner, ever.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeah, the one In 50m people who win it lol.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

If I could choose where my taxes went, I would happily pay more taxes. As it stands, it's probably going to war, and I'm not going to give more to such a thing

by Anonymous 1 year ago

No taxes on lottery winnings in Canada. I won 2 bucks last week in the 6/49. No tax, got the whole $2

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Warren Buffett ova here

by Anonymous 1 year ago

More like Galen Weston Jr

by Anonymous 1 year ago

In the US gambling winnings aren't taxed under a certain amount. I hope you're trolling bc I'm sure it's the same in Canada lmao but just in case anyone is that dense to believe it

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I 10000% agree with that. The ability for us to choose would speak loudly. Either for the greater good or for the worse. But I'll be happier to choose maybe every year to choose where it goes.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'd be happy if we could just allocate some small percentage of our taxes to a specific cause (even really high level categories such as "public transit" or "science research"). Keeps paying for most things with the remaining 95% of taxes but allows for some direct representation as well via the allocatable 5% or something

by Anonymous 1 year ago

This would be better. Would make you feel better about paying them without taking away too much from other important items.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

If only we had a system in place that let us choose people to represent our interests when it came to the spending of our taxes...

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It's also going to pay for that butthole cop who bullies everyone with his abuse of power and there's nothing you can do about it except yell "I pay your salary" to which he's probably think. "Yup and I'm loving it".

by Anonymous 1 year ago

America has spent more money on healthcare for the poor than the military every year you have been alive, so remember that when you get a job and start paying taxes.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Even if it prevents genocide and war crimes? I doubt a budget that was ran as a popularity contest would be very effective. Just elect people who have the same priorities as you; that's the best you can hope for.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

>Even if it prevents genocide and war crimes? But it doesn't do that.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It does, US weapons and support are helping immensely in Ukraine.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

You are able to decide, by voting.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Out tax dollars go to defense contractors. The wars are just their means to that end.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I would say it more so goes to war profiteering, which is even worse. Could be classified as general profiteering, but there's so much money that goes in that generally ends up benefitting contractors more than anyone else.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

No I won't. I don't gamble, even with the government. I pay my taxes, avoid lotteries and spend my extra money on drugs, like a normal human being.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

This guy gets it 😎

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Had me in the first half, not gonna lie :D

by Anonymous 1 year ago

finally a reasonable answer

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Taxes on items or paychecks: involuntary. $2 lottery ticket: voluntary.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Preach!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It's because we can't in any way guarantee that any of that $2 in taxes will be paid toward things we care about or find important. The money vanishes and we don't have any clue at all as to where it vanishes to. The $2 on a lottery ticket at least has a TINY chance of not JUST going into someone else's pocket without us knowing NOTHING about what happened to it.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Fairly sure you could look into that, if you wanted to.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Nah it's super opaque. Best you can find is how much money is spend in extremely broad brackets.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

We know exactly where those $2 are going. They're going to make some old rich guy more rich.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeah, could be going to help poor countries fight climate change or could be going to a two fingers up to Mexico wall that harms wildlife. So many opposing forces in play at the moment.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

No I'm actually instead paying $25 for application fees just to have my application denied immediately

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Well, lottery tickets are actually a form of government fundraising, and many states' largest chunk of funds comes from the state lottery. And it lets smart people not have to pay more taxes, lol.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

That's true, but at one point, they were billed to be an extra and not an instead of.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I just found out today that the UK lottery is tax free - because it is classified as gambling, not income.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Same in Canada

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Actually, the governments in Canada effectively run them and the government take is taken from the ticket sales pool, which is why winnings aren't taxed in Canada.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Are you saying that UK citizens aren't taxed on gambling winning? US citizens definitely are. However, you can deduct gambling losses to the extent of winnings.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Canada winnings aren't taxable either.... But are you saying that the $2/week lotto ticket is tax deductible?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

To the extent of winnings. If you haven't won anything then you can't deduct anything. If you've won $500, but spent $1,000 then you can only deduct $500.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It sure is!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Lotteries are a tax on people who are bad a math.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Maybe so, but I will gladly skip buying the burger meal in exchange for a slight chance to change my life. Win Win even if I dont win.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

And the powerball price money (after tax) will work out to around $600 million, for a 1 in 270 million chance of winning the lottery. So if you bought a ticket for this drawing, you actually made a 'smart' bet, as your expected winning is \~600/270 = 2.22 >2 dollars for the ticket.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yes and no, the idea is someone has to win, even at a trillion to one odds, someone still has to win and aside from people buying multiple tickets I have the same chance as the next guy buying the same amount of tickets. I get the chance is so miniscule it's the same as handing the cashier $2 for him to just give me a paper saying no. But $2 for a daydream is fun. This is also coming from someone that doesn't buy lotto tickets lol

by Anonymous 1 year ago

To be fair my whole life someone's been saying if we just pay two more dollars or a little bit more taxes something will change, and guess what it never does. Government is a problem not a solution.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'd have less of a problem paying $2 extra in taxes, if our government didn't do things like send over $10 million to Pakistan for gender studies.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I can give $2 to the government, throw $2 into a fireplace or buy a $2 lottery ticket. If I throw the money into a fire, I get a little bit of warmth. If I buy a lottery ticket, I get a little bit of time to fantasize about what I would do with the money if I win. If I give the money to the government, they burn it and I don't get any warmth.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

More like they buy ice cubes and place them on you making you wish you'd burned it for warmth even more than the lottery ticket.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

They use tax money to pay for road construction, maintenance of property in your area, infrastructure maintenance and upgrades, government-funded organizations, etc. People really don't understand the point of taxes

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Well, to be fair 2 dollars in taxes isn't going to go to the important things, it's going to fund maybe a fraction of one important thing because government spending is absolutely ridiculous.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Lottery tickets are a tax on people who don't understand probability.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I mean to be fair, when you buy a lottery ticket, the worst that happens is you just lose the $2, but when you pay $2 in taxes, the worst that happens is you still don't get what you paid for and that money goes toward either a dumbass useless statue or a missile that kills a bunch of people you've never met.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

What makes even less sense is using spending an hour using grocery delivery and paying $20 in fees cause you don't have time or gas to go to the store. (Yes I know some people actually need to use this service. Me included at times.)

by Anonymous 1 year ago

The proceeds from the lottery in my state go toward education.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Which state?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Who is this we? And what are these important things youre trying to take from my less then livable income to fund?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

People will also pig out on junk food and sugary drinks and not drop a single can of corn when the food drive comes around. It's nice (even good) to be generous but it's not evil to take care of yourself and your happiness.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

If I don't pay my taxes, I get fined and thrown in prison. If I don't buy a lottery ticket, I still have $2. If i do buy a ticket, I have a small chance of winning a billion dollars. If I do pay my taxes, I have a large chance of funding government policies that specifically harm other people or myself and I can't even track which way my money went.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

TBH I don't blame most American's for not wanting to pay taxes. When your government doesn't do anything for you with that money like providing universal healthcare or descent infrastructure to provide you with clean drinking water.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

If American taxes did anything then yeah we would be, if the rich had to pay a reasonable amount of taxes then yes we would

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Giving money to the lottery has a better chance of helping you than giving it to the government…and less of a chance of it being used to blow people up.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

$2 for a week of hope and fanciful imaginings. In these dark days, maybe it's money well spent for some people.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

We don't know where our taxes go. We know exactly where our $2 for the lottery goes... In the gutter. But at least we know.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I've never bought a lottery ticket in my life because I'm not a complete sucker. Imagine if we took that 1.9B and invested it into improving our society.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Give it to me

by Anonymous 1 year ago

And lottery proceeds are FAR less transparent than tax proceeds, so everybody wins!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

What if the IRS entered you into a lottery when you filed your taxes. So for every dollar you pay in taxes you get so many entries into a lottery where you win Millions. They could do all sorts of prizes. Make tax paying like the lottery. Your winnings would be tax free of course.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I happily pay my taxes. I would be even more willing to do so if it had the chance to make me a billionaire. Hell in my country people pay $20-$30 for a chance at a million.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I have more chances on winning the lotto than I do paying taxes towards something I support

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Because one of those $2 actually gives you a tiny tangible piece of hope that you could be a fat cat some day, instead of $2 getting misused/wasted/lining another fat cats wallet

by Anonymous 1 year ago

If I could choose for my taxes to go to the lottery, if it meant increasing my odds of winning and entering me into it, I would do that.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

of which we will pay at least 75% of in taxes. but we'd rather spend money on our own will rather than it being stolen from us.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Because the lottery benefits ONLY me. I sure wouldn't like to pay for anything thar benefits my AND others!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'd rather burn a pile of money than give it to the government

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I don't know how to play the lottery. And yet somehow I feel like my odds of winning it are exactly the same whether I play or not.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Ya, because taxes are like "give me your 2 dollars and in return you will get -39 cents of value returned to you through our national debt and ridiculous overspending"

by Anonymous 1 year ago

If I had a choice in where my tax went then I'd care but I'm in Australia funding an army that has only ever had go fight for other people

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Difference is that I have more of a chance of winning the lottery than of my tax money going where I want it to go.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

then they should give out free lottery tickets every time you pay taxes for important things. win win

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Not sure anywhere has a 1.9 ‘BILLION' dollar lottery… M maybe not B

by Anonymous 1 year ago

You're wrong.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

That's assuming everyone wastes their money on a snowball's chance in hell of winning.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Lotteries are extra taxes for people who dont understand or ignore basic math.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

As someone who pays roughly 37-39% where I live, this is a lie. I'm happy that I pay a lot of taxes so that people who don't have much can get free education, healthcare and help. This sounds more like US defaultism.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Bruh if ure american a lot of your taxes go straight into weapons and war

by Anonymous 1 year ago

You are welcome.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

"You're not rich, why do you care?" "Because one day I might be, then people like me had better watch out!"

by Anonymous 1 year ago

So what you're saying is that we're not willing to pay $2 extra in taxes but will happily pay $2 in taxes

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Im sorry but does my pasta give me a chance of becoming rich ? No ? Shutup

by Anonymous 1 year ago

The lottery would take care of our needs. The problem.is most people don't feel taxes are used to fulfill their basic needs, like safe roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. If you don't spend what I gave you on what I need, why would I give you more?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Very important we get more money to kill more people, duh who dosent just love pouring monet into to military complex.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

If for every $2 I pay in taxes there was a chance (even infinitesimal) that I could win $1.9b, I might complain less (might)!😜

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I think it's because you're more likely to get something from the lottery than paying taxes lol

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Few people really wanna change the system. Most people just want a higher place within it

by Anonymous 1 year ago

The lottery ticket is a one time event that I have an option to pay or not. The small tax will have to be paid over and over again, and I have no choice in paying it, even if I disagree with it. Undoubtedly it will grow by small increments into a larger amount.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

and now you have a grasp of the problem-it really isn't about the politicians it's the people

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Taxes goes to rich pieces of trash. Lotto money does the same thing.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Well in reality you'll get like $400 million. The next day the government announces $1.5 billion in funding for Ukraine.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeah because Repuglicans have no real understanding of what socialism actually is...

by Anonymous 1 year ago