The Wonders of the Georgia Lottery - 'Play your Change'

Comments

# William said on May 20, 2004 6:27 AM:

oh man, I've been laughing my a55 off at this post for about 5 minutes now! Great stuff man...but since I'm originally from Canada and live in New York state now I have to ask, what the hell is CheerWine and Grape Nehi? Some weird pop (or soda, or soda-pop, or whatever it's call in different parts of North America, go here for an example http://www.popvssoda.com/ )?

As for 'poor' people that can't really be called poor, up here in Toronto Ontario there are panhandlers (or beggars to be blunt), which I'm sure all bigger cities have. There was this one lady who would always sit at the same corner of the street and ask for money with her little sign saying 'God Bless Everyone and thank you for any money you can give'. Then a newspaper or a TV news station did a story on here and followed her home from her daily 'job' of begging for money. They found she lived in a $750+ a month apartment with a 50" projection TV, and nice new leather couch, plus many other nice things that I would LOVE to have in my apartment but can't afford. Then there was a study done that found panhandlers can make $500+ a DAY!! DAMN! I'm in the wrong 'job' I think...Now is this a good thing or a bad thing? It shows that as a population we are very considerate of those less fortunate then us and help them out when we can, but it also shows that there are people out there that will screw you to the wall if given half the chance...

Ok, rant over! later.

# William said on May 20, 2004 7:54 AM:

Nehi is this repugnant fruit flavored soda that comes in like Grape, Orange and Strawberry. It's like carbonated syrup and a favorite or Lottery patrons. Cheerwine is like a CherryCoke, but the fact that it has a brand name of Cheerwine pretty much says it all.

As far as the name for many of these folks, panhandlers, beggars etc, Dr Walter Williams, head of the Economics department at George Mason University uses the technical term "Bum". I'm quite fond of it.

I grew up in Miami which is usually #1 in both College Football and number of Bums. It's very easy to be a bum down there b/c of the weather. One nice thing about Canada is that it snows up there, making the economics of being a bum unfavorable.

I get grumpier and grumpier about the 'poor' every day. I have all the compassion in the world for people that have bad luck and need some help. But what I can't take is people that are 300 + pounds, all of which have a blingy cell phone, expensive shoes and cable, whining about how unfair life is. It's even more galling to hear about the lack of opportunities. The most notable juxtaposition is the Vietnamese community down in Miami. There was a fair amount of people from Vietnam down there who had just gotten here and came without just about anything. I used to be a reading tutor so I'd be at the library three times a week. The library was always full of bunch of Vietnamese families reading with their children, working on the computers together, studying english together and the like... Just looking at this was inspirational and you quickly got the feeling that their lack of financial means wasn't going to last long. There was NO way any of these familes were going to have multi-generational poverty (which is Sociologist speak for Family of Losers)

This same area downtown was considered one of the worse parts of Miami. Two of the highschools there traditonally had been known for their excellent athletic programs. It was amazing how many parents could take an active role on Friday nights or Saturday Afternoons when it came to sports but had little to no interest in academics. I don't recall ever seeing any of these people or their children at any of the football or basketball games.

In the same library there'd usually be more than a few 'homeless' people in there, with newspapers over their faces laying in the couch asleep (and not smelling very good). They couldn't be thrown out b/c they 'have just as much right to be here as anyone else' and even though they were sleeping, they'd claim they were awake and reading the newspaper.

As such, I never seem to get lost in the irony here. If you look at the work ethic of the immigrants mentioned above, it's hard to imagine anything but success in their future. It's no wonder 'they are all good at math' and why they do so well academically. Not surprisingly, I can't ever recall seeing an Oriental person coming up to me giving me some BS story about their car running out of gas and asking if I had $5.00 that they could 'hold'. Don't ever remember seeeing an Oriental or Indian person with a "Hungry, please help, God Bless you" sign or a "Will work for food sign". My guess is that they were all already working for food, helping their kids learn or teaching themselves stuff.

However, I have struck up a conversation with more than a few bums. At the MVP summit there was some dude with the "Haven't eaten in 2 days, starving, Please Help, God Bless You.". I had young lady hit me up in front of the W for "$30.00 for the hostel, otherwise I'll have to sleep on the street" . The dude stood out in front of the CheeseCake factory and the whole time looked like he was about to cry. I didn't eat half of my food (which is not normal for me) and I offered it to him. He took it but clearly wanted some money. I told him "You look like you could use a few drinks" and handed him a $5.00 bill. I asked if it was enough for a Six pack. He said that he could get a six pack of 16 ouncers for $6,19 so I gave it to him. He immediately got up and headed over to the convenience story. He took about 15 steps and realized that he forgot the food. He then said "I appreciate the food but I was really looking for some beer money so you can go ahead and keep it. Thanks again Brother." If you'd have seen how serious and pathetic the dude looked right before this, you'd have thought he was actually down on his luck.

Anyway, I don't like Fat Poor people particularly ones that have cable TV, cell phones, Air Jordan Shoes, have customized stereo's or custom rims on their cars or that smoke, drink or play the lottery. (I have no problem with smoking or drinking or playing the lottery as long as you don't mooch of anyone else to pay for it) I also don't like people in the US with "No healthcare" It's ok for me to say this b/c there's no such thing as either of them. No healthcare means at worst, no insurance. If you have enough for Cable TV and the rest, then you have enough to feed yourself.

And don't even get me started on the BS 'Digitial Divide" Of all the trailer parks I've driven by (and we have a lot here in the South, A LOT), I always see digital antennas outside. Always see some pretty nice cars too. Funny how people in trailer parks or the projects can afford a TV and cable but can't afford a computer and internet even though computers and the internet are now cheaper than their tv/cable counterparts.

Well, I've probably just pissed off half the Homeless advocates and a whole host of other folks so I should stop now.

Thanks again Skicow

# William said on May 20, 2004 9:24 AM:

Yep, everything is relative I think. Lots of people in North America don't know how good we have it here, so they think they are 'poor' or 'have no health care'. They have no idea what it's like to be poor or have no health care (I don't either but at least I have some perspective to look outside USA/Canada - yes people, there is a world outside the US and Canada) and see how truly lucky we are to be born here. I try to appreciate it everyday....try going to another country and see what it's like there, pick pretty much any country in South America/Africa/Asia and you will see true poverty, and true imbalance between the rich and poor population...like you say Bill, in no other country will you see fat poor people.

BTW, I do understand that there are lots of people who are homeless that do their best to get back on their feet, and do use the government projects they way they were intented to be used. But there's always people who will try to screw the system and that just pi55e5 me off...

Damn, you grew up in Miami? you lucky dog! I grew up in Niagara Falls Ontario. I love Canada, don't get me wrong, but I HATE SNOW!!!

# William said on May 20, 2004 8:51 PM:

This is great stuff, Bill! Although I'm a native Texan, was raised in the country and my Texas drawl sends Yankees scurrying for earplugs, I still chuckle at some of the redneck behaviors I see.

Not sure about Georgia, but here in Texas we've kept a state income tax at bay by instituting the Idiot Tax, er lottery. I'm all for it. Most taxes are designed to take money away from those that are harder working. The Idiot Tax is a perfect instrument for taxing foolish people and allowing the other half of the population to keep more of their money.

(FWIW, I don't consider casual playing of the lottery to be the definition of stupidity. But if you're spending your grocery money on lotto tickets, then I'd like to extend a special thank you for keeping our state's tax coffers full and the tax man out of my pocket.)

# William said on May 21, 2004 11:22 AM:

Yeah! Fat people are funny... guess that's why the world doesnt think much of americans?

# William said on May 21, 2004 1:05 PM:

Mark, I'm with you. I don't think there's anything wrong with playing it here and there (although I don't personally do it) , it's no different from wasting a dollar any other way. However, wasting time every day in a line, boring people you dont' know with your theories about how all 6's are bound to pop up b/c you were 6 minutes early for work, have 6 pennies in your pocket and had lice six times when you're a kid is a whole different story.

I'm kind of torn about the taxation part of it. On the one hand you're right, we usually punish people for being productive and successful and finally it's the other side that's getting it stuck to them. But we don't really hold them accountable for screwing up, so they waste their money /pay their fair share of taxes for once, and that leaves less money for Air Jordan's, Cable TV, Rims for their Cars, Cigarettes and beer. As such, they don't tend to reduce their consumption so the aggregate effect is that they are broke even quicker. Then of course they can claim they don't earn a living wage, say crap like "How can I feed my family of 9 children on minimum wage", protest against WalMart and comment about how brillian Ross Perot was for his comments on Nafta. At the end of the day, they still suck the blood of productive people and regrettably, Eugenics isn't legal so they breed en masse and there's nothing that can be done about it.

So in principal I like the notion of making Stupidity and ignorance more expensive. But the end result is still the same, they lazy and unmotivated live off of the productive and wastefully consume resources that would otherwise go to people who were in a bad situation b/c of things beyond their control. I'm all for helping the handicapped, mentally ill, elderly etc. But I just can't think of someone as poor if they have cable tv and can afford to drop $100.00/wk on Lotto

# William said on May 21, 2004 1:13 PM:

Hi Jim:

Actually, my point was that the notion of "fat" poor people is funny and America is the only country with them. I didn't realize that's why the world doesn't like us though. All this time I thought it was because we have more wealth, more freedom and hotter chicks. You have to be kidding about the part where you insinuate that all americans are fat (or at least that appears to be your insinuation) though. It depends on where you live. I don't recall every seeing anyone overweight (other than me) in Miami when I lived there - no one. All the chicks were hot, everyone had lipo and a boob job, it was great. Same for LA. I think thre's a lot of playa hatin out there with regard to the US and the reason the world doesn't 'think much of americans' is because they wish they had our wealth and power. As much as they say we are dumb and don't deserve it, it seems we keep hitting home runs