except that I’m not sure that the counter-argument to "act-as-you-wish" is "enforcing healthy behavior."
The nail in the coffin of the tobacco industry wasn’t “cigarettes are unhealthy,” it was that the tobacco industry was actively deceiving the public and obfuscating scientific research over multiple generations.
(When the sugar industry follows step (this seems inevitable), it will because they failed to police themselves with candid acknowledgement that soda should be a treat and not a dietary staple. Perhaps the Bloomberg soda ban was a bad idea and heavy-handed mommy gov't etc, but if the soda companies had an iota of sense they would have pre-empted the whole mess.)
So getting back to lottery… let’s agree that it is okay for people to act as they wish, but is it acceptable for lottery to misrepresent the astronomically low chances of even breaking even? Is it acceptable for lottery to specifically market toward people who can least afford it?
There's a reason the New York State lottery motto is "Hey, you never know."
You could enforce monthly purchase limits based on income, you could require an accurate demonstration of statistics on every ticket, you could raise taxes and double ticket prices, all sorts of things that would get the primary market - people who buy tickets and really can't afford it - to buy less, but...
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except that I’m not sure that the counter-argument to "act-as-you-wish" is "enforcing healthy behavior."
The nail in the coffin of the tobacco industry wasn’t “cigarettes are unhealthy,” it was that the tobacco industry was actively deceiving the public and obfuscating scientific research over multiple generations.
(When the sugar industry follows step (this seems inevitable), it will because they failed to police themselves with candid acknowledgement that soda should be a treat and not a dietary staple. Perhaps the Bloomberg soda ban was a bad idea and heavy-handed mommy gov't etc, but if the soda companies had an iota of sense they would have pre-empted the whole mess.)
So getting back to lottery… let’s agree that it is okay for people to act as they wish, but is it acceptable for lottery to misrepresent the astronomically low chances of even breaking even? Is it acceptable for lottery to specifically market toward people who can least afford it?
There's a reason the New York State lottery motto is "Hey, you never know."
You could enforce monthly purchase limits based on income, you could require an accurate demonstration of statistics on every ticket, you could raise taxes and double ticket prices, all sorts of things that would get the primary market - people who buy tickets and really can't afford it - to buy less, but...
Hey, you never know.