An ad on TV:
A middle-aged couple, two adults, a young man and a young woman, in-their-twenties.
The affluent-looking middle-aged couple are showing the young adults a vacation island.
The young people are impressed.
Then the middle-aged couple hand a key over to each one of young adults, with the message, "we're buying each of you your own cottage". So now we know they are the middle-aged couples' kids, and not a husband-wife duo (unless it's a husband-wife duo who have some serious issues!).
The cottages are brand-spanking-new-drop-dead gorgeous.
Wow, what's going on?!
Then the punch-line.
I assumed this ad was all about working hard for a living, investing prudently, saving over a lifetime, to be able to give an extravagant gift to one's kids in ones' own golden years.
And I was dead wrong.
It's all about winning the lottery. Not working hard. Not saving over a lifetime. Not being wise or even prudent. Winning the lottery. Sponsored, no doubt, by some provincial or federal government or other.
The ad really bothered me. Why? I think because it was gambling for gain wrapped in love's clothing. It was all about showing love to ones' off-spring. But not through sacrificial giving. Through a very cheap way -- winning a lottery. The message is "buying lottery tickets can be a loving way to show you love your kids -- it's a selfless act". Except, it isn't.
Lotteries are wrong on so many levels. They seek to overrule the general maxim in life that you reap what you sow. They involve a hope for gain without providing any kind of service to others. In order for you to win, you must hope that everybody else loses. Others hope that you lose so they win. (Not exactly "love your neighbor"!) Meanwhile, the Lottery Agency hopes you all put in a lot of money so they can rake off quick profits.
Lotteries are wrong, wrong, wrong.
Better to trust El Shaddai, work hard, save prudently, and give to others lavishly.
All you need is love.
7 comments:
So don't buy a ticket.
Oh get a grip already, you think to much. Hubby and I are both hard working parents of at least a half dozen kids. Our kids all learned that life is hard sometimes and anything you want you gotta work for it. So we play the lottery when it gets nice and high. The money we lose goes to charity, we get to have a silly dream for a few days about how we could help all our loved ones....Big deal. Whats the problem?
I knew this post was gonna get me in hot water. Please don't sic the pro-lottery lobby on me!
May God bless your hard-working family.
Lotteries should be avoided, but not for the moral reasons you've listed.
They are essentially a tax on the stupid - or more specifically, they are a tax on people who don't understand probability. I win money every week by picking a bunch of numbers, *not* buying any tickets, and checking my numbers at the end of the week to find that I lost every time. The chance of winning the lottery is so ridiculously small that the expected earnings, even with the size of the jackpot, doesn't make it anything close to worth it.
Play poker. You can get good at it, and you can consistently win playing strictly numbers on low blind tables online. It's a no-brainer.
Interesting you say "love"
Here in New York State, the lottery brazenly says, flat out, you are not going to get a woman if you don't win the lottery
I can't stand that ad! I change the channel immediately if it comes on. Way too cheesy! Blech.
Eric,
So, this means you spend how much each week on the lottery???!
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