My first response to Geoff Skelley’s article (“Bad odds,” Nov. 6) was simply, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Has the attempt to make excuses for the economic plight of the poor really come so far as to blame the lottery, a voluntary institution which funnels money into public education and the maintenance of Virginia’s transportation system? Skelley’s argument totally ignores the positive aspects of the lottery system. In states like Florida, hard-working, talented high school students are able to attend college at almost no cost, thanks to the lottery system.
The reasoning behind Skelley’s argument falls apart when the reader reaches the next-to-last paragraph, in which Skelley finally acknowledges that the lottery is, after all, a voluntary institution. If low-wage earners do not want to be taxed, as Skelley understands them to be, they have a simple solution — don’t buy a lottery ticket. Skelley points out that purchasing daily lottery tickets adds up to large amounts of money, but fails to accept that the same amount of money could be used to meet the struggles of a low-income family.
That an institution designed to pump public dollars into the “facilities and roads” that everyone uses should be discontinued simply because those who voluntarily participate do not deserve to be taxed is beyond comprehension to me.
Chad Felts
CLAS IV
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