Recently, the lottery jackpot for Powerball was raised to $1.2 billion after no one won. To buy a lottery ticket is to bet against astronomical odds that one will escape poverty. The lottery has for a long time been a tax on poor people. What this means is that the people that buy lottery tickets, are the same ones that feel the impacts of a recession. Not only does the lottery negatively impact the working class, it negatively impacts people of color.
Rising Costs and Predatory Practices
It would be an understatement to say the costs of everything are rising. College costs are rising, the prices of groceries are rising and gas prices continue to plague the divers of America. This, along with the rising rents in America, and stagnating wages, brew a recipe for economic destruction.
“The typical American household spends about $768 more monthly on goods and services these days compared to 2020 because of high inflation, said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics,” according to USA Today. With all of this in mind it makes sense why people would try to win the lottery.
Winning the lottery for many is one of the only ways they can escape their material conditions. Unfortunately, many of the people in such material conditions are disproportionately Black and Brown.
Racial Poverty
“Black, Hispanic, and other workers of color make up 45 percent of the working class, while non-Hispanic white workers comprise the remaining 55 percent,“ according to American progress. What this means is that the very same people that are being dehumanized in everyday American life are the same people that truly need the money.
The Lottery preys upon the working class and the marginalized in a game that very few people ever actually win. It raising to $1.2 billion means that people will become even more enticed to bet on the odds that they could wake up financially secure tomorrow.
Written by Kenneth Mazerat
Sources
NBC News: Powerball jackpot rises to $1.2 billion after no one wins, again by By
CNN: ‘Stacked against you’: Critics say the lottery system is preying on poor communities By and
USAToday: Is the US getting too expensive to live in? Many Americans worry about economy, inflation by Terry Collins
American Progress: What Policymakers Need To Know About Today’s Working Class by Aurelia Glass
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Mark Ou’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image Courtesy of Rusty Clark ~ 100K Photos’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
