Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

One thing everyone can do, even the most incompetent, is buy a lottery ticket. In America, wealth is so admired that it makes no difference where it comes from: earned, inherited, stolen, and especially lottery winnings. Everyone is both glad & envious when they hear someone wins the lottery because it proves that they too may also win the lottery someday; so people buy lottery tickets even though the chances are winning are essentially nil. The power of this naive optimism cannot be understated: abjectly poor people will remain placated as long as they believe there's even a small chance of breaking out of their miserable lives, even though it is a not so subtle tax, it's one people are willing, even anxious, to pay.

This winning-the-lottery mentality is what our society is built on, because the American Dream sells the “success” story to people. Even if there’s only a 1% chance of anyone personally making it big, but somebody they know does: maybe their kid, or their uncle, or the hard-working lady at their church; that's enough. However, if even that remote chance is taken away, revolution beckons. As real opportunity dwindles, it makes the ability to buy a lottery ticket all the more important, so we can broadcast the winners’ giant smiles on television.