Swickard: Fairness, opposed to winning the lottery

Commentary by Michael Swickard - This last week was pretty tough on 100 million Americans. The Mega Millions lottery jackpot reached a reported $640 million. Oh, my! Serious money and to get it all anyone had to do was buy one lottery ticket. So there were many people who stood in long lines dreaming of what they would do with all of that money. 100 million people bought tickets for the lottery and 99.9 percent did not win. Curses! Who could have seen that coming? I think it is sweet of them to make some new American millionaires with their dollars. I really do. Our country needs more millionaires and this method works well enough. It does show that math education is lacking in many people. Not because they wager a dollar, rather, that they had any anticipation of winning. I like the lottery because it is a voluntary tax. People stand in lines to pay it. But would they if fairness dictated that everyone gets the same amount from buying a ticket? Doubtful. Lotteries exist to make winners and losers. Governments cannot talk about fairness and income redistribution while they run lotteries. Read column

Swickard: Fairness, opposed to winning the lottery