mistermack wrote: ↑Tue May 01, 2018 11:30 amThat's the big problem though, with gambling, and other harmful activities that people are addicted to.laklak wrote: ↑Tue May 01, 2018 3:05 amThey seriously restrict gambling, in fact, even having a poker night at home is technically illegal in this state. But - they run the biggest fucking gambling scam on the planet, the Lotto, which is actually a tax on people who failed elementary probability. I see them queuing up at the corner store, buying ticket after ticket. It's not people in business suits walking out with 50 tickets, either. As far as I'm concerned, their moral and ethical justification for banning anything is utter bullshit as long as they're running a numbers racket.
If you ban it, the criminals move in, like the original numbers racketeers.
As a government, you only have a choice of a greater or lesser evil.
That's why only a dictator could ban it. As a dictator, you could make the mafiosi disappear without trace. No trial or evidence needed.
That's the only way you could actually stop organised gambling.
That's why I would include it heavily in the education curriculum.
It would easily fit into Maths teaching and actually might be more interesting than an ordinary maths lesson.
Same with marketing and advertising. I would educate kids to be ready for what's thrown at them.
To be cynical and sceptical and well informed, when spending their money.
Without sounding patronising: So much wisdom from Mister Mack What you say should be part of every sociology & political 'science' class. I have this problem all the time: Empire builders in bureaucracy pretending that they can make a 'perfect' world if only they did this or that or enforced the other hallucination they have. They are uniformly uninformed & stupid.That is the problem with most politicians: they have a pet theory about how to make the world a perfect place. As professor Sumner Miller used to say: "There is always a balance of forces."
YES, only a totalitarian despotism can force people to be automatons. Unfortunately there are many who support that idea and help bring it about...Either deliberately or by inaction...See the Spanish Inquisition for example.
Que? 
