If you want to shrink your market opportunities, try preaching personal responsibility and yet, it is personal responsibility that leads to prosperity. Most people want to get something for nothing. I recently read in the Johnson City Press about how a convenience store clerk found a $10 bill in the store and used it to purchase a lottery ticket. It turns out that the lottery ticket was a winner, to the tune of $1 million.
Her comments on her winning are enlightening. "Schneider, 32, opted to take 20 yearly payments of $50,000, or $34,500 after taxes. ‘If I’d taken a lump sum, I’d be broke again within five years,’ she said." Well, it is out in the open. She does not know how to manage money. At least she realizes this. Of course, the media desires for you to have pity on this woman and her good luck. As with the media, it is designed to touch your heart strings. It is designed to be emotional in nature. There is, however, no mention about the morality or intellectual side of this situation.
I, for one,am totally repulsed by this situation. The story says, "The single mother–with nine maxed out credit cards and $8,500 in debt for her associate’s degree..." First of all, why is she a single mother? We do not know if she was previously married and now divorced or whether she has ever been married and had children out of wedlock. How many children does she have? Does she have custody? Do they live with her? We are not told, but these questions are relevant.
What in the world is she doing with 9 credit cards? It is obvious that she is not financially astute enough to handle even one card. They are maxed out. She is bankrupt. On top of that she owes $8,500 for an associate’s degree. If she has an associate’s degree, why is she working at a minimum wage job? What did she get this degree in? Did she upgrade her job skills or did she major in something that does not translate into a marketable skill, like Women’s Studies?
The article does not go into these areas because it is designed to appeal to the emotions rather than the intellect. Now, we need to analyze the lottery itself. What is a lottery anyway? It is gambling right out in the open. It is not productive but rather destructive over the long period. Who are those who play it? Convenience store clerks in Ohio who are in serious debt. Those that play this are those who live for this day with no regard for the future i.e. poor people.
The lottery is a tax on the those who can least afford to pay it. While the majority that do play can afford to and limit their purchase, there are those who like this convenience clerk that cannot. What is the lottery based upon? That you can get a lot of money by not expending and amount of productivity. Does the lottery add to the wealth of a nation? The answer is a resounding no. State governments use this ill gotten gain most of the time to fund education. They do this to get another source of funding.
Millionaires do not stand in line to play the lottery. To them it is a grand waste of time and money. They are to busy making their own money. They have learned the principles of personal responsibility, especially delayed gratification. The lottery is all about instant gratification. No skill involved here. This is where the masses dwell. They never get it. They think that the rich are that way because of reasons not related to the truth. The reason that people remain poor is because they are not going to discipline themselves to better their condition. They want what they see as the easy way out, the lottery.
The lottery is based upon the principle of chance which is Darwinian to the core. Your odds of winning are slim to nil. However, if you go out and get a job and work it with excellence and increase your skill level and become successful, then you will prosper. In this regard, you are not relying on chance but on predictability. The world is not governed by chance but by predictable laws. The lottery tries to circumvent these predictable laws.
The Bible teaches personal responsibility, thrift, and productivity. It is the Protestant work ethic that has made America great, not the lottery. This is stated in Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." In other words, put forth your best effort in all of your endeavors, if you desire to be wealthy.
The lottery destroys motivation for people to better their lot. They are led to believe that they can get something for nothing. The highlight of their day is hanging around convenience stores buying lottery tickets. They say, I know that this one is the big one. The lottery encourages laziness and sloth. Why work, if you can win the lottery? Sounds like government entitlement programs doesn’t it? This is because the lottery is built upon a false foundation. It is socialism right out in the open. No longer hanging in the closet.
Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. 11For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. 12Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread." God’s provision for our daily bread is to come from being productive in gainful employment. Working for the Lottery is not deemed a biblical vocation. It promotes the opposite of orderliness. God does not want us to play the lottery, but work.
Christians are opposed to the lottery. It is counter to godliness. Kristina Schneider says that if she took a lump sum she would be broke within five years. Here is a prediction that will be accurate, after 20 yearly payments, she will be broke. Unless, she learns the principles of financial management, she will be back in the same position she was prior to winning the lottery. Even winning the lottery does not ensure that you won’t be impoverished later. Spiritual bankruptcy leads to financial bankruptcy.
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