TV News loves two things above all else: dire weather warnings, and happy lottery winners. The rest - Iraq, global warming, federal elections - all just window dressing.
We are besotted with the "Happy Dance" that we see at least every ten minutes during prime time. The government is so cpaptive to the revenue from lotteries (and to a lesser extent - casinos) that it can't rein in its exuberant ad campaigns.
The tragedy is, that with lotteries already being a "tax on the stupid" they (the government and its ad agencies) continue to sell us the fiction of instant relief from the drudgery of work. From the man whose kids surprise him while he is at work with "happy retirement Dad," to the doting parents who hand out luxury cottages to their astonished children - there is no limit to the duplicity of the enticements.
In retail selling there are many jurisdictions who have truth in borrowing laws that oblige advertisers to spell out exactly what a loan will cost. We however, lag behind.
We have no trouble putting health warnings on cigarettes, but we are utterly AWOL when it comes to putting disclaimers on lottery commercials. Oh yes, from time to time TV news people will bring in some academic to spell out the monstrous odds of winning. But then they'll throw in a "streeter," a random interview with a lottery ticket buyer who mouths the idiocy: "You can't win if you don't buy a ticket."
What is deeply flawed in this distortion of social policy, is that we have given cachet to gambling. We have enriched out culture with the notion that you too can be rich beyond belief without working.
Who buys? Aside from the well-heeled who spend loose change on tickets, there are the hopeless, the helpless and the gullible.
Our taxes pay for those commecials. The losers don't do a happy dance, but like lemmings looking for cliff to jump off, they are back next time putting rent money into lottery tickets.
Nothing can stop the gambling mania that has enveloped our society - an obsession that has created an entire generation of new risk-takers. But the risk-taking is mindless. The hope for reward infinitesmal. The kid who wants to be a world-class poker player is the new hero.
Wasn't this supposedto be the century of the "nerd?" - the intellectual who actually knows how to think and to convert that brain-power into revenue? Instead, many of the nerds are learning to count cards so they can break the bank at the blackjack tables. What's most sad is that we exalt and elevate these people for their "skills."
Anyone for tennis?
Thursday, April 5, 2007
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