Analysis of Against the Odds and Against the Common Good

The following two paragraphs are a summary of Gloria Jimenez's essay Against the Odds and Against the Common Good. States should neither allow nor encourage state-run lotteries. There are five major arguments that people use to defend lotteries. One is that most lotteries are run honestly, but if gambling is harmful to society it is irrelevant to argue if they are honest or not. The second is that lotteries create jobs, but there are only a small handful of jobs that would be eliminated if lotteries were put out of business. Another argument that would support keeping lotteries is that, other than gambling addicts, people freely choose to buy lottery tickets. This is true, however, there are misleading advertisements that may cause people to buy tickets under false pretenses.

A forth argument that defends lotteries is that the funds from lotteries benefit honorable causes like educational and social services. While this is true, there are other means that the government could make up for that money. This leads us into the last of the counterarguments, which is the fear that if the government gets rid lotteries they will have to raise taxes to make up for the lack of funding. Since most lottery tickets are shown to be bought by people with low income, raising taxes is a better option then letting these educational services be funded by mostly the poor people and gambling addicts. Getting rid of state-run lotteries and raising taxes would balance out who is funding these services. While it is legal to smoke, because it is harmful, it is not encouraged, just as it should be with lotteries. The state shouldn’t encourage or even tempt people to waste away their money in hopes of getting lucky and winning big.

Analysis: Jimenez u...

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...back it up with substantial evidence. Readers may question her reliability because of her to lack of evidence and because most of the evidence she does have she doesn’t tell us where her information came from. While she has briefly told her readers about some of the negative effects of state-run lotteries, like teaching people that luck is better than hard work, she doesn’t show us that they are negative with evidence. She also didn’t write about any positive outcomes that may come from getting rid of lotteries, although she does show us some negative ones, like less funding for schools and the possibility of the government having to raise taxes. I learned more about how much it supports education than how much it negatively effects us as American's. After reading this essay I wonder if the benefits of state-run lotteries are greater than they first appeared to me.