02 August, 2023
The Massachusetts House and Senate recently approved a $56.2 billion FY 2024 budget, which was sent to Governor Maura Healey. The compromise budget removed the House's proposal for an online lottery - thankfully. As of today, Gov. Healey has not yet signed it, and I hope she does not revive the idea, as she has stated her support for it.
Massachusetts residents already spend the largest amount of money on the lottery in the whole USA, nearly doubling the runner up (New York). Usual estimates state that residents spend upwards of $800 per year on the lottery, but even this is an underestimate, as the per capita calculations use the entire population for the denominator, when only adults are allowed to purchase lottery tickets. The lottery recently announced that they had collected the largest amount of money in their 51-year history with an estimated revenue of $6.131 billion. Using thee 2022 Census data, there are almost 7 million people in MA, and over 80% are over the age of 18. Using data from the Massachusetts Gambling Baseline General Population Survey done in FY 2014, an estimated 61.7% of adults buy lottery tickets. Using these numbers, we find that there are 5.641 million adults in MA, of whom 3.481 million people buy lottery tickets. This means that if every lottery buying adult spent the same amount of money on the lottery, over one year, every lottery buyer spent $1,761, or $147 per month on lottery products. Further, this masks the fact that lottery expenditures are highly concentrated - in other words, some people spend very little on the lottery, and a small group spends exorbitant amounts on it.
In the future I will compare these expenditures with those on other goods and services, but suffice it to say for now, that people in Massachusetts already spend too much disposable income on the lottery. And research suggests that some of the people who spend the most, tend to be poor. Should the state expand this tax on the poor to give no-strings-attached funds to local governments? I think not. Moreover, as I hope to explore later, the lottery is by design, made to increases economic inequality by concentrating the funds of many in the hands of the few. For now, I hope Gov. Healey will drop her support for an online lottery.
12 July, 2023
I've been meaning to practice writing my thoughts more frequently, and decided to start today, writing about the Holyoke Pulbic Library bathrooms. Since April and until about two weeks ago, I had been working on an almost daily basis at the Holyoke Public Library. One of the quirks is that the library bathrooms are somewhat restricted. To access them you need to ask for a key, and they try to make sure you don't use it for very long. The justification is to prevent drug users from "shooting up" in the restroom. The only restroom I was allowed was on the fourth floor, and I had to ask the librarian for the key. Many times there was no librarian on the fourth floor, and once I was told by her that it was too close to closing time (20 minutes until closing), and I wasn't allowed to use it. That day I decided to switch libraries and now mostly work at the South Hadley Public library (which is nicer in many ways).
Today I returned to the Holyoke library, because it opens earlier and I had an early meeting. There is now a security guard at the entrance (who does regular rounds around the library), and if you need the restroom, he hands out the key after scanning your library card (he was very friendly about it all). As it was explained to me, the reason is that there were many drug users using the bathrooms, and they want to create a safe environment in the library for families and children to come to. The motivations are understandable, but I'm unconvinced that restricting access to the bathroom is going to bring children and families to the library. The park surrounding the library has plenty of people who seem to be drug users, and that's probably because the library is in a poor and troubled neighborhood in one of the poorest towns in Massachusetts. I understand how this can scare off families, but I also believe that using the bathroom is a human right, whether you use drugs or not. And the struggle to attract children and families to the library is not solved by restricting bathroom access. I don't have the solution, but perhaps some work could be done with the community (including the people at the park) to come up with ways to make the area feel safe and welcoming. Or perhaps some additional bathrooms could be built, or a space for users near the park (there seem to be many vacant areas surrounding the library). I don't know. But the restrictions on bathroom use have made me feel unwelcome at the Holyoke library.