Lottery is a game in which numbers are drawn randomly for a prize. It is a form of gambling that is popular among the masses and is also a method of raising funds for public use, such as building roads or aiding the poor. It is a common activity, and people spend over $80 Billion on it every year. In the case of winners, the winnings can be huge, but they are usually required to pay a large percentage as tax. Rather than spending money on lottery tickets, one should build an emergency fund or pay off their credit cards.
In Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, the narrator introduces the reader to a group of people gathering in a town square. The villagers are about to draw their lucky numbers. The organizer of the lottery, Mr. Summers, enters and carries a black wooden box. He stirs up the papers in the box and announces that this tradition has been around for a long time.
While most people consider the lottery a fun thing to do, the truth is that it is a disguised tax on the poor. Many studies have shown that those with the lowest incomes play the lottery more often than other people. This means that the lottery is really a way for government at all levels to raise revenue without being directly accountable to the citizens. It is also a method that politicians can use to keep their jobs without being voted out of office or fired.
