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Comment by Klinky | Hacker News Reader

Sounds incredibly simplistic. You have to assume everyone starts from the same spot and has equal opportunities, which is definitely not true. External locus-of-control may very well be an accurate assessment. There are probably people who are also "dumb", but even those are likely a product of their environment.

So really the solution isn't "don't buy lottery tickets", it's "solve systemic issues that lead to poor goal planning and wishful thinking, rather than goal planning and realistic thinking with achievable goals that result in better quality of life". That is a lot harder than just calling lotto players stupid.

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Not buying lottery tickets seems like a good place to start though.

Seems like you completely missed the point.

To clarify, whilst we are changing the systemic issues which cause poor decision making we can also stop buying lottery tickets. I think starting with the things we can change first is a good place to start.

If your solution is to ban lotto tickets, that would likely be effective at achieving your goal. It likely would not solve the underlying issues around poor decision making though.

If your solution is to just tell people they need to stop buying lotto tickets, then it's likely to be extremely ineffective.

It depends if you think people are making their own choices in the first place, and then that they are capable of making different ones. The "systemic" view of the world says people aren't making choices, the system is coercing them to make choices. Therefore individuals aren't responsible and should not be coached to make different choices. Both views taken fundamentally seem short sighted. You need both.

>Therefore individuals aren't responsible and should not be coached to make different choices.

No that's not the point either. Most people do make their own choices, but the ways in which they come to those choices are influenced by their past experiences. Past experience can have a drastic effect on the choices you make in the future. Abuse/neglect/malnourishment during childhood and/or traumatic brain injury can have profound effects on someone's decision-making abilities later in life.

People should be held accountable for their poor choices, but with the understanding that not all lives have had equal opportunity, and there needs to be actual coaching available, not a bunch of finger wagging. Simply telling someone what's wrong with their life is that they "buy too many lotto tickets" is likely ignorant of the actual underlying problems that person may be facing or had to deal with in the past.

You don't see the flaw in this line of thinking that if you solved what you suggest you just raise the bar and are left with exactly the same problem?

If we solved systemic issues that improved quality of life, we'd be left with what? People having better quality of life? That's not the same problem.

I don't think they claim there's causation, but instead just correlation. Correlation between ideas about finances and monetary outcomes.

...and that is pretty worthless in the grand scheme of things, especially when it's trotted out as "poor people make dumb choices, glad I am not a dumb poor person making dumb choices". Some of the worst gambling offenders are rich people, who have gambled away multiple lifetimes worth of money, they just happened to have the net worth to take the hit.

It's possible to correct for socio-economic conditions. In fact, it's somewhat silly to run an experiment like this without correcting for that.

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