Against The Odds, And Against The Common Good By Gloria Jimenez Analysis

When it comes to the topic of state lotteries, most of us would nod our heads in agreement. Gloria Jimenez, who is a determined mother of two and a graduate of Tufts University, would repudiate the basic suggestion of such a system. In her essay “Against the Odds, and Against the Common Good”, Jimenez questions the public acceptance of state-run lotteries. Jimenez understands that because states often administer lotteries, the likelihood of the dismissal of the program is impractical. Despite that, Jimenez combats the five principal contentions for state-run lotteries: free will, education scholarships, increased taxes, honest management, and new jobs. Her most compelling argument rests upon the idea of free will. She emphasizes that “purchasers …show more content…
Her name was Kathy. While she was my superior, Kathy once was my mother’s coworker in the exact same store. Her responsibilities involve managing the front-end, assisting customers and scheduling employee hours. Hearing from the grapevine, I learned that her husband passed away leaving her alone with no family to speak of. At the end of her Saturday morning shifts, she— beguiled with hope—danced alongside the machine. On a weekly basis, I would wave my goodbyes after her lingering affair with the conning machine. The lottery played her like the first woman; during a hard time in her life, she curled into his arms to inevitably gain nothing but a hole in her pocket. To Kathy, the lottery machine was like a toxic relationship; he controlled her by promising her a better life, but the cycle of toxicity wasn’t of her own choosing. As Jimenez argued, free will doesn’t apply to …show more content…
Each women was plagued with the appearance of the lottery machine, but the remaining question stands: how did these women become dependent upon the lottery machine? My theory resides upon the Aesop fable “The Milkmaid and Her Pail” which brought the expression, “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.” The expression highlights the point that people should plan for what is tangible. In relationship to lotteries, people suffer vulnerabilities which hazes logic during desperate periods. These women I mentioned counted on the lottery as a guarantee, and I’ve found that even other people discuss what they would spend if they won the lottery instead of what they are saving up for. Even though these women made poor decisions, they faced the hazed state that left them vulnerable to temptations such as the lottery. In accordance with Jimenez’s argument, states should not provide the temptation of an escape as a means of funding. States should search for another method of collecting money for lottery-funded projects because the lottery attacks the desperate and addicted not the general