Only one way to be fair in splitting up our lottery winnings
Kevin Leininger, I enjoyed your recent article (April 24) on President Obama's “obsession with fairness,” and I agree with you totally. However, you and I are probably not the smartest two guys on the planet.
Perhaps we should consider the viewpoints of some others who are so steadfastly behind this fairness thing. They say the rich just keep getting more while the rest of us get less and less and can hardly make ends meet.
We cannot argue with that. They say that no one needs that much money and it is only fair to give some of it to those who don't have enough. Perhaps we can argue about that.
The wealthy certainly seem to have too much, and we have to wonder how they ended up getting it honestly. Also, everyone knows the rich can afford to hire smart people to find ways for them to keep their money and pay low or no taxes on it. Sounds good to me — I say down with the rich!
So let's look at a few rich people, three to be exact. I recently read about three people who all picked the right numbers and won the BIG ONE (the lottery). The total big one was something over $300 million. Split three ways and taking into consideration that all three probably chose to take the cash option and had to pay taxes on that, they are still rich and can afford to hire smart people to help them keep their money. All said and done, they each will still end up with tens of millions of dollars. No one needs that much money. It doesn't seem fair.
Here is what I think we should do to be fair. Every time someone wins the lottery, let's take the winnings and split it up among all the people who played the lottery that week (kind of like all the people who paid taxes that year). No, that wouldn't be fair to all the people who ever played the lottery (kind of like all the people who ever paid taxes).
So let's split up the winnings among all the people who ever played the lottery. No, that wouldn't be fair to all the people who never played the lottery (kind of like all the people who not for the last year or not for the last decade but for generations have not paid taxes). So let's take all the lottery winnings and split it up among everyone whether they ever played the lottery or not. Now that seems fair.
Now let's look at the prospects for the lottery to continue to keep making income. Before we changed the rules, millions of people played the lottery. After we changed the rules, can you guess who will play the lottery? (Kind of, like who is going to invest in businesses or in the stock market when they have nothing to gain?) Can we all say zero?
But I will still wait for my wonderful check for my unearned share in the lottery winnings. It may never come, but I am sure that Mr. Obama will tell me this is fair.
Ivin J. Craven
Read up on in vitro
Those who wish to make an informed judgment regarding the morality of in vitro fertilization should consult the entry “In vitro fertilization (IVF),” written by the late eminent Catholic moral theologian Richard A. McCormick, S.J., appearing on Page 675 of the “Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism,” Richard P. McBrien, general editor, 1995.
Both the biological and moral aspects as well as official church teaching are clearly presented.
An equally informative article by Father McCormick on artificial insemination appears on Page 98.
Jerome A. Welch
