A tale of two cities….

No, sorry english majors, this has nothing to do with the classic novel by Charles Dickens.

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged, but as I’ve explained, I’m a man of few words when it comes to such things. But something has caught my eye recently, and it has to do with one of my favorite things to rant about. What is it? It’s the growing gulf between the rich and the poor. It nicely illustrated, in an article which appeard in the Feb. 22nd edition of the Boston Sunday Globe.

It seems my own home town of Waltham Mass, has the dubious distinction of having more state lottery agents than any other town around, with 56 stores in town where you can buy all the things the state lottery offers. According to the artlcle, the Family Market (convenience store on Main street) has about 30 daily “regulars” who come into to buy lottery tickets, mostly the instant-win scratch tickets. The article mentions that some of these regulars have spent as much as $500.00 at a time. Waltham is a working class town where many people work hourly paid jobs.

By contrast, the town of Lincoln, one town away, has only one lottery agent. It’s a supermarket, and the lottery kiosk is “tucked away behind a newspaper stand”, according to the article. Lincoln is a millionaire’s town, with houses priced in the millions and every motor vehicle is a luxury SUV of one kind or another. A store manager is quoted as saying “This is Lincoln. They don’t have to play the lottery”.

This article simply goes on to say that in the richest towns, you can hardly find a place which sells lottery tickets, Whereas towns like Waltham, Brockton, and Fall river, have them in abundance. Of course, that’s hardly news.

Why should anyone care about this? Beats me, i’m just wondering if there’s going to be something very nasty, like a civil war, within the next 25 years, at some point when joblessness and widespread poverty causes a flashpoint.

Just some thoughts and opinions, which is the purpose of blogs in the first place, right? Oh, before anyone tells me I should support this political candidate, or that one, save it. I’ve heard enough of that.