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echelontoday at 2:01 AM0 repliesview on HN

> It is not for you to decide what one should or shouldn't do.

What's the limit?

Murder? Taking fentanyl? Selling fentanyl? Shitting on the sidewalk? Taking photos of kids in public? Screaming fire in a theater? Defamation? Misleading poor people into thinking they can get ahead by spending their savings?

If there was no limit to what I should or should not do, I could just kill everyone I disagree with and take their money. But we know that's preposterous.

Here's the thing though: in aggregate, that's exactly what this is. Taking money from poor and undereducated people is like killing them. It's stealing their lives, indebting them, making them less fit, putting them on a lower trajectory for life. Killing their chances.

That's about the biggest fucking negative externality big tech has introduced to the world. And for what? To make a handful of people rich?

This does nothing for society. It's worse than crypto.

> Plenty of people want to gamble, and don't give a fuck of what you think they should or shouldn't do. And they are right: it's none of your fucking business.

Plenty of people want to rape kids, and it is our business to stop them. This argument is bunk.

A low level of gambling was okay because there was a controlled lever on it. Only a handful of casinos existed, and the government had the monopoly on the lottery program.

Now anyone can do it anytime. That is not good for our economy.

This is not a harmless activity. People are losing their financial well-being. Becoming addicted. Needing to fix their debt by becoming more in debt.

People getting exiting the workforce as productive members of society because they lose their shirt. That is not good for individuals or society.

We're damaging the robustness of our economy by allowing these entities to exist. They should be taxed at 100% of their gross revenue, and those funds should go to educating kids about statistics while they're young and impressionable.