The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXXI
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The distributor would be able to cut themselves a large piece of the winnings (say 10%), while signatories would exchange their usual risk for a much easier opportunity to make a little money (certainly much more than the cost of the ticket, unless millions of people sign). Unlike going to a casino, the odds aren't maliciously skewed against you.
It could only happen once, obviously.
The expected return is negative, but you can find lotteries with whatever winning odds you want. All your scheme does is arbitrarily change the winning odds to something that you could get anyway while reducing the expected return by whatever cut is being taken out.
Googling "apartments for rent in (town name)" usually gives you a list to start from.
shadowplay
your ad here
What's the difference between a social democrat and a democratic socialist?
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
Social democracy I know is an actually existing thing, democratic socialism is something I'm pretty sure I've only heard Burny Sanders talk about
Democratic Socialism is a socialist system (public property of means of production) with public election of officials.
Social democracy has a more open market, with key industries nationalised, and a welfare state, but has a far greater scope for private enterprise.
Social democracy has a more open market, with key industries nationalised, and a welfare state, but has a far greater scope for private enterprise.
Nothing
They don't...which is the point he was making. He fights the fine in court until it becomes financially stupid for the government to continue wasting time and money pursuing the matter so they drop it to avoid further financial loss.
People do that - it's called a lottery pool. Usually it happens in offices, where everyone in the office (or a group of them) puts some money in a pot each week, the pot is spent on lottery tickets, and everyone receives a share of the winnings, if there are any. I'm sure people do the same thing with other sorts of betting.
EDIT: Strictly speaking, I suppose this doesn't have the individual profiteer that your suggestion has, but it keeps the basic principle of pooling risk and reward to increase the chance of winning something while accepting a decrease in the amount won, on the basis that if the pool wins a huge amount, nobody's going to be particularly sore about taking home £100,000 rather than £1,000,000.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Cynically, social democrat is somebody who doesn't want to spook the centre, a democratic socialist is somebody who wants to spook the centre just a little.
The distinction is fuzzy mostly because the two terms used to be synonyms; the term "social democrat" is I understand more natural to German-speakers than "democratic socialist", and because the SPD were the dominant force in pre-1914 socialism, it became the more common term. When the SPD fractured after WWI, "social democracy" became associated with the party rather than the idea (similar to "communism"), so those to the left of the SPD began identifying themselves as "democratic socialists". The latter term eventually gained additional connotations, "democratic" affirming a commitment to democratic government and thus opposition to Stalinism, and "socialist" affirming commitment to socialist principles and thus opposition to settling for a more equitable capitalism. These associates are retained to some degree, although they're not as strong in distinguishing self-described "democratic socialists" from "social democrats", because nobody cares about Stalin except libertarians and Stalinists, and nobody cares about either libertarians or Stalinists, and because even "democratic socialists" aren't usually committed to socialism any more, just a sort of democratic and egalitarian capitalism.
Today, the distinction is basically about legitimacy. "Social democrats" identify themselves with a tradition that has historically participated in and even lead governments, so it represents a claim to legitimacy as a Party of Government. "Democratic socialists" identify themselves with a tradition that has historically opposed the powers that be, so it represents a claim to legitimacy as a Party of the Masses. Both naturally claim to represent "the People", but the former imagine the People in traditional republican terms, the people assembled in parliament, while the latter imagine the People in classically radical terms, the people assembled in the street. The actual political differences are in some way less important; there's more variation in outlook within each umbrella than between them, and the left-wing of the social democrats parties are distinguished from the centre-wing of the democratic socialists more by their commitment to a major party than by any fundamental political difference.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Democratic Socialist Democrats of Social Democracy.
Lexicus
Deity
tl:dr there is no real difference, and the only people I have ever known to insist there is a real difference have had their heads far too full of left theory for their own good.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
I don't know, I think that the difference is real, it's just not what people usually imagine. People think it's a difference of ideas when it's really a difference of allegiances, and that's often more important so far as the practical business of political struggle is concerned.
Party-politics would hardly be possible if it was otherwise.
Lexicus
Deity
Fair way of putting it. I've just seen too many cringe-inducing, paragraphs-long posts purporting to explain the ideological difference.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Oh, for sure. I mean, I used to post on RevLeft; if I didn't think I cared about the difference between Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, now I know that I don't care.
(That is a lie, the difference between Maosim and Mao Zedong Thought is actually super interesting, it was just the funniest way I could think of articulating the fact that internet leftists are weird argumentative nerds.)
Do we have active members from Ireland at the moment?
I'm looking for a gift idea (medium-big) for someone IN Ireland, and it should be something culture/event related, so an Irishman/woman would be handy.
I'm looking for a gift idea (medium-big) for someone IN Ireland, and it should be something culture/event related, so an Irishman/woman would be handy.
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