That's a lotto money, Mitch...

The Muncie Free-Press has this informative article about privatizing the lottery. I've seen enough ineffeciency in government to have little doubt that it could be operated more effeciently by a private company.

However...

Asking a Libertarian if the Hoosier Lottery should be privatized is like asking a man if he has stopped beating his wife. Any answer is bad.

But, if you overlook the fact that the government is benefiting from operating an activity that would land you and me in jail if we tried to do it, and look at it from just the financial standpoint, privatization isn't such a bad thing.

It's not like this is some essential government service that we need to control, and if the state can keep it's current and projected future income from the lottery, plus an extra percentage of the profits, plus a billion dollars up front, I could go for that.

But I'm not too crazy about Mitch's plan to create a new group of indentured servants out of a selected group of students.

If we really want to keep good people in Indiana, we need to attract businesses to locate here with a friendlier climate of lower taxes and less regulation.

There's no sense bribing the graduates to stay if we don't have anything for them to do.