Good Sense is not for sale... you're a smarter man than I, at least lately. I never bought a ticket prior to about a year ago, since, I've bought about $50 worth over the course of 4 or 5 lotteries (when the dollars got big).

I had a similar nagging voice, ignored it, and the winner was from Mpls, so I said, pay attention to that voice. I did so, and of course, have never won. I heard yesterday that I've got a higher chance of being Sainted... I think I've bought my last ticket - though I hope I'm a decent guy anyway.

I read today that those who have won have not been particularly happy or happier. I thought about that myself. The struggles of life enhance our own self-esteem (and stress level), they create bonds between our spouses, our children and ourselves, and not having a job to go to, something to feel we are committing to, leaves us somewhat empty.

It certainly doesn't mean life HAS to be empty, there are a bunch of worthwhile things you can do beyond work, or more succinctly, there is good work you can do that doesn't have to pay you money, but apparently most of us don't really have a good concept of how to go about this. Further, the plaintiffs for your money are unending, and some, like your family, are pretty hard to satisfy.

The long and short is, winning ain't everything, and Mitch, you're a wise man to have stopped while ahead, or even.

PB

All kidding aside, it is amazing how prevalent huge problems are among big ticket winners; VERY few escape the experience unscathed. Families rip apart, addictions explode - and frequently, entire fortunes are squandered, leaving the "winners" worse off both fiscally, legally, ethically, psychologically and spiritually than they started. While I joke that "All I REALLY want is the chance to PROVE that money can't make me happy", really, I can see the downside of hitting the Powerball.

(Now, the Gopher Five? That'd be PERfect!)

No, I'll just keep working away, until Karl Rove slips that big envelope of untraceable cash under my door, someday. It'll be earned, dagnabbit.

I too have bought very few tickets and when I state the reason, it often pisses people off: "The lottery is for people who are bad at math"

I suspect people whose lives spiral downwards after coming into an unexepected fortune had some pretty serious problems they weren't addressing beforehand, and the money just aggravated them. I suspect that plenty of people who come into such a mountain of money live happy lives afterwords, because they were happy beforehand. They just no longer have to do things they would rather not, solely because it results in getting money.

The moral? Learn to be happy, address what problems you have, and only play the lottery if you find it entertaining.

Will,

Actually, I read somewhere (don't know where, don't wanna look it up) that gainfully-employed middle-class people tend to absorb big winnings better than people who are up against it; It's not as big a jump, apparently, from SOME prosperity to UNIMAGINABLE prosperity than it is from abject desperation to mounds o'moolah.

I paid my $5 into the "Sheeple Daydreaming Fund" as a lottery hater I know likes to call it. My usual cutoff point is $200 million. If it goes above that I throw in a buck or two. Or if my dept at work decides to do a group purchase, I'll throw in a buck.

I figure that since I'm not poverty stricken like Mitch was in 91, I can afford to give myself some daydreaming time. And that's how I view it. I paid $5 for the gift of an evening of daydreaming and discussing with my wife, what we'd do with the winnings. Same thing about my once or twice per decade trips to the casino. I view it as paying for just another form of entertainment, and that way, if I lose my stash completely (as is almost always the case), its no big deal. If I walk out in the black, that's just icing on the cake, an unexpected bonus. It's happened exactly once, when I got a lucky pull off a video slot machine and found myself $25 ahead of where I started. I immediately cut myself off.

And personally, the people who say "The lottery exploits the poor" either are suffering from HUB syndrome, or moonbattery. It exploits absolutely no one, because absolutely no one is FORCED to play. Same thing as the whiners who complained that Hooters' T&A enhancing uniforms exploit the waitresses. No, the waitresses FREELY CHOSE to work there, and display their wares. If it doesn't bother them and gets the male horndogs to toss a couple extra bucks their way in tips, more power to them.

NO ONE who CHOOSES to partake in an activity that others view negatively, is "exploited". They may be stupid, or of lower judgement, or of differing moral standing, but they are not exploited. By definition, "exploited" necessitates that the exploitee not have a say in the matter.

I'm also one of those only-200-million or more players, and do it just for the daydreaming stuff. But then again, I also viewed my trips to Vegas as entertainment (and it used to be a great deal back then).

As to winnings, just remember what it says in the ol' Handbook of Life: "For the love of money is the root of all evil." If you want it, and love it, it's a prescription for problems.

A good friend of mine won't play the lottery unless it's over $60 million, with his reasoning being, after taxes, he'll "probably have enough to get by."

That's always struck me as quite funny for some reason.

People who are up against it for very, very, long periods of time (not young people starting out with babies) often have behavioral issues which cause them to be chronically up against it. Money won't make those behavioral issues go away, and may indeed aggravate them. Even financially sucessful people can have their behavioral issues aggravated by a sudden windfall. The previous record holder in lottery winnings, a successful small businessman from WV who took in about 160 million prior to taxes, has had no end to his problems since winning, a lot of them related to drunkeness. I suspect he was a drunk prior to winning, although a more controlled one.

Look, daydreaming about coming into a fortune, and spending a few bucks a week, is probably no more intrinsically damaging than watching cable television, or spending time on the internet; it is all a matter of degree. Cliches become cliches because they contain elements of truth. All things in moderation is the way to go.

Moderation in all things, including moderation!

My coworkers at a previous place of employment used to organize an office lottery pool whenever the jackpot got large. I never buy lottery tickets but whenever they did one of the pools, I'd buy a share. I figured with my luck if I wasn't in it they'd win and I'd be the only one left to do all the work.

I used to buy each of my siblings a scratch off lottery ticket every year. One year the one I gave my brother and SIL paid $5. So my SIL went back and bought 5 more tickets. I think one paid a buck. So she went back and bought another ticket, which ended up paying out $5. She's been playing the lottery every week from that initial ticket for at least 6 years now, every time always managing to win at least one dollar to continue playing. I thought that was kind of interesting.

Will,

Once again, I applaud your sense..I may not always agree... but you usually have something reasonable to say.

Having said that, and I'd appreciate not getting torn to shreds (ok, go ahead, it really doesn't matter), the only real social ill of the lottery is that it does, like numbers rackets in the 20th century run by organized (and disorganized) crime, pray upon hope for those in the lower incomes.

Having said that, most winners have in fact come from middle class homes, and they've suffered pretty catastrophic rip ups too, I'm not sure they are a lot better insulated or equiped, maybe, and I'll take you at your word that it is less problematic than for low income families. I am equally sure that in thinking of my own life, I'd probably be tempted to spend the money on things I'd never considered, maybe even things that I shouldn't. Who knows, my wife might think the opportunity to be financially independent would include being independent of my sorry butt too. Money does LOTS of strange things, including indulging us in the attentions of pretty young things who tell us how great we are (after all, we're rich).

The only thing I think (and yeah, here's the revolutionary in me) is that it's pretty well established the wealthy don't by much, if any, of the lottery sales (a little of course but far disproportionatly to their percentage of the population). Now I don't think wealthy folks are any smarter than middle class folks (tests say this is pretty true), so it's reasonable to conclude they don't because they don't need to hope for wealth, they have it. The consequence is that the rest of society takes up (voluntarily) a portion of taxes for them. I'm torn whether some small part of the tax equation should or should not balance that. It's making it not voluntary..and I see that... but if folks stopped playing the lottery, they'd certainly have to pay....

ah well.. call me Che. In the end, I wouldn't do it, but there is a sense of tax and social inequity that nags at me about this.

PB

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