Found $5 on the ground.
Jul. 27th, 2022 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyStrongly tempted to buy a Mega Millions lottery ticket.
Pros: It's a cheap way to fantasize about living in the wonderful world where money has solved approximately 13% of my problems, or 39% of those problems that don't involve current events.
Cons: I won't win.
Pros: But if I did win, I could pay everybody back, like, tomorrow and have enough left over to buy myself pizza.
Cons: Seriously, somebody wins eventually, but it won't be me.
Pros: But, like, a billion dollars!
Cons: Half a billion after taxes. Is it even worth it? And I won't even win.
Pros: Okay, but if I did win....
Cons: Lottery winners often end up broke and miserable, which is just as well, as I won't win.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/27/1113907119/mega-millions-lotto-1-billion
Pros: It's a cheap way to fantasize about living in the wonderful world where money has solved approximately 13% of my problems, or 39% of those problems that don't involve current events.
Cons: I won't win.
Pros: But if I did win, I could pay everybody back, like, tomorrow and have enough left over to buy myself pizza.
Cons: Seriously, somebody wins eventually, but it won't be me.
Pros: But, like, a billion dollars!
Cons: Half a billion after taxes. Is it even worth it? And I won't even win.
Pros: Okay, but if I did win....
Cons: Lottery winners often end up broke and miserable, which is just as well, as I won't win.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/27/1113907119/mega-millions-lotto-1-billion
Poll #27328 Mega Millions - *billion dollar jackpot*
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 64
Should I waste $2 in this way?
How about something else, like a soda?
no subject
Date: 2022-07-28 02:17 am (UTC)Yes, when I talked about this with Eva I said exactly that. Buying ONE ticket moves you from "actually no chance" to "virtually no chance" but buying two tickets, or ten, or twenty, or even a thousand is not going to make any difference to your chances of winning, not really. And that way lies financial ruin.
I also pointed out that as gambling is definitely addictive, if you're going to engage in it you need to set firm limits from the start, like "don't spend more than X dollars a week NO MATTER WHAT" or, as I do, "don't even think about it until the jackpot is big enough to hit the news".
no subject
Date: 2022-07-29 02:28 am (UTC)Yeah, one ticket to get to "virtually no chance", or as entertainment, is different from buying more than one (which would not help). I bought a ticket when it was at $1.5B a year or two back -- didn't expect to win and of course didn't, but I was willing to spend $2 once.