What We’ve Lost Playing the Lottery

Two of my favorite authors. Thanks for posting this quote.

 

On that we agree

 

It's just a different retirement plan for the poor. It has taken the place of buying Franklin Mint collectible Civil War plates and hoping they increase in value.

 

Vonnegut considers it a poem.

 

While they're overpaying for the Franklin Mint collectibles at least they're getting something tangible in return. While I occasionally albeit very infrequently buy lottery tickets I know that I am essentially making an extra voluntary tax payment to the state and realize that my actual chances of winning are virtually nil I can afford to lose the few dollars that I give away a couple of times a year. Not so with poor suckers who think that they actually have a chance of winning.

 

It might not be tangible, but the lottery has entertainment value to a lot of people. I don't buy lottery tickets, but I go to Vegas once in a while because I find gambling entertaining (once in a while). People love winning prizes, or at least the possibility of winning prizes.

 

While the probability is that you will lose in Vegas your odds are infinitely better than playing the lottery although I confess that the rare times that I do so it's for the entertainment value since I realize that I have virtually no chances of winning although the possibility is still there.

 

I understand this sentiment but I can say without any uncertainty this does not hold true for me in any way.

You and I share similar feelings on this. I live a simple life but I have worked 2 to 3 jobs for many years in order to save money. When I first got hired at the fire dept we received paper checks. At one point the finance department had contacted me to inquire why I had 11 outstanding paychecks that had not been deposited or accounted for. I assured them I had them and I would deposit them asap. Several coworkers couldn't understand how I didn't "need" the money and asked why I even worked at all. I explained that our pay was so bad ( $417 a week at the time) that if I relied on my pay checks to live it would stress me out. I need the money but I didn't need that money immediately at that time and worked so much that I just hadn't gone to the bank to deposit them.

I feel like I worked the better part of my life away and the last 10 years in particular have flown by because I have worked 90 to 120 hours a week up until last year. I work to have peace of mind and to make sure my wife doesn't have to worry about her student loans or the house mortgage if anything were to happen to me. Winning a lotto would absolutely improve life for me and my wife as well as several others. My only indulgences would be some travel and some guitars. The rest would go to charities of our own choices and probably start our own animal rescue. That said, I might play one ticket in a year but sometimes not even that often.

 

Back in the 80’s when The Florida Lottery started I was talking about it with my dad. Originally the odds for the six numbers was around 1 in 14M.

Dad said that the odds of getting struck by lightning were 1 in 1M, so if I knew anyone who has been struck by lightning 14 times, then I need to have them pick my numbers.

I suppose it’s okay to throw a couple of excess bucks away every week if they are truly excess. Unfortunately, many/most who play are not playing with excess. If one who is not playing with excess actually wins, those are probably the same who don’t know how to manage money and they end up worse off than when they started. Like someone posted here over the weekend. We need Financial/Economic literacy as a focus in MS/HS curriculums.

 

I'll define public benefits as those not reserved for senior citizens of retirement age who paid into them in order to receive them. You live your life the way you want to live it when you stop asking me to help pay for it, I'm good with that. Same deal my kids get.

 

How about disabled veterans receiving disability? How about farmers receiving federal subsidies? Your rationale doesn't hold up. I'm having to help pay for the benefits for senior citizens. So that argument applies just as much to them. Let people live their lives how they want.

Odds are you or your children received some sort of benefit from the government at some point in y'all's lives. This game of exempting everybody you think "deserves" it will only make it look all the more hypocritical.

 

It's the dopamine.

Dopamine: More Than Pleasure, The Secret is the Anticipation of a Reward - LiveInnovation.org

 

so, are you voting tomorrow?

 

It's funny. Most of the time when I hear/read discussions about the lottery, there's a couple of fairly important points that no one brings up.

If you win the lottery jackpot, then you have the choice of 40 Bajillion dollars paid out over 300 years or the lump sum payment of $5000. (yes I'm exaggerating) Another thing is, that when there's a 40 Bajillion dollar jackpot, the prize often ends being up split between multiple winners. Those two issues are listed in the fine print but it wouldn't surprise me if most people who play the lottery are unaware of them.

 

Already did. But voting isn’t a game of chance. It’s a game of selecting the lesser of evils.

 

The lottery has created dozens of government jobs. What could be better than that?

 

Internet says you get about 1/3 the amount. $1.9B pays out at $692M after taxes in FL and $647M in NC due to 5% state tax.

I did the break even and it’ll cost me more in gas driving to FL than the $45M I’d save in state taxes.

 

Well, I think the actual payout over time is 30 years. So, if you take the full amount, instead of the lump sum, that's 63,333,333.33 per year. That's a big enough number that it might still be meaningfull 30 years from now and taxes, in NC, would be 3,166,666.66 per year.

 

As if 30 years down the road when I’m a rich 80 year old I’d want my 28 year old 4th wife to be getting my checks. Hell, she isn’t even born yet! I’m taking lump sum.

 

The first time I heard that the odds of hitting the lottery are about the same as the odds of getting struck by lightning I put a lightning rod on my golf bag to increase my odds.