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Neil Irwin writes at the NYT that financially literate people like to complain that buying lottery tickets is among the silliest decisions a person could make but there are a couple of dimensions that these tut-tutted warnings miss, perhaps fueled by a class divide between those who commonly buy lottery tickets and those who choose to throw away money on other things like expensive wine or mansions. According to Irwin, as long as you think about the purchase of lottery tickets the right way — purely a consumption good, not an investment — it can be a completely rational decision. "Fantasizing about what you would do if you suddenly encountered great wealth is fun, and it is more fun if there some chance, however minuscule, that it could happen," says Irwin. "The $2 price for a ticket is a relatively small one to pay for the enjoyment of thinking through how you might organize your life differently if you had all those millions."
Right now the Multi-State Lottery Association estimates the chances of winning the grand prize at about 1 in 175 million, and the cash value of the prize at $337.8 million. The simplest math points to that $2 ticket having an expected value of about $1.93 so while you are still throwing away money when buying a lottery ticket, you are throwing away less in strictly economic terms when you buy into an unusually large Powerball jackpot. "I am the type of financial decision-maker who tracks bond and currency markets and builds elaborate spreadsheets to simulate outcomes of various retirement savings strategies," says Irwin. "I can easily afford to spend a few dollars on a Powerball ticket. Time to head to the convenience store and do just that."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 13 2015, @01:42PM
If I play, for the cost of a hamburger today, perhaps on Tuesday, I get to
—Quit my job I hate
—Pay for surgery to allow me to correct the letter on my birth certificate from M to F
—Never need to feel physical circumcision pain again
—Get out of the (legal, at least) way of female supremacists
—Never again need to “mansplain” what Ada Augusta Lovelace wrote 150 years ago about why the fuck the fucking computer can't pass the imitation game (despite Turing's optimism).
—Have access to cannabis or perhaps p. cubensis to end my alcoholism. I'm sorry I'm not perfect.
These things could happen with even a single million. Another factor of ten? I don't know. Why the hell would you want to help me get weed?
You want me to die, and so I am moving closer to it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 13 2015, @01:55PM
Although, of course, I don't play, because the odds are astronomically against any of that happening.
Just dying is easier. Working for somebody else busy “mansplaining” for a living? Fuck it.
(Score: 1) by FlatPepsi on Friday February 13 2015, @04:11PM
I understand the value of buying a few hours of daydreaming for $2. Winning would solve a number of financial problems, including having to work a job that, at times, I don't like.
The list you presented, I'm sorry to say, isn't an ideal candidate for money to fix. Looking at celebrities, I'm inclined to say that money just might make your life a whole lot worse.
I wish you well, and hope you find solutions. I'd offer suggestions, but public forums aren't the best place for those conversations...
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday February 13 2015, @05:26PM
Why the hell would you want to help me get weed?
You want me to die, and so I am moving closer to it.
Too bad you guys didn't add a WTF mod.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"