Why I Will Never Win the Lottery
Because I’ll never buy a lottery ticket. Here’s why….
Sean Kernan’s article on the story of Tonda Dickerson, the waitress who won $10M on a lottery ticket a customer left her as a tip and then saw her life fall apart, got me thinking. What began as a comment intended for his page quickly grew too long. The results have ended up here.
I won’t recount the details of Dickerson’s story. You can read Kernan’s piece here.
I’ve never understood the fascination many people have with the idea of winning the lottery. Maybe that’s because I used to teach logic to university undergraduates.
With millions of people buying these tickets, what are your chances of winning? Realistically.
I figure them to be, not much above zero. This is a game in which the house always wins. Where, after all, does the money to pay the occasional Tonda Dickerson come from?
It comes from the multitudes of poor saps who believe they actually have a fighting chance at getting their hands on some free money.
A small part of me doesn’t blame them entirely. Suze Orman, the financial guru, noted the dire straits many Americans are in financially, given the worst inflation in decades. We’re in a “financial pandemic,” Orman recently put it…
