A Game Of Chance

So, this week the country was once again was gripped by lottery fever as people lined up to buy a chance at winning the $550 million PowerBall prize. I have a very bad luck with things like scratch tickets and lottery drawings (spoiler alert - I did not win this one either), but I have no problem if people want to buy a few tickets. After all, you may not have great odds at winning but with one ticket your chances are much better than if you didn't have any at all. Besides, I am fascinated by the social experiment of finding out just what people would spend the money on if they won. I feel like you can learn a lot about a person from how they say they would act if they were suddenly given so much money that the normal rules of society would no longer apply to them. Everyone says they would be philanthropic, but often you can tell by looking in their eyes who means it and who is just saying it to look that way. The people I have a problem with in times like these are the ones who tell you just how long those odds are. They are also the first to point out how much the payout would actually be after taxes, as if it matters when you are talking about that many zeros. Seriously, why do you have to bring math into a perfectly good fantasy?