The lottery is paid admission to your best day-dreams. Nothing wrong with that if you don't pay too much for your ticket to the show 
The lottery is paid admission to your best day-dreams. Nothing wrong with that if you don't pay too much for your ticket to the show
One of the columnists in the Minneapolis paper wrote about the Lotto the other day:
This week the folks who run the Mega Millions lottery explained why it’s become so popular:
They’ve made the game more popular by altering the odds. Now you have a smaller chance of winning. Before your chances of winning were equal to being hit by lightning at the same time you’d been struck by a meteor. Now your chances are equal to being hit by lightning while a meteor hits you at the moment you win the lottery.
Since there are fewer winners, the jackpot rolls over and over until it gets big enough to get your attention, which is around $400 million. People see a $200 million and think, well, you’ll probably split it, taxes, lump-sum, bottom line it’s maybe $25 million and change. Which is good, don’t get me wrong, but when people think “lottery money,” they imagine a private jet that’s on the runway 24/7 with the engines running and the TV constantly playing pay-per-view just in case you show up and say, “Paris, my good man.”
Big money appeals to the 12-year-old boy in every man: I will build a house in a volcano that has a Hooters and a swimming pool filled with Mountain Dew big enough for my submarine, and it’ll have lasers for shooting sharks, OK, but they’re robot sharks, so it’s cool.
Women think: “We could use the money to send all the nieces and nephews to a good school.”
Men: “As long as I have, like, six sharks. With distinct personalities.”
Let’s think big: a SIXTEEN BILLION DOLLAR LOTTO-RAMA.
Rules: You must match all 1,436 numbers, an element from the Periodic Table, one of 500 Babylonian cuneiforms, and one of the three Stooges. Try to imagine someone sitting on the edge of his chair, fists balled, chanting “Shemp! Shemp! C’mon, Shemp!” because he hit everything else.
“… and … it’s Shomp, who was a Stooge for one night when the comedy troupe needed a fill-in during a 1936 promotional tour of small-town theaters in Nebraska.”
Dang! So close! Next time!
Could the concept be applied to other businesses? Nah. It’s preposterous to deliver less and expect people to hand over millions. That only works with the lottery.
stuart in mn wrote: Could the concept be applied to other businesses? Nah. It’s preposterous to deliver less and expect people to hand over millions. That only works with the lottery.
you may be wrong. Re: BMW for the last decade.
I have my ticket. $500 mil is almost enough for me to quit my job.
Wasn't that airport in Spain going for $175 mil? Who wants a private race track at which you could land your private airplane?
bluej wrote: The lottery is paid admission to your best day-dreams. Nothing wrong with that if you don't pay too much for your ticket to the show
This! I'll grab one once or twice a year at the worst possible time like the rest of the idiots! 
The Lottery has better odds than me landing a hot wife, living into my 40s and being gainfully employed and I have achieved all of those. I consider my odds pretty good!
bluej wrote: The lottery is paid admission to your best day-dreams. Nothing wrong with that if you don't pay too much for your ticket to the show
This^^^^^
dean1484 wrote:bluej wrote: The lottery is paid admission to your best day-dreams. Nothing wrong with that if you don't pay too much for your ticket to the showThis^^^^^
If it costs me two bucks to escape how much I generally hate my life, I'm in. It's cheaper than crack.
In reply to mndsm:
But is it more addictive than crack? 
Interesting... If I win I'm starting a challenge team in the southern New York/northern Pennsylvania area, I'll pay all expenses. That'll leave 549,997,986. Or 200,000,000 or whatever is left after taxes.
pinchvalve wrote: The Lottery has better odds than me landing a hot wife, living into my 40s and being gainfully employed and I have achieved all of those. I consider my odds pretty good!
Love it!
My wife has been hit by lightning twice, I know we're going to win with odds like that.
RossD wrote: Wasn't that airport in Spain going for $175 mil? Who wants a private race track at which you could land your private airplane?
Great minds think alike. I had the same thought.
That, or maybe I would buy the internet.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson:
Twice? 
And she's still alive? Is her father Superman?
yamaha wrote: In reply to mndsm: But is it more addictive than crack?
Um... not sure. It's not more addictive than smoking, that's for sure... and rumor has it it's harder to quit crack than smoking.
I'm in it for a fin or so. I piss more away every day so what's the hurt.
Two dollar pool at work. Be nothing moar better than half of midnight shift resigning and throwing a retirement party at the dive down the street.
... and rent a suite at Daytona for the duration.
fasted58 wrote: I piss more away every day so what's the hurt.
I piss away more every time I'm driving my van and floor it to go uphill!
Googlymoogly says lump sum payout on $550mil is $295mil. While the IRS will only withhold 25% at payout you'd be liable for the full 35% at tax time so that's down too 'only' $191.75mil. less what your state keeps ($12.83m) so I'll be left with a paltry $178.9175mil, I can round that up to $179m without stretching the point. After paying off a few friends’ houses, helping out some schools, setting up some various trusts and buying some toys and houses I'll still be able to live on $3-4m per year interest after tax and still keep getting richer and richer every year to make sure none of my descendants ever have to work again. I'll slum it on that.
Agreed, 'only' $178mil actually in my pocket? I could live with that .
In reply to Adrian_Thompson:
You could also start one helluva race team w/ that kinda scratch.
Ransom wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: Twice?
Rufledt wrote: And she's still alive? Is her father Superman?
Yup, first time she was walking to school when she was 9 or 10. Crappy rainy day with her favorite cute little pink umbrella. Rain, wind, FLASH. Blind and deaf for a short time, goes running home. Mom and dad didn’t believe her hysterical cries that she’d been hit by lightning until they tried to close her umbrella. Being the 70’s at the time it was metal with a plastic handle, not all plastic. Every joint was welded in place, the thing was solid, melted/fused together!! Second time was 18+ years ago, the eldest (will be 19 on Xmas eve) was a baby down for her afternoon nap. Wife (before we met) was planting flowers in the garden. She sees a storm moving in fast, but the rain hadn’t even arrived yet and she had seen not heard any lightning or thunder. She was getting ready to pack it in and head inside before the storm arrived when again FLASH. She was blinded and deaf for about 20 – 30 seconds she figures. By the time she had her wits about her again, she headed inside. Baby was screaming it’s head off and every single light bulb in the house had shattered and every circuit breaker had tripped. It also fried the AC until and the furnace, so they were replaced on insurance at that time.
So yes, I figure her shots at the lotto are pretty good
P.S. she is very very careful in bad weather if there’s a chance of lightning, which is funny as she’s a professional dog walker and outside 365 days a year.
fasted58 wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: You could also start one helluva race team w/ that kinda scratch.
I'm paying Dukeofundersteer to run me in a historic F1 car Once I learn to drive that is.
Adrian_Thompson wrote:fasted58 wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: You could also start one helluva race team w/ that kinda scratch.I'm paying Dukeofundersteer to run me in a historic F1 car
I was gonna hire Fogger Jr... clearly he's better than Duke at racing.
mndsm wrote:Adrian_Thompson wrote:I was gonna hire Fogger Jr... clearly he's better than Duke at racing.fasted58 wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: You could also start one helluva race team w/ that kinda scratch.I'm paying Dukeofundersteer to run me in a historic F1 car
I may be safer with Fogger Jr, as lets face it I'll never make the grid with Jr in charge!
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