As of this writing, two major American lotteries await a
winner. One, Mega Millions, has a
jackpot of $190,000,000. If you think
that is pretty substantial, check out the Powerball game.
Powerball’s jackpot currently sits at $550,000,000, still
shy of the game’s record jackpot reached in 2012.
Even my sainted wife would have trouble spending that kind
of money. Maybe. Nonetheless, she’d give it a try. If she winds up with too much surplus, I
guess she could call President Obama for spending ideas. But, I digress.
Nobody picked all the numbers for weeks, hence the lofty
prize. It comes as no surprise since the
odds of picking all the numbers are quite astronomical: 175,223,510 to 1.
Still, I, along with countless others will buy a chance to
moan about not winning. You see, if you
don’t play, you cannot win.
All this leads me to point akin to 90 grit toilet paper.
Friends, acquaintances, and total strangers ask if I’m “in”
for the big lottery game drawing. When I
answer in the affirmative, they invariably say, “I’m not but, you can give me
some – maybe a million or so – if you win.”
Sure. The check’s in
the mail.
I would certainly appreciate any help understanding why they
would expect anything from me if I incur all the risk.
Perhaps those are the people cut from the cloth of ‘what’s
mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.’
In any case, to put the number $550,000,000 into
perspective, fathom this: it would take
you more than 16 years, 24-hours a day, seven-days a week, at the rate of $1
per second, to spend that kind of money.
And, we’re not counting any accrued interest.
At a 2% rate, that comes to roughly $11,000,000
interest. Not too shabby. Of course the government will want another
cut of that money even though they already took a 38% share when you won. Of course.
What is one to buy with all that cash? A nice house, car, boat, and maybe a divorce
are in order. Some folks would well to
buy a personality – you know who you are.
But here are a few practical ideas. You could purchase more than 2,100 Ferrari
458 Italias, Alex Rodriguez’s services of not hitting baseballs for 16 years,
or 22 cups of Starbuck’s coffee.
In any case, buying a lottery ticket is nothing more than
temporary entertainment as you would watch a movie. For $2, you are investing in a dream that
may, or may not, pay off. But as
impractical as it seems, you are buying the hopes of how we could or would
spend all that loot. And that is better
than most movies I’ve seen.
