The Lottery

[InbetweenDreams]

Not sure about over the the UK or other countries but here in the US, like most things, it's a circus. There's a bunch of lotteries you can buy tickets with a (very slim) chance at winning. Some are small prizes while others like the Powerball that can be for hundreds of millions, occasionally going over 1 billion. Of course most people don't win. A lot of people dream about winning the lottery, I'm no different. I mean the idea to win enough money to not need to work again is pretty appealing.

Had a thought the other day about winning the lottery. Sometimes those prizes are really well more than what a person would really need to live well off, even after helping family and friends. I mean how much does someone need? $20 million? I mean if I were so lucky to win the back jackpot, sure I'd keep plenty for me, but I also live in a big city and there's a lot of homelessness. I thought how would someone go about getting homeless people into a home. It's not straightforward as it seems. But, I'd like to think there is a way to deal with that. It's not as simple as say writing someone a check for $200k, I wish it were. But with the way things work, even if I gave someone all the money to lease an apartment for the entire duration of the lease, it won't matter because the person still has to qualify. Buying someone a home isn't going to cut it if the person has financial issues, debt, so yeah it seems to get muddy real quick. So that's my idea, getting as many homeless people off the streets and into a home. I mean you don't think so much about what its like when the weather is nice, but thinking about how it get's up to 100 F many days in the summer with all the concrete. No wonder people are popping thier shit. I do like thinking about the actual mechanics of it though, mainly the legal side of things. Last thing I would want is to have someone be right back out on the street. I know there's a lot of organizations that are there to help but clearly its not enough, and I don't see more permanent solutions. Of course hundreds of millions is a drop in the bucket on a large scale.

It's not about the money. I mean sure I would get a nice new car, house and all that shit but none of that shit matters. What am I supposed to do with $900 million or whatever these giant prizes are? Buy a baseball team? Fuck that noise. I'm not really the kind of person who would buy a $600 t-shirt because that's apparently what the super wealthy do, spend a lot of money to look like they shopped at target and the people who want to look rich spend money on crap gussied up with a bunch of Louis Vuitton prints.

[ChadCoxRox]

Money does change a man though, for good or for bad. If I played the lottery and won big the first thing I'd do is hide, the second would be hire a lawyer, and the third would be pay someone to set up the money so I couldn't spend so much and in certain ways except toward building equity for marginalized folk. Sounds good. And then, I get that mess in my hands and I'm changed man. hmmmm.

[Cridders88]

Haha yeah, not ever having to work again is the biggest appeal for me!

I would also help family and friends. Particularly if I won hundreds of millions. I would give people closest to me enough to get themselves properly on their feet, owning themselves a nice home etc etc. I've always said that, times are tough. I'd be reluctant to give money to the people I know that are terrible with money though. Maybe I'd buy them a house myself.

I'd buy my husband and myself a nice big house with a nice big garden, maybe a nice flashy car too. I'd invest some for sure. If I am literally rolling in it, donate to charities too.

It's nice to dream. Sadly, the chances are so slim

[InbetweenDreams]

Yes the chances are slim, probably better odds to get struck by lightning in a basement in Antartica. I think what got me thinking about all this wasn't so much my desire to win the jackpot but rather the homeless I see in Atlanta. On my way home I take the infamous Exit 247 to get on I-20 East, there's a homeless guy who lives off to the side of the on-ramp, he's been there since I moved to Atlanta. I have come across some articles, videos that kind of went in depth about the subject of homelessness. I guess what really gets me about it is how the general public interacts. Its like people, who tend to be more liberal, support the idea of providing housing and shelter and various programs to help people not be homeless or have access to food, water, etc, but when they go to break ground on something, it's "we don't want that in our neighborhood" because most people don't want a homeless shelter in their neighborhood. We have had people walk up and ask for money so they can get food, but of course I had no cash and you got to be careful as you don't whip out your wallet in front of people as it might get snatched. It not great, you want to be in a position to help people but also not get mugged and so on. I mean I can't imagine how humiliating it is to go ask random people for money so you can have a meal to eat. That's the other thing, as much as we want to give food a lot of it can go to waste simply because homeless people don't have a way to store food, unless its a twinkie or something it's likely to spoil.

On the flip side, I had to stop by at my dad's for lunch as I am broke until my partner gets paid. I do find it interesting how that wealthy people could care less if not loathe the poor and homeless. Of course, not everyone falls into that but given the state of things, I'd say a fair number of people really do feel that they are above other people, I see it in very subtle ways, especially on my commute back and forth. I do find that quite troubling as we're all on this rock and this is the way we treat others. But, we're all very distracted with the daily grind and misled by our leaders.

I do tend to overthink things and this having struck some moral cord in me, does make me pause and think about life itself. It is a nice thought that one would have the means and resources to directly benefit someone else, not a food stamp, not assistance, an actual fix. Although those are nice thoughts and realizing I'm probably not going to win the lottery, perhaps I should spend more time figuring out how, now, I can do something besides donating $1 in the drive thru.

[InbetweenDreams]

Money does change a man though, for good or for bad. If I played the lottery and won big the first thing I'd do is hide, the second would be hire a lawyer, and the third would be pay someone to set up the money so I couldn't spend so much and in certain ways except toward building equity for marginalized folk. Sounds good. And then, I get that mess in my hands and I'm changed man. hmmmm.

Money can and does change people and yeah for good or for worse. I think we often see the bad sides of money, whether it is greed, gambling, debt and so on. Oh yes, you definitely should get out of town if you won millions. I'd imagine it would be exciting, yes, but also very stressful for most as most don't want the general public to be able to recognize them, and for obvious reasons.

That would be one thing I would hate, having money change me in a bad way. Of course, one way to avoid money changing you is get rid of it lol.

Now to entertain hypotheitcals. If you recieved some crazy amount of money....$100 million...$500 million...whatever, you have a choice. You can keep it all and live a lavish life or you can end world hunger, in a permanent sort of way. Which do you choose?

Here's what I think people will say and do. I think people would say end world hunger no questions asked, but what they actually will do is keep the money. I say that because we already have billionaires who have not done that yet and it is possible. If we can put a person on the moon, we can certainly feed everyone on this planet.

[ChadCoxRox]

I'd definitely take a leadership role in "getting rid of it" through intentional forms of investment to support local provisions for the poor in my area. No doubt. I would not just "give it" in that I'd meet with my administrator on the regular to review the initiatives I'm funding and how they are actually designed and working toward the intended provisioning. I imagine there is a LOT more actual effort to do this among the wealthy than I can imagine. I certainly hope so and would love be shocked! There will always be the need for balance and effort toward it. Any idea of utopia or idealism must be rationally understood within the context of the evil and inequity that will always permeate and need weeding. I think I'd be up to the challenge. I've enjoyed following what the richest folk's exes have tried to do good with their fair share of the wealth they've left/took with them.

[TigerLover]

Well I sold a lot of lottery tickets in my old job and my co-workers talked about this a lot. I'd buy a nice little house for myself. Then a bunch of flats (apartments) and rent them out to families for cheap. I'd also put a clause in the rental contract where they could buy their flat after renting for so many years, like Thatcher's right to buy laws.

That way I could help people perpetually and if I balls it up and go broke like most lottery winners I can just sell the flats.