Posted on 07/25/2008 10:20:35 AM PDT by Slapshot68
" NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - When it comes to purchasing lottery tickets, making people feel poor will prompt them to spend more money on a chance to become rich, American researchers said.
They found that people who were convinced they were earning a low salary bought nearly twice as many lottery tickets compared to others who were made to feel more affluent.
"When people are made to feel subjectively poor, they end up buying more lottery tickets which is somewhat perverse since every time you buy a lottery ticket, it's the equivalent of burning money," said George Loewenstein, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who advised the research team.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I guess those Virgina Lottery “Lady Luck” ads are gonna take a really depressing turn now.
So... the government passes more taxes, and gets a “twofer.”
“When people are made to feel subjectively poor”
Now I am sure there are many convoluted reasons for this particular choice of language...
Right?
Maybe if they weren't shilling their cash on lottery tickets so much they wouldn't be feeling poor.
Could these people be any dumber? These people have a greater chance of being hit in the head by falling space debris than suddenly striking it rich! A lot of poor places like Bangor where I live are also building casinos to rake in the dough. They think it'll lower taxes and that they have a chance to strike it big. WHAT BALONEY!
If you can afford it, then why not?
Don't knock my retirement plan.
...because when you are running into a lack of money, the fix is to put money down a bottomless hole never to be seen again.
The payouts on state run lotteries would embarrass Lucky Luciano. I don’t understand people who want the government to control everything; what government lacks in efficiency, they compensate for with corruption.
I don’t pay, but I do participate in the extra wait at the deli. Which makes my sandwich FEEL more expensive ...
Make that “play”
Actually, there is a way to determine if spending the buck is worth the chance, if you can accurately calculate what the staticians call the "Expected Value of the Return".
For example, if the chance of winning $60 million is one in 60 million, then the expected value of the return is $1. However, there is a good chance that you won't be the only holder of a winning ticket, and your return will be reduced accordingly.
Also, the higher the jackpot, the more people will be buying tickets, and the chance of you winning an undivided jackpot becomes less and less.
It's true that at some point, it is actually worth the risk, but figuring out just where that point is, is a problem.
Poor judgment or stupidity-> being poor-> feeling poor
Poor judgment or stupidity-> buying lottery tickets
Stupidity-> Journalism school
Stupidity-> clueless about correlation versus causation.
I believe even Warren Buffett refered to lotteries with this popular saying “A tax on stupid people”.
Also, it may be a mistake to play for th big jackpots.
Ask yourself, if you won a $10m jackpot, would you gamble it all on a 10:1 shot for $100m? Few would (or should). But that’s what the high-pot low odds players are doing.
(Assuming the odds are proportionate. And knowing that you can split with friends).
Hey, you know we should BAN lotteries since only poor people are buying tickets anyway - and you know, we don’t want any more millionaires running around cuz, you know, like they aren’t gonna share with the other Liberals... er “poor” people (like illegal immigrants, and welfare mommies)
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