Posted on 08/22/2008 5:11:17 AM PDT by reaganaut1
He — Ray Otero, superintendent, ordinary luckless guy — should have the cash, the car, the sexy Swedish girlfriend. The numbers alone demanded it: Last year, he spent $30,000 on the lottery. The winner, Richie Randazzo, spent a measly thirty bucks or so a week.
“When I heard he won, I got so mad — I said to myself, ‘I can’t believe it,’ ” Mr. Otero said the other day, recalling how the television crews descended on his friend in a free-for-allish media display. “I spend all that money and the” — unprintable fellow — “wins? It’s wrong. I mean, I’m happy for him. But it really isn’t fair.”
...
Mr. Otero, 52, came to New York City from Puerto Rico nearly 30 years ago and worked as a mechanic in the Bronx. He has held his current job for about 10 years and supports his wife and two children on a yearly take-home pay of $40,000, he says, which does not include the free apartment, odd jobs or the typical Christmas tips.
But working is for poor uneducated men — a sucker’s game, he said, where one must run increasingly fast to keep one’s place in line. “You’re making money on the one side and spending it on the other,” he said. “If all you’re doing is working, you’re never going to win.”
So, for the last three years, Mr. Otero has been searching for an entry to the easy life — to win the lottery and move back home to Puerto Rico; to put his feet up with his family by his side.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Nuf’ said...........
I know that numbnuts. You must just be one of those know it all do gooder freepers who doesn't waste a dollar or two on something.
So with the enough said comment I guess you still assume I am stupid cuz I "play" a little.
Go crawl back in your hole.
Wow...
So insulting....
Yes, I DO occasionally waste money, but not on astronomical odds with no chance of a return.
(Even a CHOCOLATE BAR produces some kind of a return on investment)
Flushing it down the toilet would likely produce the same result, so please feel free to blow it from the orifice of your choice.
That point arrives when the payout exceeds the chance of failure.
If the odds against your winning the lottery are 100 million to 1 and the lottery is paying out more than $100 million, then you are making a good bet if you bet $1 to win.
Don't bet $2, though unless the payout is more than $200 million.
And so on.
Even then its a waste. Taxes and annuity type payouts greatly reduce the payouts. If the prize is split among more than one winner the payout plummets as well. The only thing that changes is the payout becomes a bit more fair in relation to the astronomical odds. The odds are still astronomical. I don’t begrudge people buying tickets but in reality what you are buying is the right to fantasize for a short period of time. Those who can fantasize without buying a ticket are ahead of the game so to speak.
Everybody in a doorman building is on the make.
As a summer worker, I didn't have my hand out at all (year-round workers would get enraged if they thought you were trying to make extra money that should "rightfully" go to them) but extra cash just fell into my lap all the time.
Like a tenant - who wanted to keep his convertible parked in a no parking zone for a half hour - giving me $100 to watch the car so I could move it if the police came to ticket him. Or a tenant offering me $100 bucks to remove an old refrigerator from his apartment. Or a tenant giving me a sweet high-end stereo amp that he didn't want. Or a tenant, discovering that I knew a thing or two about old books, paying me a few hundred to sort through a library he just inherited and identify the valuable volumes.
It was often stuff as simple as: "I don't think I can get all this stuff in my Audi! I'm going to have to make two trips to the Hamptons! Would you be a dear and put some of my luggage in your car and drive it out?"
You've already paid the taxes on the $1 you are betting today. You must then factor in the taxes that will be deducted from your winnings. Then, if you will elect to take the 20 year payout, you have to factor in the rate of inflation. If you take the lump sum payout, then that amount, less the taxes, must exceed the odds against winning in order for the odds to be in your favor.
This is really like discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, isn't it?
Your figures are a little high by what I’ve experienced , however , I must add that where I work I will not tolerate kickbacks . Hey, it ain’t NYC. But I do know property managers can be weak kneed when it comes to padding quotes etc. and I do have a handyman who refuses work unless it’s cash .
You’re right about the cast off furniture and appliances though . I’ve given away 8 or 9 good TV sets in the last 6 months . People are going to flat screens and in one case this year , a lady renovated her entire condo after an estate settlement and I ,in turn, refurbished mine with less than 3 years old furniture and a 2 year old flat screen.
The weirdest item I been left to dispose of . A 5.5hp outboard motor . I sold it to the mailman for $350.:)
>If he didn’t make $350,000 per year in after-tax cash and trade I’d be surprised.<
I’ll bet he was’t paying off any big college loans like the doctors and lawyers in the building.
I bet if you were to take out a date and spend money you probably have no chance of a return.
With your attitude you aren't ever getting laid.
So see you do waste money on astronomical odds.
They sure were. I made great money at a 7-3 job. I witnessed some sociological phenomena that I thought existed only on television (I once had to physically restrain a drunken, nude 66 year old multi-millionairess from braining someone with a figurine), and I learned that if I was going to have a professional career I should avoid the law and investment banking and focus on securities trading. And that I would be much better off living in the suburbs.
Yes it is. The odds and the payouts to a large extent are more of a concern to those who run the lottery and how much revenue they want to generate from the whole scheme. The question most casual buyers should ask is am I getting entertainment value out of the dollar I spend on a lottery ticket. This is where the fantasy aspect comes in. If you get your entertainment value out of it fine. If not and it seems like this guy in the story didn’t...time to move on to something else.
Heh heh. You’re good.
You got that right.
He did have a 17 year old daughter who was going off to Columbia University the last fall I worked there.
She was an Hispanic female whose parents were immigrants and whose father worked as a building super.
I'm guessing that her admissions process (she was no genius) was eased by her demographics and by the help of tenants, and that her tuition bill was not what I - as a privileged white male son of American-born white collar workers - was paying. And my dad made a fraction of what her dad was making.
“I bet if you were to take out a date and spend money you probably have no chance of a return.
With your attitude you aren’t ever getting laid.
So see you do waste money on astronomical odds.”
There are still men who ask a woman on a date to see if she is the woman he wants to marry (and to give her a chance to make an analogous determination). To do this, hopping in to bed is not necessary but is a distraction from considering other-than-physical qualities. Maybe I sound like a hopeless idealist, but I am happily married and have three lovely children, and this was my approach to dating.
Would you want your daughter to date a man with your attitude?
Strange you should mention that, I have one.
Make an offer.
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