If you think that people who buy lotteries are morons, maybe it’s you who needs some economics education.
I've always thought of it as a tax on people who are bad at math. Is that OK?
Personally, I do occasionally buy lottery tickets. I don't ever expect to win, but it provides a few minutes of escapism here and there during the week, and I consider that a form of entertainment. A pretty good value for a $1 investment, compared with movies and pay television.
My mother was a daily lottery player, and I can't count the number of times she got something out of the New York State Lottery. $50 here, $100 there. It was enough to keep her feeding the beast.
I've bought them when my office was going in on a pool. I didn't want to waste money on lottery tickets, but if the office pool did win and I was the only person who didn't participate, so that I had to watch everyone else retire early, I would not be in a good state of mind. $5 every couple of years is insurance against an unlikely but awful mental health catastrophe.
> I can't count the number of times she got something out of the New York State Lottery. $50 here, $100 there. It was enough to keep her feeding the beast.
Sounds like intermittent reinforcement. If you want a rat to press a lever many times, you don't make it dispense a pellet of food every time but only dispense one sometimes.
> Personally, I do occasionally buy lottery tickets. I don't ever expect to win, but it provides a few minutes of escapism here and there during the week, and I consider that a form of entertainment. A pretty good value for a $1 investment
I've often heard this as a defence from people who otherwise claim to accept the statistical likelihood of winning the lottery.
And to me, it seems like a variation of infinite regress applies here. Sure, if you can buy a ticket, you can imagine what you'd do if you win. But couldn't you just instead imagine if you had bought a ticket and that ticket won? It's cheaper and provides all the same escapism as playing the lottery.
I mean, if you truly accept that you are unlikely to win the lottery. That the odds are too small to entertain it as a serious thought, I don't see how buying a ticket unlocks a special realm of imagination people who didn't buy a ticket can't access. People who don't buy a ticket are only marginally less likely to win than someone who bought a ticket.
Sure, if you can buy a ticket, you can imagine what you'd do if you win. But couldn't you just instead imagine if you had bought a ticket and that ticket won?
Possibly. I guess it all depends on an individual's ability to disconnect their chosen brief moments of fantasy from reality. To me, if I've actually spent the dollar (which I only do once or twice a year), it provides more enjoyment. Perhaps because the chances are no longer zero.
Still, $2/year is a far better entertainment value to me than what most people spend to watch the latest comic book movie.
I've played the lottery (UK) at two points in my life, and I'm now a maths graduate ...
First, not long after the lottery came out - I was a young adult swept along by the social phenomenon. The BBC made it a focus of Saturday night TV, the game of "what will you do if you win" was almost as popular in the UK as talking about the weather. It was a social choice, when I reflected on that choice I stopped playing -- "started winning a £1 every week".
Second, in the last decade, we were dirt poor - on the edge of missing meals poor. I played the lottery again, it was desperation and it was something I hid. I managed to keep it minimal and quickly came to my senses. But I imagine a lot of people hit that point of desperation and aren't able to stop digging themselves further into debt and spend relatively large amounts on lottery tickets.
Why do you feel the need to disparage people who may watch movies based on comic franchises? Whatever comparison you want to make, it does come across as "man yells at cloud".
Also, you're basically claiming that spending that money does unlock some special level of imagination inaccessible to "the plebes".
Why does spending a dollar in a statistically futile pursuit make you able to fantasize about beating remarkable odds but a lightning storm doesn't send you into a cowering fit?
Why do you feel the need to disparage people who may watch movies based on comic franchises? Whatever comparison you want to make, it does come across as "man yells at cloud".
I think the better question is why you think someone stating their personal preference is interpreted as disparaging by you, and why you think expressing ageism is an appropriate response?
you're basically claiming that spending that money does unlock some special level of imagination inaccessible to "the plebes".
I stated no such thing. Again, I merely stated how it affects me. You seem to be projecting here.
Why does spending a dollar in a statistically futile pursuit make you able to fantasize about beating remarkable odds but a lightning storm doesn't send you into a cowering fit?
Be honest, you were trying to imply that people who watch "comic book movies" somehow don't have sophisticated tastes (for lack of a better term). You chose "comic book movie" specifically instead of just movie. Or book. Or Netflix subscription. Or opera. It's like you've tiered entertainment in your head and as long as you aren't at the bottom, you're good. Even if you want to say you just picked "at random", it's not "at random". Your biases get reflected in what "randomly" came to your head.
And where did I express ageism? I didn't say "old man yells at cloud", just "man yells at cloud". I deliberately left off the "old" part.
For someone who is accusing others of projection, I think you should take a look at the log in your own eye.
> I stated no such thing. Again, I merely stated how it affects me.
This argument is of the form "I didn't explicitly state it, so even if the description of my thoughts and actions are a description of the phenomenon, you can't call me out on it".
If you're paying to pretend, you can pretend that you paid. Even better, you can even delude yourself into thinking that you would have chosen the winning numbers.
> I have no idea. I'm just stating facts.
Except the fact that you are stating is that you engage in an irrational behavior.
And you're not willing to step back and reflect on why you choose to engage in it. Or why you have to disparage people who chose other forms of entertainment.
People who play the lottery are bad at statistics. People who claim to know the statistics and still play the lottery apparently don't believe the statistics.
I've always thought of it as a tax on people who are bad at math. Is that OK?
Personally, I do occasionally buy lottery tickets. I don't ever expect to win, but it provides a few minutes of escapism here and there during the week, and I consider that a form of entertainment. A pretty good value for a $1 investment, compared with movies and pay television.
My mother was a daily lottery player, and I can't count the number of times she got something out of the New York State Lottery. $50 here, $100 there. It was enough to keep her feeding the beast.