Real Kato Blog: Wealth

Someone in Oregon apparently won the $340 million PowerBall jackpot on Wednesday.

I didn't get around to playing the PowerBall lottery this week. That is to say, I didn't throw away a hundred bucks on a pipe dream, this time. Maybe it's just as well, though.

Studies have shown that suddenly winning a large jackpot brings you about as much happiness as contracting a terminal disease. (Okay, I don't really remember where I saw that factoid. But let's pretend it's true.) The theory is that although you may be flush with material possessions, you lose friends to envy, and you become distrustful of loved ones' motives. Suddenly everyone you know is looking for a handout, and when you don't give it to them, they become angry. So while you can buy just about anything you want, you can't buy people's honesty, and you can't erase people's jealousy.

Even if you decided to be Oprah-like in your generosity and you started giving all your friends cars, where would you draw the line? What about those friends you only see once a year at the Christmas party? Do they get a car, or just a fruit basket? There couldn't possibly be a way to please everyone. The stress of dealing with that would start to wear on you.

Would you keep it a secret? You could try. But people would start to get suspicious after you quit your job and buy yourself a helicopter full of strippers and vodka. I mean, what's the fun of winning the lottery if you don't get to change your lifestyle a little?

I think the only way to properly deal with sudden wealth is to have a cause. You have to make people understand that you're not just going to fritter all the money away on toys and gifts. If you tell people you're going to use $100 million to start a company that does AIDS research, maybe they won't be so keen on asking you for a new convertible.

You'd just have to make sure people don't know about the helicopter.

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Posted by Ken in: commentary

Comments

Comment #1 from Jenn (Guest)
2005 Oct 21 - 2:09 pm : #

The Husband always wants to play Powerball when the jackpot starts building up, and I am always secretly relieved when we don't win. I am thoroughly convinced that that much money is nothing but trouble.

It is kind of funny to see people buying stacks of tickets though. When we bought our one ticket on Wednesday, the girl at the lottery counter looked like she wanted to kill somebody.

Comment #2 from Nicholas (Guest)
2005 Oct 22 - 10:07 am : #

When I travel to states with big lotteries I buy $2 worth of tickets. It is sort of fun. But I'm basically flushing the money down the toliet.

I don't think the state should run lotteries. Though it might be better and more honest than teh numbers run at bars.

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