Who cares who won the Powerball?
Posted by Cap in Even More Ramblings on February 19, 2006 |
Right. So I don’t live in one of the Powerball states, but even if I do, I don’t think I would care who won the Powerball.
Every other freaking time when I come across a news report about the lottery, it would be some record-breaking jackpot.
“It’s the biggest jackpot ever for any lottery in the US!”
3 months later…
“It’s the biggest jackpot ever for any lottery in the US!”
Because the latest winner(s) haven’t gone public (or found out about it) yet, it has become quite a mystery. Oooh, how exciting!
You see, I’ve been thinking about the amounts of news stories I’ve seen on Powerball jackpot winners. There’s quite a bit of them. Of course, most of us know that the chances of winning are quite slim. But every now and then, we’ll see some news about a group of people, family, blah blah, winning the “biggest jackpot ever for any lottery in the US” - and I wonder, does that affect some of our judgement?
The news story will usually be accompanied by statistics on previous winners and their jackpot amount, juicing it all up even more. It reminds me of that past survey, where they found out that over 20% of Americans believed that the best way to build wealth is by winning the lottery. So again I wonder, do these “constant” news report on jackpot winners affect the public a bit?
“This just in, family of four became millionaries after years of hard work, living below their means, and years of wise saving and investing.”
Guess that’s not as exciting.
Plus it would be pretty annoying to hear that everyday.
8 Responses to “Who cares who won the Powerball?”
Leave a Comment
Stop Buying Crap #6 - Televisions »
« Review: Dave Barry’s Money Secrets
February 20th, 2006 at 12:19 am
“This just in, family of four became millionaries after years of hard work, living below their means, and years of wise saving and investing.”
Guess that’s not as exciting.
Plus it would be pretty annoying to hear that everyday.”
I don’t know - I think it would be pretty cool…shows what a personal finance geek I am…
February 20th, 2006 at 6:19 am
Wow it was horrible this weekend… thats all that was playing on TV; powerball this and powerball that. I cant believe how many people stood in a line just to give away their money.
February 20th, 2006 at 9:46 am
“I don’t care if it’s marked down 75%,…
ask yourself again, and agian,…”do I really need this????”
Just put it back and walk away,….
You just saved 10 bucks.
For each day of the week,..$70 dollars,
for a year $840.
WOW!!!
February 21st, 2006 at 3:23 pm
wow, if I live in one of the Powerball states, I’m sure I’ll see news about it on the local channel.
whew.
good thing, because I’d hate to punch all 6 television sets in my house.
February 21st, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Six television sets! Wow. Do any of them count as “crap”? Or did you buy them before you stopped buying crap? ;)
I think the first two sets could be counted as necessities in these times. Numbers three, four, five and six, now those are “crap.” Unless you got them for free or cheap.
February 21st, 2006 at 5:40 pm
check the new post :) yeah its horrible. six of them.
I didn’t buy all of them, but I contributed to a few. no, they weren’t free unfortunately.
one of them is a pretty old one though. back when they use to make TV out of wood.
February 22nd, 2006 at 5:44 am
It is usually the people who can least afford it who get addicted to buying the lottery and scratch off tickets. I’m glad they’ve kept all that out of where I live so far.
February 24th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
In theory, there should be a bigger payout every year, since the initial jackpots should grow by 2% per year to keep pace with inflation. The US has a population growth of 0.92%, so the number of participants should increase by this amount each year (assuming that was the rate 18 years ago), meaning that there is a higher chance of someone winning the jackpot each drawing and that the jackpot should grow proportional to these additional players.