[harryf]

There was a great analysis of what happens when you win the lottery on reddit some years back - https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/whats_the...

> Nearly one third of multi-million dollar jackpot winners eventually declare bankruptcy. Some end up worse.

Of course many of the issues related to winning the lottery are caused by the attention you suddenly receive.

But a related story from someone that was able to retire early thanks to Bitcoin - https://old.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/lz4x37/ive_...

> my advice is that you need to get prepared to deal with boredom. We grow up with our parents telling us to go to school, have a job, a car, a house and that this is life. But when you suddenly have the car, the house and everything else, what's left? Do something for yourself and have this in mind.

Most of the planet works for money because they have to. That means the majority of their time is consumed by earning money. Once you take away that imperative, you suddenly have a lot more time on your hands. That in turn effectively triggers an existential crisis - what do with all this extra time? Some people will be able to turn into taking their lives in a new direction but others are going address with drugs and alcohol.

[ReggieCommaRose]

I imagine a big part of lottery winners going bankrupt are due to lack of education and/or comfort in having that much money at once (after all, the vast vast vast majority of lottery players are lower middle class to poor). It sounds like the writer (somewhat ironically) came from money so she'll probably be aight.

[BurningFrog]

Smart people don't play the lottery.

[bengale]

This always feels like a laboured point. I play a line a week, I don't notice the £2, the lottery pays out a lot to different charities and one day if I'm very lucky I might get an email telling me I won some money. I'm sure there's worse places to lose a couple of quid.

[proto-n]

Also, it's fun! I don't play often, but when I do, it's for the daydreaming and "what if"-s that comes with the experience.

[bengale]

I do enjoy a bit of fantasy mansion shopping on rightmove over a coffee on occasion.

[ilkkao]

lottery is the only charity work I do

[tyleo]

I used to believe this but I’m not so sure it’s true. Gambling is addictive and I think that things which are addictive can overcome reason.

I know a lot of smart developers who buy loot boxes in games, for example.

[HappySweeney]

I used to have a similar outlook (stating that lotteries are a tax on the mathematically illiterate), but now $3 for that small rush when I check the numbers is for sure worth it.

[no-s]

> $3 for that small rush when I check the numbers is for sure worth it.

I used to enjoy drinking wine, a glass of red wine every day, but I had to cut way back to "occasional" due to health concerns. Lottery's way cheaper than wine, and I still get to enjoy a little creative musing when I imagine how I would spend my time after winning. I could imagine I bought the lottery ticket, but that would be like imagining I drank the wine, heheh.

When planning disaster recovery scenarios it's much friendlier to start with "$KeyEmployee has just won the lottery and gone full F*kTheWorld" instead of morbidly assigning HitByBus.

[jsjsbdkj]

This is extremely condescending. For someone with assets (retirement savings, a house, etc.) playing the lottery doesn't make sense - you could save that money and have a marginally better life just by investing it. For people on the other side of the financial divide, life is basically framed in terms of debt. They will never get on top of the student loans, medical debt, credit card debt, car payments, payday loans, etc. that are constantly draining any excess cash they have.

The lottery is one of the few ways they could escape this debt spiral - if they could get a positive bank balance, they could begin to accumulate assets. That's not to say most people are able to do it, because suddenly having a lot of cash without financial literacy is dangerous. There's also a strong impulse to help out the people around you, which is tough because if the money is spread too thin none of the beneficiaries escape the debt cycle, they just reduce their balances slightly and then continue sliding downwards.

All that to say, playing the lottery is not stupid, it's a rational response to a society that's designed to drain the wallets of the most vulnerable for the benefit of the wealthy.

[BurningFrog]

You seem to claim that people unable to earn a living and/or manage their finances are just as smart and capable as the general population.

That is wildly counter intuitive. Is there any data to support it?

[jsjsbdkj]

1 in 10 americans lives in poverty, which is 25k/year or less for a family of four. Your position is that those are just the stupidest, least capable 10% of people and they deserve to be impoverished? If you work full time and you don't make a liveable income, how are you supposed to "manage your finances" better? If you have a disability and you can't work full time, does that make you stupid for not being able to "earn a living"?

[BurningFrog]

The "So are you saying <absurd vilifying caricature of statement>" pattern is a sure sign of someone not worth the time to engage.

[ReggieCommaRose]

The state lottery specifically? Maybe? Though it could just be a case of the state lotteries not being targeted at the better off and better educated demographic. The lottery is also just so transparent. But I see very smart people gamble in games they don't understand well all the time. It's just fun sometimes.

The writer played a lottery, just a different kind.

[2muchcoffeeman]

That in turn effectively triggers an existential crisis - what do with all this extra time?

Give your money to me. I have a million things I want/need to do. So many things to do in the world. How can you possibly get bored?

[harryf]

That's exactly the right perspective but if you've spent the last 20 years doing some job purely for the money, it's not an easy mental state to transition to and whether you're able will likely have a large part to do with your education and upbringing.

For example your social network may be largely people you work with - if you stop working, you lose those connections. And lockdown has shown what impact social isolation can have.

[throwaway0a5e]

You'll never find them on HN and Reddit but there are tons of people in their 40s-60s who despite working 40hr/wk for the last 20yr have all manner of projects and hobbies they would simply spend their time on if they suddenly didn't have to work, no change of mind required.

[throw0101a]

> have all manner of projects and hobbies they would simply spend their time on if they suddenly didn't have to work, no change of mind required.

The risk is that previously those things were "special" because you could only spend a little bit of time on them. If you spend all your time then the enjoyment can become 'commoditized' and routine. They may become as fun as brushing your teeth.

[inter_netuser]

Has this happened to you?

[WJW]

Quite so. Money problems are nicer to have than no-money problems but they are still problems. After the initial rush of "I will never have to worry about rent anymore!" wears off, you realize that none of your previous friends can relate to your situation anymore and that you are now a target for every scammer in the country. Worse, even winning tens of millions will not make a dent in the bigger "change the world for the better" dreams you may have and there is an even bigger disappointment waiting for you when you realize you are still a small fish compared to the Bezoses and Gateses.

Forcibly changing economic class without taking care to also change social class can be really tough psychologically, something that you frequently see in those Reddit topics.