#66 Dreaming About Winning the Lottery

It’s amazing how much time can be spent daydreaming about winning the lottery. Countless people working dead end office jobs can attest to this as they shamelessly collect their non-winning lotto tickets, thinking to themselves, “Next time.” When a big jackpot rolls around, these are the types of people who won’t even blink before throwing five bucks into the pool – even if it means potentially splitting a jackpot with their hated coworkers. They just want any chance at all to get out of working. Unfortunately for them, they’re not even lucky enough to get laid off – chances to win the lottery are probably higher. 

Unemployed people, on the other hand, have already had a taste of what it’s like to not have to work – and will agree it’s delicious. Better than the most expensive truffle in the world, they’d imagine. The only problem is, when living off meager unemployment checks, they’ll never know the taste of the truffle. Not without winning the lottery first. And so the unemployed will do whatever it takes to prolong their unemployment, usually by not even trying to look for a new job. Right now they’re banking on being able to extend their unemployment benefits – especially now that some states offer over a year of glorious free money. But if they really want to do it right, they need to invest in the lottery, which is the  best bang for the buck, and the most exciting way to imagine never having to work again.

For people who have no jobs to distract them, it’s very easy to spend a chunk of time thinking about what they’d do if they won the lottery. They’d pay off their debt, set up college funds, buy lavish homes around the world, provide for their friends and families, travel, etc. Most of all, they’d never have to work again or could at least devote their lives to passion projects (lots of lying in bed or lounging on the couch). This could easily be done with even the smallest jackpots, probably about $1 million. However, the unemployed aren’t dumb, they’re not going to waste their money when the pot is low, they’re going to invest when the jackpot is high and lotto fever catches on as everyone clamors to be gloriously rich and unemployed.

A strange sense of greediness prevents them from playing small jackpots because they figure it wouldn’t be enough to live off of, even though their current unemployment benefits put them at borderline poverty level. But the point isn’t how ridiculous it may be, or how unsound their reasons for playing are. For the unemployed, it’s a matter of killing a few hours daydreaming about something positive, regaining their lost sense of hope, even if it means crushing defeat when they check their numbers and see they didn’t win. The dream itself is worth a couple dollars here and there – especially if it’s “on the government” anyway.

Tags: creative money making, lottery, on the government, unemployment dreams