We read yesterday about a delusion I’d never heard of before. Deluded person believes she is predestined to win the lottery–so out she goes on a spending spree, bankrupts herself… and then, as anyone could have predicted, doesn’t win the lottery. Surprise, surprise–her luck couldn’t overcome odds of several million to one.
“Oh! But the lottery gives hope!” Uh-huh. “All you need is a dollar and a dream.”
The “hope” of acquiring fabulous wealth without having to do anything to earn it–that’s not morally constructive. But there are those who don’t understand such words.
At our local supermarket you can buy $30 scratch-off tickets.
If I could, I would get rid of the lottery. It’s a tax on credulity. People don’t understand that, with the odds given, any prospect of winning approaches zero. “Yeah, but someone always wins! Always! So why not me!” Someone wins–out of how many hundred million tickets bought?
Yeah, but it’s something for nothing!
I’d get rid of it tomorrow, if I could.