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Why You Can Be Glad You Didn’t Win that Huge Lottery Jackpot
And the one human emotion we live for
Did you buy a ticket?
People who don’t normally buy lottery tickets will make an exception when the jackpots get large.
That way, we can laugh about it instead of secretly worrying people think we’re poor — a designation most people avoid like the plague. Notice I didn’t say actually being poor. Lots of people who don’t wear the label are, in fact, insolvent. Here’s a recent example. (Full disclosure: it’s paywalled)
Have you noticed being poor in America is almost always viewed as the result of an error you made and considered shameful? You blew it! You zigged when you should have zagged. You said, “Yes!” when you should have said, “No!” As soon as you’re poor, you’re judged by different rules.
Day drinking when you’re rich, charming! When you’re poor? It’s the reason for your poverty, you drunk!
Don’t pay taxes when you’re rich? Smart. When you’re poor? In that case, you’re a freeloader or a thief.
Where I’m from, buying lottery tickets is one of the lines of demarcation on the way to being “poor.”