Playing the Lottery

We studied several articles in the Tuesday 7:30am Round Table Meeting with Robert, Kim, and Sharon which I was not in attendance due to being sick. The articles were all from the New York Times:

1. Why Libby's Pardon is a Slam Duck - http://select.nytimes.com/gst/tsc.html?URI=http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/opinion/11rich.html&OQ=_rQ3D1Q26hp&OP=174eb4fdQ2FbQ7BenbQ22cQ25mmQ22b4110b1VbQ2FQ2FbmduxumxbQ2FQ2FQ25uQ3AQ7DQ23Q7DQ22Q60N

2. Lotto Makes Sense, Even for Losers - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/weekinreview/11carey.html?_r=5&em&ex=1173675600&en=2370d25e153825aa&ei=5087%250A&oref=slogin&oref=sl&oref=login

3. Crisis Looms in Market for Mortgages - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/business/11mortgage.html

I determined it is that from the top down and from the bottom up, people are just lying. Either to others or to themselves. In the Libby articles from the presence of WMS to the war in Iraq itself, there was and is a whole lot of lying going on there. I supect we will probably never know the full extent of the deception.

The Mortgage article, artifically inflated values to stated income loans also know as liars loans, this issue is the prime position to unravel fast.

As for the lotto article - it is clearly obvious that the person that plays the lotto regularly is lying to him or her self. The odds are astronomical and yet people are willing to stand in line at the local convenience store to buy their tickets. Households with regular players spends an average of about 2% of their income on the game studies find. The less money you have the more you play. Again, the lie we tell ourselves is that we actually have a shot. Are the mutual fund companies lying to you and why is it worse than the lottery? No capital investment and no risk, the mutual fund company reaps 80% of the return. Not a bad position for the mutual fund company. The reasons why the lottery would be better bet for most people is that there is a greater upside if you win. If you are investing the same amount in either place, your downside risk is the same is that you could end up with nothing. At least with the lottery you have the potential for a very large upside. You know what, I play whether I have no money or money. I don't play very often and it is not a must for me to play. I didn't use to play in the past because I was afraid to win the lotto thinking I couldn't handle the money!! Now I could or am I just kidding myself???????????????????????