A working-class-stiff wins a quarter of a million dollars and it is truly life-changing. A janitor, a gardener, a fast food worker, a guard – with a windfall like that, they can turn their back on the roach-infested slum apartment and move to a better neighborhood or buy a small house and a new car. They can quit their hated job, help their families, participate in the good life they have only previously link panenslot experienced as outsiders, looking in.
The problem is that it is non-sustainable. Winning what seems like an enormous amount of money seldom leads to rational investment: education, skill upgrades, saving for future college costs or business opportunities. Moving from nothing to something, in an instant, is not an event likely to produce rational planning. For those whose monetary and emotional needs have never been truly met, immediate gratification is the direction of choice. A lifetime of denial demands a certain degree of self-indulgence when the means for it become miraculously available.
Is it any wonder that a large percentage of lottery winners file bankruptcy within five years of their win? The moves, the changes, the life enhancements that substantial wins provide are ephemeral.
In the short run, they provide an exciting exit from a black tunnel. In the long run, such a win turns negative – because the dream has become a reality, even if only for a brief moment, returning to prior levels of existence becomes an even more painful form of imprisonment.
The need to recapture that dream, and perhaps maintain it this time if a mega-million prize can be snatched, keeps the gambling industry thriving and the promises of dream fulfillment entice us all, most especially the poor, into one more venture, one more ticket, one more chance.
