It’s difficult to move from one social system into another. Think about the transition from eight grade to high school, or high school to college, or the military to college, or the working world back to school. Or consider the social anxiety that is produced by a divorce. At issue is that each social system has its own set of rules for how to get on and properly behave, think, and feel.
Now consider the difficulty of one day being wealthy and the next day being poor. If you think about it, the struggle in this transition would seem to be easy to surmount. So one day I eat off of expensive china and the next paper plates; one day I drive a BMW and the next a KIA. My sociological self would go through a transformation because I would relate to the world differently, just as others would treat me in new ways, but nothing about my inner spiritual consciousness would change–and so I’d still be the same “being.” As we say in sociology, my “me” would change but not my “I.”
And yet I suspect that most of us would agree that this would not at all be an easy transition. So why would we think that the sudden transition to wealth would be any easier? We have this idea that money makes us happy and so more money naturally means greater happiness. But money by itself does not make people happy, and this is a sociological and psychological lesson that most of us could stand to learn.
Here is an interesting article about winning the lottery. It’s worth thinking about how how one’s life would change FOR THE WORSE if you won millions. I think we can all imagine how our lives would change FOR THE BETTER. But really…what about the negative things that would happen, the things we probably don’t stop to consider when we drop a couple of bucks on a Powerball ticket?
Winning the lottery is not all it’s cracked up to be. I think many people overlook the negative effects that I mentioned in this response. However, if the opportunity were available to me, I still would not think twice about taking the money and dealing with all of the drama behind winning. I think the key factor behind winning is keeping your winnings anonymous. I wouldn’t want anyone to know that I even won, therefore I wouldn’t have to worry about all the leeches bothering me about my wealth. I would also buy an island and move there so no one could bother me.
Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of winning a lottery one day. I always thought if I did win the lottery I would be the happiest person on Earth. I would use the money to do many good deeds not only for myself but for many others. I would donate money to a lot of charities, distribute some of the money to my relatives, pay of my parent’s debt, buy a house for myself, and pay for my education as well as my siblings. That was just my dream ever since I knew about the lottery; I thought it would buy me happiness.
But after reading this article, I have learned that things aren’t always as simple as they may seem. I have learned that with the good come the bad. You may be happy for the first month after winning the lottery, but if you can’t manage your money right, you will start having problems. Not only that but many friends and relatives will start depending on you a lot and if you cannot meet their needs, they will start to look at you differently. They will start saying you have changed and maybe even start talking about you and bashing your name to others. Other problem you may encounter is people hurting you or your family. Some people in your community may try to rob you after hearing that you have won millions and millions dollars. You will start getting scared and start living life fearfully. Your life may not be so happy after all.
Winning the lottery could be a good thing if you learn how to manage it or put yourself out there as a new millionaire. As the article says, manage your money have a plan on what you will be doing with you money. Also if you win a lottery make sure you create many memories with the people you love about what you did with you money, those memories will bring you happiness for a really long time. If you also want to be happier, be a giver and not a lender like the article says. Giving others makes people happy.
The vast majority of people around the world have the solid idea that winning the lottery is surely a good thing; even a sure-shot at happiness. By no means does winning the lottery assure happiness to anybody. In any case, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that money isn’t the sole source of happiness in life. There have been many people throughout history that have tried to get across to other people the idea that money doesn’t bring happiness; other things do. There are many things that can go wrong with winning the lottery. These things are only ever more likely to happen because the people that win the lottery are usually lower-class, meaning that they do not know how to manage their money as well as they should whenever they come across a large amount of money. This happens because these are the people who are not educated enough to recognize the odds of actually winning the lottery.
The most common thing that can go wrong with losing the lottery is to simply waste all the money early on and not get to enjoy it for a long period of time, or even just wasting it on the wrong things.
On the other hand, when the forces that can go wrong are from external sources, there is a limited range of things a person can do to stop the envy that can be found in other people all around us.
Even though winning the lottery doesn’t assure happiness, it is a very good shot at it. People that know how to go about investing money and being smart about whatever they purchase are the ones who can potentially get the most satisfaction out of winning the lottery in the long run. Spending money on things that don’t only satisfy one in the present moment can really increase a person’s level of happiness in a prolonged manner. Moreover, connections to other people are much harder(if not impossible) to control, since it is an external force. In any event, happiness is different to everyone and money is far from being the only thing that can affect it.
In my economics class my senior year in high school, I specifically remember having the classic debate: does money buy you happiness? The class was split pretty much 50-50, and man did it get heated in there. The people that were on the ‘hell yes’ side thought the people on the ‘no’ side were complete idiots. To them it was as simple as “When I buy an ice cream cone, I’m happy, so money bought me happiness”. To the people on the ‘no’ side, the side I was on by the way, it was much more complex than that. Life is more complex than that. Human beings, for certain, are much more complex than that.
That’s why it makes perfect sense to me when I see articles like this one on CNN that people who win the lottery wish it never happened to them. People think that the lottery is the ultimate quick fix, the shortcut to happiness. But soon enough people realize it doesn’t and then they are left puzzled. After 40 minutes of heated debate I my economics class and we realized we were literally never going to agree on this issue, we started to discuss why we could never agree, and we came up with something interesting. We concluded that it is basically because each of us has very different definitions of happiness. What happiness literally means to you can determine what it would take to make you happy. I agree to a certain extent, but I honestly lean more towards the side that the definition of happiness is more universal than most people think.
In short, I think happiness is a balance of every aspect of our lives. Think about it, if we have everything else in our lives going for use, a great job, stable finances, loving family, nice place to live, but our love life is out of whack, we are not going to be happy. Likewise if everything in our lives except our finances was stable, then and only then do I believe could money “buy” happiness. But if your finances are fine (meaning you’re not poor) and you just went through a bad break up, you can buy things all you want and it may feel like it’s helping, but at the end of the day you are still sleeping alone. No amount of money can make trying to sleep with a broken heart suck any less.
So anyway, don’t get me wrong, if I won the lottery it’s not like I would cry and shun it away. I would be ‘happy’ and it would definitely ease a lot of worries I have for the future, but again I remind you, it would only solve the financial aspect of my life, nothing else.
Although we all dream of winning the lottery, we also constantly hear about the horror stories associated with it. People who go from almost nothing to suddenly having everything they could ever imagine don’t know how to handle it. I must admit it, I feel as though I would be the same way. I am a college student who survives off the money I earn day to day and if I suddenly landed with millions in my lap, without someone to consult me, I would spend it in the worst ways. I would choose luxuries for my friends and family when there are so many important things I could save it for. Most people want to spend the money for themselves and the people they love, but at the same time once people you haven’t spoken to in years hear about your recent wealth the calls begin coming in from all over the place. However, though this seems to be the norm and the stories that make the news, my mom’s best friend’s father in fact won the lottery and handled it in a very noble way. Because he was agreed of random people contacting him after hearing of his luck he vowed to himself that he would not tell anyone, not even his wife. I cannot imagine doing such a thing because I personally cannot hold in anything exciting or good that happens to me. However, this man went about setting up college funds for every one of his grandchildren so that their college career would be fully paid for. Imagine the joy his children felt several years later when they discovered they had no worries about their children receiving the education that they deserve. This story represents a truly selfless man. However, he did reward all of children with a hummer and another present of their choice. And once he had spent the money on the things he found most important he purchased electronics and cars that he had always wanted. This is an ideal situation of someone who wins all this money, but unfortunately there are so many more people who just cannot handle it. Marriages break apart, parents lose touch with their children, and relationships that people thought would last forever are suddenly gone. We all want that kind of money but it is something that needs to be worked for and earned if we are not mature to handle it. I have seen stories on the news about men spending their money on strippers, booze, and parties, and in the end fully regretting their decisions. Unfortunately, while this pattern will continue as long as the lottery exists, something needs to be done in the way the money is given so that people have the chance to spend it in a more responsible way.
Part 1: I strongly agree with the research that you get more joy from going on trips and doing activities that will bring memories than from buying clothes, shoes and jewelry. I don’t see the point in having all the materials if you have nowhere to wear them to. It always boggles my brain when I see poor people living in the inner city with Cadillac’s that have rims and they have the next latest Jordan sneakers or Louie vuitton etc, but they aren’t going anywhere and they don’t prosper to do better such as moving to a better part of the state or investing it in something. I always thought money wasn’t what brought you happiness it’s just a piece of paper. It’s the people that you love that bring you happiness if you could use the money to better your loved ones and yourself that will bring more happiness.
Part 2: When you win the lottery it’s almost like getting famous all the people that you thought were your friends turn against you or try to use you, because now you have something that they want. That’s when you find out whose real and whose not, when people who never kept in contact with you before are now asking for favors. Winning the lottery is a curse and a blessing all in one, because depending on how strong the person is, will defy the winnings becoming a curse. You might lose some family members and/or friends but if you spend and invest in the money wisely, you’ll be set for life. Like Biggie Smalls always said the “mo money, mo problems” and people will do crazy things to get money, such as committing crimes to get it, lottery winners should be very cautious who they tell their winnings to.
Part 3: It’s always a happier story or you get more recognition when the winnings go to someone that really needed it, and they were still willing give back to others who were less fortunate. No one never wants to hear about an upper-middle class person winning three hundred million, in the article when they did the study that showed people are more willing to donate money to a stranger than to give it to a friend or family member to help pay a bill, I can understand why people would think that way. When you donate it’s usually to people who need it more than your friend, such as food or to have a roof over their heads, and with your family and friends if you know their doing better off than the people your donating to your more reluctant to give it to them.
There are many negatives that come from suddenly winning mass amounts of money through something such as the lottery. Being thrown over the course of a few days from one social class to another is more jarring than most people care to realize. Most people who win the lottery are from the lower classes, and thus being raised to the upper classes is a completely different environment from what they were accustomed to. Adjusting to their new reality can be quite hard, as the way they are treated and expected to act changes literally overnight through this new money. Their previous tastes and preferences for things such as sports and art are usually different from those of people in the upper class, as seen through various observations of social classes. Another problem these winners have is handling their money correctly. They don’t have the skills to correctly handle, spend, and invest their money. These skills are usually taught to those people who have money from the start and middle to upper class students usually develop and are taught these skills in school and from their parents. The people who win the lottery haven’t been taught these skills and are instead handed the money without having any idea how to responsibly handle it. These skills are critical when handling money, as being able to invest and save it allows a person to properly manage their funds and gain more from their money. Without these skills, what’s left for a person to do but to directly spend their money that they have just sitting around? Just having your money without parts of it in saving just makes a person question why it’s just sitting around and gives them a reason to spend it. What they spend it on is usually stuff that would appease a person of the lower class and makes them seem out of place in their new social settings. With this rapid spending comes a realization that the funds made through the lottery are finite, and that what they spent the money on isn’t going to make their lives any better.
I think this article illustrates how superficial our society has become. Winning the lottery has become the “American Dream” so to speak. It has become the ultimate goal of the American working class. It has become the focus of prayers for the financially unstable. Its role has spread to an everyday reference. And to a winner, what could be more exciting, more life changing? Of course winning the lottery has its pros and cons. Although in daydreams it seems more desirable than in reality. People make promises to donate to charity, help causes, etc., but in the end, greed often conquers all else. Personally, I think the lottery game creates more social problems than anything else. We live in a world in which we envy each other because of wealth and materials, how privileged individuals are compared to ourselves. When I think of winning the lottery, two cliché sayings come to mind. One: money does not bring happiness. Some of the stories stated in the article referred to people’s negative life changes after winning the lottery. Having such an influential change so suddenly tends to overwhelm people. Winning the lottery means changing social status overnight. It has the power to change a lifestyle completely around, and some of the time, for the worst. People hold so much value on materials, and lottery winners are infamous for having money that “burns a hole in their pocket.” However, just like the saying says, money does not bring happiness, many people end up losing touch with their empathetic living style and build a deeper relationship with their possessions. However, materials can only bring so much comfort. There are is little emotional value associated with materials, and the act of spending more and more money honestly cannot bring true happiness. Having money does not mean having love, or relationships, or laughter, which brings me to another cliché point: money is the root of all evil. The stories featured in the article noted the blackmailing and destruction of relationships because of money. Even when you have good intentions, when money and greed come into play, it can change people for the worst. Although the lottery winners surveyed said they had not changed, they said that the people around them, their friends, and even their loved ones were overcome with greed. It just goes to show that our society has become one influenced by the evils of money.
As human beings, we tend to illusion the things that will satisfy us and believe will make us happy. Money brings more opportunity for happiness and power in which human beings want. Everyday humans have a set mission to eventually become wealthy which will lead to happiness. We work all our lives to be able to support our loved ones, pay bills, give to the unfortunate, and any other endeavors we may pursue with our money. Money certainly to an extent brings a level of security that humans are able to live freely and as well as help relief some societal stresses that may be attached to finances. I believe that individuals who are raised in a considerably poor home are those who strongly believe money brings extreme happiness. They live in a society where money will cure all of their stressful anxieties. So the need for more to achieve a degree of happiness is high. Those who grow up in middle class families tend to live more comfortable and their desire for more money to create happiness is less of a discrepancy than the poor. Those who live in considerably rich families have an extremely different sociological structure that gauges happiness. In fact, most people who have been fortunate enough to be rich believe that the level of financial safety has nothing to do with happiness. This is a completely different perception than the poor who think different. Ultimately, the amount of money you have and how much is traced to happiness depends on your societal environment. For example, I grew up with a family in the middle class but I did not feel as fortunate as other kids who grew up in the higher middle class level. I learned to appreciate money much more and the things that involved money we did scarcely because of that fact. But I wasn't sad because of that fact. I still was a happy individual because I learned to adapt to society and things that were considered fun in that society. From that stand point, it is hard to put the basis of happiness on one particular factor. On the other hand, I believe that the people who constantly struggle to pay bills, eat food, acquire shelter, produce for family, etc are correct when they believe money brings happiness. You have to be out in this situation to understand it. But humans have a unique ability to adapt and get by. It is natural that we find our niche on happiness no matter the circumstances.
Money, the root of all evil. I would like to wake up one day and win the lottery. The first thing I would do, would be a buy a Range Rover to drive from point a to b. A range rover is my dream. Ok the next thing I would do is give a lot of money to my father, sisters, and nephews. Then I would spend a lot of money on clothes, cause I have to stay fresh. Since I won a lot of money, I got to look like it. Then I would spend a lot of money on my education cause Imma need some more money if I run out. Then for the rest of the money I would just blow it on dumb stuff like 2 houses, a couple of cars, and maybe a few bitches that I can see all day. Then I would blow money on parties, more clothes, and family. I am a big spender. Mind you that I won the lottery; this money is not coming in consistent. Just a large lump sum. As I keep spending money, I am losing it without even paying attention. I have become accustomed to this lifestyle, of being rich and powerful. I am no longer middle class or lower class. I have the best car, house, the best everything. Then, one day, my accountant calls me and tells me I have no money left to pay the bills. I then have to sell my house, cars, everything. After all that, I have nothing. I wake up where I was before I won the lottery. My life is fucked. But I don’t think the money bought me happiness, rather it just taken the hardship off my mind. So where does that leave me? I know money don’t buy happiness cause a lot of rich people are some of the saddest people on earth. Their problems are probably 10 times worst than normal lower class. It is quite sad but its reality. Money is the root of all evil as stated in the opening. But I still want to be rich.
I’m deeply saddened to see lower class people spend their money on lottery tickets. I think the state relies on tricking people to buy them when the chances of winning are so low and then in the case of actually winning, it’s been proven that most lottery winners aren’t happy after they win the lottery. Last summer I went gambling with a few friends. We went midday in the middle of the week (big mistake!). Everyone there was old and the whole scene was very depressing.
I saw old women taking out hundreds of dollars and then feeding it into the slot machines, staring blankly at the screen and pulling the lever. My friends and I went in knowing that we would only spend 20 bucks each.
My friends and I went in knowing that we would only spend 20 bucks each. I ended up walking out with $30 because I won some money,
but I remember feeling so sad because I knew the casino was just draining everyone’s money. Money makes people crazy. We’re all controlled by money, as everyone is fighting for it. Our society is extremely materialistic which drives us to buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have. I wish everyone would be content with what they have.
but I remember feeling so sad because I knew the casino was just draining everyone’s money. Money makes people crazy. We’re all controlled by money, as everyone is fighting for it. Our society is extremely materialistic which drives us to buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have. I wish everyone would be content with what they have.
While I wish I could say a lottery is always a blessing, that is honestly not true. I have actually seen a few news reports and documentaries about how many people who win a large sum of money in a lottery become happier but then go bankrupt. According to research there have been times when people won the lottery and have wisely either invested the money, donated a good amount of the money to a charity, or have saved the money and used a small sum to improve their homes and cover bills. This can be because the winners did not have a spending mentality or made smart decisions on how to spend the money, but the documentaries that I am talking about is centered around how many winners made the win into a curse. Normally those people who won the lottery make the winnings into a curse simply because they choose to spend the money unwisely. One example of this is how a couple or family that gained a large sum of money from the lottery is when the family spends the money to improve their family’s lifestyle. The issue with this is that there is normally no longer a steady form of income, the money is just dumped into their accounts. The members of the family normally believe that the sum of money is enough to cover the fees of the family for the rest of all the current member’s live, so the family members choose to abandon their jobs. But by leaving their jobs, then there is no longer a stream of income and the family only relies on the money in their accounts. While the amount gained from the winnings could last maybe a lifetime, if used correctly, without a steady income which is normally produced from a job of some sort, the family’s next generation will not have a large sum of money to live off of. This can lead to two major issues. The first is the fact that the family has already purchased so many things to grow in their financial status, the members of the family have become financially dependent on spending large sums of money. This normally carries over to the next generation which grows in a financially secure home. This is obviously not a bad thing, but if the winnings are almost gone and the well of wealth is almost or completely dried up, the family will need to adjust to the situation and will need to enter the work force again. The problem with this is that the generation that needs to enter the work force probably has little to no experience and don’t have the drive or desire to really be a good employee, they are doing the work for the money. In other words the money has destroyed their way of life and while it gave the family more current joy, with time the money disappears and leaves the family to suffer, forcing the families to return to simpler times. Because the family regresses down the financial and social ladder, it becomes difficult for the family to adjust until it is too late and the family begins to file for bankruptcy. This has been the story for many families, couples, and even individuals. In these cases, winning the lottery can easily become a curse.
At first glance the title of this article interested me. My first thoughts had to deal with people blowing all of their money for a slim to none chance of winning the jackpot. As I read on, though, I quickly discovered the true nature of the article and became even more intrigued. The thought that making the transition from poor to wealthy very rapidly is an interesting concept I have never thought about. A common trait between most of the lottery winners is simply that they’d not know how to manage their newly acquired wealth and end up more poor than before. They tried to fill their life with luxurious goods that they believed would make them happy, only to find out money truly can not buy happiness. These people continuously try to fill their void by continuing spending only to come to the conclusion that over time they would inevitably end in debt. Almost everybody wishes they had more money because a human’s life revolves around money.
Think about it. Our whole life we spend money and attend a prestigious university for the sole purpose of being able to make a lot of money in the future.
Nobody tries to be poor. Although when a poor person suddenly has access to large amounts of money, they try to change the way they live, the way they act, and their whole image. The problem with this is that they cant just magically change their entire way of life because theyre suddenly rich. They would do their best to live the way they think rich people would live, but many people fail in doing so. Probably the biggest problem related to quickly making the transition from lower class to upper class and skipping middle class is not gaining the responsibility to manage money and being naïve about the people in your life. Not earning your own money but rather suddenly receiving money also hurts the chances of lottery winners to hold on to their money. The winners do not appreciate the money because they did not have to work for it. This is also seen in teenagers with rich parents that give them everything they want.
Take a car for example, a car given lasts nowhere near as long as a car earned because the car earned has sentimental as well as monetary value attached to it.. Money has a way of going to a persons head. Most often than not, good friends will be lost and false friends will be made in the sudden gain of money, then if the transition is made(which it often times is) from rich back to poor, all friends will be lost and the lottery winner is actually worse off. I believe this is the true curse the article is talking about
Everyone is aware of the old saying that “money brings happiness.” Even though this saying may apply for brief periods of time because it alleviates the fear of debt that people may struggle with, it also brings a lot more into a person’s life than joy. People who have worked to transition from one social class to a higher position in society do not always feel like they are in the right place once they position themselves with the others from that class. People generally do not change their actions and out looks on life so, the transition from one social class to another may be shocking in many ways. Also, with the uneasiness of not really belonging in a particular social class also adds the issue of envy from your former friends and colleagues. People may criticize your new wealth by claiming you do not deserve the money or, in some cases, claim that you should share your wealth because in the case of a lottery, you did not put forth any true effort in order to obtain the money. Also, people who once were truly generous and helpful in your life may come back to retaliate against you because they helped you when you truly needed them. There are people in life that you would probably want to help but others may not truly deserve it. In the end, the money you obtain is a gift. The money will cause people to be guilty and greedy but in the end of the day, there are more important things than money. For example in the article, a person spoke of the loss of family members. This event in a person’s life is more monumental than winning the lottery and clearly more prevalent to their life. Even with money, tragedy still strikes and it is incomparable to any amount of wealth. So the fact that money brings happiness can be true but mostly, money brings convenience. True happiness is found in other aspects of life and the gaining of massive amounts of money can bring many more problems with a person’s family, friends, coworkers, and place in society. The transition from one place to another in society is never easy, and when the transition involves money, it is more complicated than finding immediate new happin
I have always known that gambling was prohibited in my religion. My thoughts on this was just that gambling is not a good way to get money, as easy money will not last long, and it is hard to even win while gambling; you could either win everything or lose everything.
Reading the article has certainly reconfirmed the prohibition; there are definitely more negative effects of gambling compared to the positive effects. Even so, it did indeed shock me on how terrible life could be even after winning a large amount of money. Knowing this made me sad for those who are still trying to get good money from gambling.
Even the article itself has showed a study where those who had and did not win the lottery still have the same levels of happiness. Doesn't this prove that easy money or gambling does not bring more happiness? Most of the time, as the article has showed, the lottery winners find it hard to cope up with people asking for money instead of helping out and facing the increased risk of being the target to be robbed.
Other than that, Sam has also talked about how it is difficult for us to change our social class. He gave a good example in class when a poor couple won the lottery and moved into a big mansion and threw out all the valuable paintings. Winning a large amount of money will not make us 'one of them'. We are still strongly tied to the invisible strings; where the sociological factors that has shaped us into our social class will not be easily discarded. The poor couple who won the lottery is a great example. They have moved into a big mansion, but they could not recognize valuable paintings as they were not sociologically educated to recognize such items.
It is a completely different story if someone got a promotion from work, and received an increase in his or her pay. He or she will be able to adjust more to his or her new job and pay, compared to a sudden ‘jump’ to those who had suddenly won 10 million dollars or so. Other than that, these people with new job promotions will be able to adapt more to their increased income; those who won a large sum of money tend to spend the money quickly and unwisely as they did not have any experience in handling or spending a large sum of money.
Some might say that they could adapt and grow into their new surroundings and environment. This is true to a certain extent, but when things are completely different, it may not be as easy as it sounds. To our surprise, sometimes what we dreamed of is not as pretty as it thought it would be once we get it. In this case, money from gambling.
I often have heard things about how winning the lottery can be a curse as opposed to a blessing. I never thought of it in terms of myself. It is said to be quite the transition when winning the lottery as anyone can imagine, and it cannot be an easy one. Just because somebody has money does not mean they are able to live life as the rich do. A class change that extravagant can really set them back in society. I was watching a TV show a couple weeks ago about people that won the lottery. They were able to purchase a large gorgeous house, but of course they filled it with junk. They were not accepted into their neighborhood, and as a result they became depressed with lack of socialization. It is impossible to change a person by changing their bank account. Another thing I saw on the show that typically happens is people that do not have a large amount of money do not know how to save. A lot of people win all this money and then throw it away on large purchases right away. Instead of using it for something useful like their child’s education, they spend it on a yacht. The money disappears and the people end up worse off than they were to begin with. It is not always a positive thing to give people that are not well off a large amount of money with no guidance. These people are typically not able to handle such a drastic change in lifestyle, and maybe it is not a good idea to subject people to this. More often than not they end up in a bad place unable to be happy with their lives. They become shallow and materialistic, and this could have been avoided without receiving a large amount of money all of a sudden. It can ruin peoples’ lives as well as help them immensely. I think if they use it towards something they really need it can be a very positive experience, but if not it can get bad very quickly.
My friend and I were actually talking about this topic the other day about how the lottery can be considered both a blessing and a curse. While it is a blessing in that you instantly can buy everything you ever wanted but couldn’t afford, but the real question is, do you need all of that money to be happy. Take a lower income family for example if they by luck end up winning the lottery then they probably wouldn’t have any experience handling money at that magnitude. This in turn can cause the winners to spend the money on lavish items that they have always wanted, which can end up bringing the individual back to the same boat they were in before thy won. For comparison, take someone who makes a lot of money and knows how to handle that money. They would most likely buy a few things they want but they would also spend it on things that would help them in there future such as, stocks and retirement funds. The other main reason why I feel that winning the lottery is a curse is that the individual cant achieve the satisfaction of earning the money, but instead just given the money. Hard work is a valuable trait that will help someone get far in life and to be deprived of it is terrible. My parents always told me that anything worth having in life is not easy and I have lived by this quote ever since they told me it. This quote basically says that in life anything easy should not bring the feeling of achievement to someone. So even though in the short-run it will always be a blessing but in the long-run it can be considered either a blessing or a curse depending on who the person winning is. If someone with an established job and knowledge of money wins, then there will be more of a chance they use the money wisely rather then just blowing it. IF someone who isn’t established wins the lottery then they will not know how to budget their money efficiently. So the lottery can be both a blessing and a curse, it is all up to who wins it.
When we think of the lottery, it is hard to imagine the negative effects of what could happen and how our lives would change if we did actually win. We can only see the fairytale, carefree lifestyle that is commonly associated with winning millions of dollars. However, as the article stated, money can cause people to do crazy and irrational things. Even if the money doesn’t change the winner themselves, other people in one’s life may start asking for favors and try to control your money. Unfortunately another negative aspect of winning the lottery is that you really no longer know who you can trust. People who you used to consider some of your closest most trustworthy friends may actually try and take advantage of your new fortune.
Those who play the lottery on a regular basis are likely to be very poor and believe that winning the lottery is their only way out. However, these people throughout their lives probably have not had very much success with money. Therefore if they do end up winning the jackpot, they do not have a plan as to what to do with the money which leads them to spending it wastefully and letting others influence them negatively. They also don’t “fit” into the culture of the upper class. Just because they now have the money to be considered rich, they have not grown up living that lifestyle. They don’t understand what to do when you have that much money at one time. Like Sam said in class you cannot buy your way into a culture.
I think that in order for the lottery to continue to be a positive thing in people’s lives, they should not be able to obtain all of the money at one time in a lump sum. Getting the money over time will help prevent it from being spent on wasteful things and reduce the effects of other people trying to mooch off of you. Also as stated in the article, getting the money over time will keep you happier for a longer because the excitement of the money will be spread out. If the money does need to be given at one time, I think that it is imperative that the person tries to keep a low profile and spends their money wisely and conservatively.
Happiness is a relative term; happiness to one person may not make the person next to him happy. However, I think that most people would agree that if they were to win the lottery, they would be happier and better off. But if you read the CNN article, it begs to differ with this generally agreed upon statement. People who are suddenly thrown millions of dollars have no idea what to do with it. They think they can spend it all right away, because they have never had that much money before they do not know how to spend it. Most people who end up 'unhappy' after winning the lottery probably do not keep track of how they are spending money and still feel like they have to prove that they are rich instead of just being rich. There is a big difference. There is a lot of pressure on acting like you have money and that you deserve the money that you got and may be why people have such a hard time transitioning from being poor to rich. If you work hard for that money however, it comes over a gradual amount of time and careful planning that in the end you know that you deserve the title of being rich and that you worked hard to get there, there is nothing to prove to anyone else. That is also why winners of the lottery have to deal with people trying to take their money and take advantage of them. There seems to be a curse with lottery winners. However, I do not believe it to be so much a 'curse' as it is false expectations. People generally have higher expectations for their lives after they win the lottery and if these are not met they feel depressed. Or most people feel that winning the lottery will solve all their problems, most do not realize that it is just adding more problems on top of that so they become even more overwhelmed because they couldn't even deal with their problems beforehand. Few people could probably handle the stresses that come to them after winning the lottery, but I doubt that the majority of them can. It is such a life changing experience that it is hard to deal with it and few things in life can help you prepare for it. Like all huge life changing experiences people have, there are some serious problems you have to push through in order to finally be happy, and in this case it may be too much for most people.
i Found this article extremely interesting. I think if you were to take a giant survey worldwide that the majority of people would LOVE to win the lottery. Yet litle do these people know it is not it is all perked up to be. You would think that money equals happiness. Money can buy you anything you want, clothes a new house cars and evern vacations for those travel lovers. But the thing is this article brought up some interesting points that really opened my eyes to how awful it could be and showed me what exactly the bad parts about winning the lottery would be. I never though anything negative about free millions. I didnt realize that people in your life would try an take advantage of you and get some of that mula. But now that i have read it, i truly understand t and i could definately see that happenng. Friends and family would do anything for a lend out of cash. Also people who grew up in poor communities would probably continue to shop at the stores and live in the neighborhoods that they would typically live at. I dont think their lives would change THAT much it is not like they are a completely different person. It was interesting to read that some lottery winners even were to afraid to tell their friends they won the lottery for fear of what could happen. Its true there are a lot of people out there who USE people for their money. And your so called "friends" could easily start mooching off of you or even using you for your wealth. Its interesting to read this because most people would think winnning the lottery is the best thing in the world. There are some people who buy lottery tickets every single day just hoping to be that lucky someone who wins! But what they dont realize is all the stress and issues that money come along with ! This wasa great article and i truly enjoyed seeing how inheriting a ton of cash could change your life forever.
I think that the event of winning the lottery does affect how people act in some way. This change in wealth can move a person that is of the lower class to the upper or upper middle class. This person who once was the type of person that would see the lottery as a way out and share the same feelings as other people with similar social status, and same views on life. Once the person leaves that neighborhood and moves to a better place, like the woman that worked jobs before she won the lottery, in the article, bought a new home. She doesn’t believe she changed, however if she did not change immediately eventually over time some of the social strings that control her actions may change to new ones.
In the matter of change in happiness with change in wealth, some changes in people’s lives do bring happiness, a change in wealth may increase a person’s happiness for a period of time. In the article a good point was brought up, that the purchasing of material goods brings temporary happiness. The happiness and excitement of the new material good leaves, then the person is less happy. SO this shows that increases in wealth can bring temporary happiness when using the wealth on material goods. The article also mentions how the use of the wealth on experiences brings long term happiness with memories. These both make sense, leaving me to conclude: Depending on how the person spends the wealth will affect the amount of happiness and the length of happiness. It is also important to consider the loss of happiness as the people around you change do to the increase in wealth. People and family members may dislike them and act differently toward them decreasing the happiness. In some ways people increase their happiness and in other ways a decrease in happiness occurs.
What a crazy thought that winning the lottery would be a source of stress but obviously it is and a high source of stress that is. The world is filled with greedy fearful people that will do just about anything for money. I think it is so interesting seeing how people handle their own money, the conversation of money and those that have large amounts money. I would completely agree with the CNN article that those who give money to others are more satisfied and I understand why it would be frustrating if one loaned money to another and then felt they were spending it irresponsibly. People work hard for their money. After all money is a daily need, thought and conversation. If money did not matter then why would we go to school, college or slave always for 40 plus hours each week? We prepare our whole lives to make money, then make more money while saving money so one day we don’t have to make money and we can live off our saved money. I think one factor to look at in each lottery winner is their location and those they are involved with. If they lived in a big city like LA or New York or somewhere that money was very present and obvious then I think they would struggle with it; as compared to a small town where while money is important it is not the main topic at hand. Also, if they were around people that were greedy, always wanting more and unsatisfied with their life again they would struggle. If there were around stable, grateful, moral people I don’t think the lottery winners would struggle as much. I found it interesting to hear that people are happier after spending money on an experience rather than material items. Maybe money classes should be brought into school systems for high school students. While finance classes are helpful, I think a ‘money, psychology and living life’ class would be great for the American people. I wonder how much we would have to spend in taxes to start that? Overall, I enjoyed the article because it was great food for thought and the blog have some very valid and vivid points. What a great way to compare the life change of being rich and then poor to make the reader understand the opposite effect as well.
I myself was the child of a somewhat wealthy family consedering a village society. My parents all lived in a big house with my grandparents. Years after I went back to bulgaria and saw the house I made ıt to be the bıggest house I ve seen there. My family was farming tabbaco at the time. It wasnt that the income was so great but they new how to handle their finances. So I could say ı was born ınto a well off family but didnt reap the benefits as much. Short after I was born to escape the communıst regıme they moved to Turkey leaving everythıng behınd only to start from zero. I dıdnt see my mom or dad for days because they would work 3 to 4 consecutive shifts. Besıdes from the tımes ı was sent away to live with grandparents, ı was practıcally raısed in the streets. This continued until ı was at school age whıch ıs the tıme of course we bought our own house.Hence I was brought up ın a famıly who valued hard work.
Now speakıng for myself ı thınk that ı am pretty grounded ın my values and a mıllıon dollars over nıght would not change me much. I say thıs because my life has already changed substatıally ın a matter of two decades from a communıst country to a one party democracy whıch was the most crooked government ı had seen – though ı should say Turkey has ımproved alot sınce then- to United States whıch of course still has one of the strongest economies in the world. In conclusıon ı dont thınk my lıfe would change much wıth wınnıng the lottery suddenly. Speakıng generally though, surely that amount of money can have a toll on someones life. Especially with the relationships people have with others. For instance long lost relatives mıght surface and tell you how much they ve missed you. Things like that. Offcourse your social status also has a great inluence on how things would play out. For ınsatance a famıly that has been oil rıch for generatıons wınnıng the lottery would not really change much for them. Well would they really play lottery in the fırst place? Eventhough this would be an extreme ı guess what I am sayıng ıs that a homeless person wınnıng and a doctor wınnıng would have very dıfferent consequences.
But does money brıng happınes? I cant really answer that. Eventhough ı thınk to be well grounded I stıll dont know what my dad s ıncome ıs because ı am afraıd knowıng my dads ıncome would change me still. So there is no denying money changes peoples lives: for the worst or better that ı cant tell.
There is no doubt that 99 percent of humans wish they had more money. This is because we do everything for money. We go to school so we can get a better job, we invest in the stock market for more money, and we even play the lottery in the hopes of getting more money. We do this because, obviously, our economic standing is a major factor in the lives we live and the people we meet. However, when someone wins the lottery, they drastically change their economic standing, meaning they alter their whole lifestyles. For some, this is impossible. One thing that can probably change, or that some might attempt to change, is who they associate with. If a person comes from a poor area and suddenly wins millions, chances are that they will move away to an upper class environment just to fit in. Following what Sam said one day in class, these people will still be very much like the people from the class that they came from, regardless of how much money they have. Moving to a different area will probably cause the people to feel more unlike their environment, especially if they don’t fit the social mold of “high society”. Another issue that winning the lottery can bring upon people is overspending. What I mean by overspending is the false sense that they have unlimited funds at their disposal. For example, if a poorer person suddenly wins a lot of money, they will feel more compelled to spend it on things that they couldn’t before. They will probably overindulge in things and end up wasting their fortune away and before you know it, they will be right back where they started or even worse off than before. Unfortunately, the majority of lottery players have not gone to college or possess the knowledge of how to properly maintain their finances. Because of this, overindulgence occurs more often than not.
It’s a shame that many people see winning the lottery as the only way to be financially stable. There are many other ways and methods that people can follow in order to be financially secure. While winning the lottery can provide people with a large amount of money quickly, people need to be careful with what they choose to do with their funds.
It made me laugh when Sam said in class that the lotto is a tax on people who are bad at math, that is something my grandfather always told me. The unfortunate truth is that people living in lower income families are predisposed to receiving a lesser quality education, especially on such matters. The American dream has always been living comfortable and prosperously, and in many peoples' eyes the only way the know how to achieve this is to buy lottery tickets and cross fingers. This can generally be related to the marriage of social classes as well; people with similar thoughts, beliefs, and social status will form a union raise kids and teach their children the only thing they have ever known. The offspring become slaves to the viscous cycle and unless they are made aware of such circumstances will never be able to break free. Personally I think the lottery is a terrible thing, just another way that large government takes advantage of those with less monetary wealth without them even realizing it. I'm so lucky (and it really is all luck) to live as comfortably as I do as well as being born into a well educated family. The small percentage of people who win the lottery become figures for members of the lesser off community, something for others in a similar financial situation to strive for. "It happened to him/her, it could happen to me too" is the mentality spawned from this and unfortunately as I said before, these people do not have a high enough level of education to understand that astronomical numbers and percentages involved with this process. As for unfortunate things that happen to people who win the lottery, it really is just a matter of greed. Some people become so lustful of others fortunes that they will stop at nothing to get what they want from someone else. The unfortunate side of this is that many people do not realize how fortunate they really are. MTV and Jersey Shore plant seeds of greed the general public's mind. I find it corny to quote music that I listen to, but I can't help think of a line from one of Rage Against the Machine's "No Shelter." It says; "Chained to the dream they got you searching for, the thin line between entertainment and war."
When people think about wishes one that always is brought up is “winning the lottery” because people figure that if you have more money you will be happier regardless. This isn’t necessarily the case in real life though if well thought about, imagine one day going from where you are to being extremely wealthy. One of the things that will occur is that the people who have known you for all these years and have been at your side will all the sudden change the way they act around you or change what they expect from you. After one realization we have one cost given up since gaining all this money, true friends, now me personally I don’t believe there is a price you can put on my friends but maybe to some people you can. Friends are friends though what about your families though do you think they would act the same around you after winning all that money? The sad part of it is that they will be the first ones to change because, even though they might be the ones who’ve loved you and cared for you since your birth, people change in the presence of money.
All the sudden you won’t be Billy the adorable nephew they once had but Billy that rich, spoiled, and undeserving nephew that should be giving your family members a piece of the pie. After this thought we have now lost the way our family treated us and the ways our friends acted towards us, now I ask you again is all that money worth it? If that wasn’t enough to make you believe that winning the lottery can be tragic think about the risk you will be putting yourself in. After winning all that money people will know and hear your name so when going to a store or just parking your car at the mall you will have to watch your back even in your house. The people who had already had problems with you will be infuriated knowing that all this money has come into your lap, you might see that they try to steal from you or, even as bad as had happen in some occasions, kill you. The anti has gone up now to risking your safety, losing your friends and family, but there is another thing you should consider that will happen if you win the lottery which I personally think is the worst one of all, losing yourself after becoming wealthy.
I believe after winning that grand sum of money the appeal to become a rich, greedy, snobby, and cocky person is very strong to any human being. In my case being raised from a working class family and being looked as not as “good” to the wealthier population it would be a great risk to me. In the end you have to think to yourself, “does money really bring happiness?”
Change is a difficult thing to deal with. Regarding the lottery, the change is exponentially distinctive for it brings one from a lower/middle class standing suddenly to an upper class standing monetarily. Coming into such a large sum of money such as five million dollars is definitely, in most cases, a difficult thing to deal with. For the mother with three children and four jobs, those close to her did not perceive her winnings in a positive way. Their own greedy human nature caused them to hassle the mother and really create difficulty in her life where they used to assist her in her struggles.
The question is brought up of how money changes a person as an individual. It is a fact that the “I” does not change but it is the “me”, the perspective which people see you as, that changes. Who you are is not any different, yet your lifestyle suddenly jumps a massive cliff reaching the heights of the rich. The people surrounding the mother were the ones who changed because the knowledge that she now has multiple millions of dollars while the she herself did not change. Her lifestyle though was something that was forced to change.
Michael Norton brings up a great point that if the winner of the lottery made changes in his/her lifestyle through slow increments of money, it would ease the grand scheme of things. The person would be able to adjust over time instead of being shocked into making ill-advised investments and spending most of their winnings within the first few months of coming into the fortune. Unfortunately this still does not stop the way in which people will look at the individual. The “me” is no longer a lower/middle class standing while the “I” has yet to understand the true implications of having a large sum of money.
Furthermore, Lee McDaniel is one of the exceptions mentioned, but we must look to the position he was in when he won five million dollars in the lottery. 67 years old, retired, and already living a leisurely life, McDaniel was one to be generous with his winnings and fortunate enough to live an even more relaxed life with much financial security.
Humans fear change. We instinctively want things to remain the same and carve out our daily paths similar to that of the previous days. When talking in terms of financial change, winning the lottery is as big of a change as one can undertake. Skyrocketing from the lower or middle class to the upper echelon of society has a great deal of negative aspects. While yes money can temporarily ease any pain endured, it is only a temporary solution for permanent issues and feelings. I believe that the average person would think that people who have won the lottery and aren’t happy have something wrong with them. This article has shown many of the negative impacts coming into such a large amount of money can have on a person.
In the case with the mother with four jobs, money revealed that she was surrounded by a bunch of two-faced greedy snobs who had their own agenda to push on her. Everybody thinks that they have surrounded themselves with the best group of individuals for their own personal survival and well being, but money can expose the true intentions of those who surround you. The average person most likely overlooks such burdens that come with winning such a large sum of money, especially if the winner is from the lower classes (which they most likely are).
This article does a good job in bringing the issue of personal change associated with winning the lottery to light. While the winner may not change on a personal level, whether it be views or behavior, it is the way others see you that changes. The article talks about a personal interaction with a friend and says that it may make friendship, one of the basic necessities of human life, feel more like a transaction. I had not thought of this issue in that manner before but it really resonated with me. Now that I have read that, I can see how easily even the most loyal of friends’ view of you can change due to the fact that you are now on a higher pedestal financially.
While winning the lottery is commonly viewed as a blessing, it can make for one of the hardest times in ones life.
The idea of winning the lottery has been sociologically coupled with realistic questions and impractical taboos in recent time. Statistics show that many people who play and win the lottery are from lower socioeconomic standing, and upon gaining a large sum of wealth over night face hardships in adapting to their new lifestyles. Also, a lot of people believe bad luck is associated with lottery money, which is obviously subject to some skepticism.
In general, our world works on a principle of experience. You wouldn’t suddenly nominate a low level worker in a company to be CEO because they have no experience in important leadership roles, and would thus jeopardize the company’s existence. You wouldn’t give a 17 year old who just received their license a brand new $50,000 car because they lack driving experience, and would thus put the car (and your $50,000) at greater risk. When people who have little experience with money receive a lot of it, they do not have the experience or knowledge to act the way they should. The middle or upper class individual would probably use it first to pay off debts, and then do investing with the remainder to maximize their wealth. However, poor people, upon discovering the ability to spend freely without restraint, do so. This economical positive time preference results in quick use of their newly found wealth, and it is gone almost as fast as it came. They also sometimes work themselves into a social situation that they cannot adapt to, such as buying a nice house in an upper class neighborhood. However, they cannot buy upper-class socialization, and fail to fit in to their new surroundings.
As for those who say lottery money brings with it bad luck, any such luck is usually the result of self fulfilling prophecy. These people, buying into society’s idea, suddenly realize they may have bad luck, and everything that happens from then on out is usually looked at through a scope of negativity and pessimism. Even if bad things do happen, it is obvious only a coincidence. Applying any thought of negative magical money to money is asinine.
When people think of the lottery they usually all associate good things with it and think they have an equal shot as anyone to win it. People never really think about where the money comes from for the lottery and almost everyone thinks that the price on their winning ticket is the exact price they will receive. Taxes are almost the whole part of the lottery. Playing the lottery is mostly a bad thing because it tends to put whoever wins the large amounts of money into a state where material objects now mean more than anything else in life. They go out decide what all they are going to spend all of the winnings on and then never realize that the state is going to take tax money from their winnings and then they are pretty much screwed because they have spent more than they have earned. Everyone who plays the lottery think they are all free to play the lottery whenever they want which is partly true. Nobody really sees the invisible strings that are leading them to play the lottery in the first place. Sociology has a lot to play in the lottery. For example a lower class person might win a few million dollars and then they think that they finally have money that they need to go out and buy everything they ever wanted. Doing this they overspend and all of a sudden all of their winning money is gone and they are back on their normal salaries and they cannot afford to pay the bills for the new things they invested in such as a house or a car. Once the winning money is all gone then they dip into their own personal accounts and then they are making themselves a lot worse off than they ever were to start off with. Yes they may have more stuff and a better place to live and a new car and such but they have no money to pay the mortgage and they have no money to put gas in their car. People do not understand the lottery as well as they believe they do and they do not realize the invisible strings that “make” them play the lottery.
The question “does money equal happiness” has come up in many different occasions. In many different classes, I have discussed the issue, and almost always answered “no”. I took a community service class my senior year and had a teacher who used to work in business. A common idea he brought up was that he had made more money at his last job, but is much happier teaching and engaging in community service now. Other instances, such as famous people, often seem miserable even with millions of dollars. Other factors may contribute to this, but we often hear of celebrities becoming drug users, develop eating disorders, etc. In the article, they stated that most people feel better giving 20 dollars to someone else, rather than being greedy and keeping it for themselves. I could not agree with this more. Participating in THON this year has made me realize how much “giving” can make a person happy. Every time a penny was dropped into my can during canning weekends, an intense emotion of happiness came over me. It is scary to think what gaining so much money can result in, however. There have been many incidences where horrible things happened to lottery winners, and new millionaires. There are many people who only experienced good things from winning the lottery. A close family friend of mine won the lottery, although not as much money as the stories here, and they now have some free spending money and money to put towards vacation. They haven’t experienced any withdrawals from winning. Overall, I feel like it is personal whether a person finds happiness in money and whether money comes with positives or negatives.
We all dream of hitting the big one, the jackpot, the lottery, or wish that we could fall into instant riches by simply choosing the right winning lottery numbers or allowing them to be randomly generated from a computerized lottery machine onto a little piece of paper, but it has often been said that we should be very careful about what we wish for as everything comes with a price, including winning the lottery, especially when it involves winning millions of dollars. The actual chances of becoming a multimillion dollar lottery winner are astronomical to begin with, but when fate intervenes, miraculous things can happen that will forever change a person’s life, for better or worse. Even though huge winnings can change a person’s life style dramatically, it is said that if you were happy before winning a huge sum of money, then you will be happy afterwards, but if you were an extremely unhappy person to begin with, winning a multimillion dollar jackpot will change nothing except the size of your bank account. In other words the problems that you had are still lying in wait to rear their ugly head, and the lottery money only temporarily covers up the problems for a brief period.
So just imagine, You Have Won the Lottery, Now What? First, catch your breath, then immediately hire a qualified and reputable financial planner like a CPA or a CFA. Do not hesitate to ask questions and get several names of other people that they have worked within the past. Do not solely rely on your financial planner as you have to learn how to budget your own money at some point. Purchase secure bonds, and even though they don’t yield as much interest as stocks, they are a safe way to invest your money. Another option is online banking for stashing your cash. Two of the best are citibank or HSBC Direct, simply because they offer a high yield of interest to customers, and they are FDIC insured, have no hidden fees, and come highly recommended by the Wall Street Journal.
So when debating whether or not winning the lottery is a good thing or not, it all depends on the one who won, and their tactics.
"Money can't buy me love." "Money is the root of all evil." "Money can't buy you happiness." These are all quotes which we've all heard many times in our lives. I know I've heard the 3rd quote many times now that I'm in college, seeing how my parents and others have stressed to me that I shouldn't choose a profession simply because of the money. While indeed money can't buy you love or happiness, that might not be entirely true. For example, I'm stating the obvious when I say that if someone living in poverty would receive a small amount of money (to get over the poverty "line"), he/she would be happier. Now as for the lottery, we discussed in class the story of the very poor family that won the lottery, bought a house off of a rich family, and ended up dispatching all of their valuables because they had no idea what to do with them or didn't know thier value. Just like going from very rich to very poor, the same tragedy can happen to someone going from poor to rich, as described in the article.
We hear about these rags to riches stories of people winning the big ticket in run down, very low class areas, but this was interesting to hear about the verbal abuse and threats to the one winning the money. There's a movie with Bow Wow about him winning a ticket (the movie is called Lottery Ticket), and even though I didn't see it, I could tell from the previews that everyone around him tried to get a piece of his wealth, and not in a peaceful manner. Going through big changes in life is no easy task, and getting rich is no different, even though we as citizens of the United States have this "American Dream" hyped up to believing that if we don't get rich there's no success in life. This might not hold true for everyone, but sociologically speaking, we're likely to follow in the paths of our parents. That's not to say getting wealthy is a bad thing, but such a dramatic event as becoming a millionaire overnight doesn't reap all the benefits we believe it to have.
.I believe that most of the problems that these people face are a direct result of their inability to shift from one social class to another. It is very difficult for someone of lower class to suddenly try to take on the lifestyle of an upper class citizen. They try to spend their money on large houses and expensive cars, in an attempt to fit in to the upper class. But although they may get a good feeling from spending all that money, once they realize that the rich lifestyle is not what they thought it would be, they often become depressed and sometimes wish they had never won the money in the first place. As they always say, money can't buy happiness.
Material possessions can bring happiness to a certain point, as mentioned in the article, but just because someone has the money to buy anything they want does not mean that those goods will make them happy. Happiness and joy come from relationships with others much more than it comes from wealth. And in most occaisions, when a person wins the lottery, their relationships actually become worse off than they were before, mainly from jealousy and greed. These are the other reasons for the misfortunes of people who have won the lottery.
It is only natural for humans to be jealous of others who have more than them, even if it is someone as close as a family member. In almost all of the stories mentioned in the article, family members and friends of the winner asked for money and gifts for various reasons. If the person with the money gives that money away, they feel like people are taking advantage of them. But if they refuse, their family and friends become angry, causing strain in their relationships. So it is almost a certain lose-lose situation for someone coming from a lower class, especially since their friends and family are most likely also in need of money. Not to mention the ever-present threat of burglary or even murder, as stated in the article. Greed and jealousy also causes these people to attack lottery winners in order to steal thier money. Obviously, I would still want to win the lottery, but after looking at it from this perspective, it does not seem quite as desirable.