I don’t buy lottery tickets. My wife, Janet, plays when the
jackpot is huge. Today’s Wall Street Journal (Greg Ip, author) offers rationales from
economists who see real value in following Janet’s strategy.
“Budget wonk Michael Linden said, 'The pleasure you derive
from the resulting daydreams is worth at least $2.” Matt Levine of Bloomberg View agreed: “Come
on now. What is the disutility of spending $2, for you? What is the utility of
winning? Of thinking about winning?’”
Janet’s imaginary philanthropy was worth whatever money she
paid. Maybe she’ll do something from that wish list someday, as a result. If you played the Powerball— and you dreamed— you made a
better investment than I made. I have nothing to show for my miserly ways.
I add one more point: For those who participated, you were connected to tens of millions of people in a common pursuit. The rest of us non-joiners--, well, we were party-poopers.
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