How much is $207,000,000 divided into, say 15?
(More than my cell phone calculator can compute, apparently).
It actually works out to $1,380,000. Before taxes and all that.
Of course, I didn't need to calculate it. It's been calculated more than a dozen times by several participants of our office lottery pool.
The publisher's secretary started one Tuesday to go after that night's Mega Millions drawing. In the course of collecting the money, the math was done. Over and over and over and ...
We learned our fate today. We got a $16 return on our $77 investment (which considering the odds you're talking about, isn't completely a bad thing).
But I think I'm more amazed at the reaction. We all had it spent.
One co-worker wanted to quit her job and become more of a freelancer. Everyone wanted to pay off their debts. Another one was ready to jet off to Europe.
Of course, the money won has been reinvested. And those who didn't play before, now want in.
Is it desperation, wishful thinking or both? What is it that's driving this mini-frenzy?
I can tell from my office that people are tired. Maybe this isn't about the money. Maybe it's about hanging on to the hope that we're all going to find a way out. That, despite the huge job losses and the amount of added work being piled on to the remaining workers, maybe, just maybe, luck will smile upon us and we'll find an exit.
Isn't that what we all want? We're all on this wild roller coaster ride called recession where we've been plummeting for a long time. And now we just want to stop and get off. Not even take the ride to the top again - just get off.
The conversation about the lottery has been fun. Watching people's growing enthusiasm for something that is a 1-in-a-billion or so chance is fascinating. But for me, there's this undercurrent of financial urgency to everyone's escapist fantasies.
But wouldn't it be nice if we won?
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