One of the things I learned as a sheltered young man reading the autobiography of Malcolm X was how rational it was for poor people to “waste” money playing the numbers lottery. Saving a quarter was hardly worth the loss of a dream even though saving those quarters might add up.
The idea that quarters add up is something that everyone pays lip service to, and that is mostly preached by the wealthy. For those with lawyers and accountants and lots of assets, quarters more or less add up by themselves. For the rest of us _ not so much.
As many have realized how economically stuck their lives have become, the lightning strike of fast wealth via magical luck has become ubiquitous. Much in gambling and lotteries, of course, but also in lots of other dreams of small enterprise or legal lawsuits.
Well, like the numbers and the poor, such dreams do help to keep us sane. In spite of hype, standard meritocratic propaganda hardly applies to most people. The hardest working and best employees are not usually the ones making a lot of money, nor the ones most likely to do so in the future.
It’s an old affliction of civilization, going back into prehistory. Gambling is human, and must help us cope with cultural restrictions. For the most part, it is a fairly benign activity, rational within limits.
Like lightning strikes _ amazing when it happens, but pretty rare for any given individual.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 