We were elementary school children excitedly awaiting the end of the day knowing we would return for an evening event. The teachers had turned the gymnasium into a carnival complete with concession booths, a roving clown, and games. We couldn't wait to try and win some prizes.
The longest line-up was at the Fish Pond. Every student headed there at some point because word quickly got out that everyone was a winner. We cast a plastic fishing rod over a tall sheet and voila, a tug on the line meant we caught something. Everybody got a prize. It was a sure thing.
A lot of people dream of winning big in the lottery. You hear it often…if I won the lottery…and then we are regaled with plans for their sudden fortune. Dave Ramsey, business person and financial writer famously said, “The lottery is a tax on poor people and on people who can’t do math.” He said this is not a moral position, but one based on statistical facts. He points to zip codes that show people that spend four times more on lottery tickets are from lower income parts of cities and describes the lottery as offering “false hope, not a ticket out.”
An American man who runs a recovery group for those addicted to buying lottery tickets once owned businesses that did a brisk business in tickets so he saw first-hand the toll it was taking. Much of what he documented after 21 years of research was not new information but it certainly reinforced other studies: most lottery tickets are bought in poorer neighborhoods, people who make less than $10,000 spend about 6% of their income on tickets, minorities spend 5 times more on lottery tickets than non-minorities, and one in five Americans say the lottery is the only way they see themselves accumulating savings. Almost 15% of millennials view winning the lottery as their retirement plan.
While it remains a dream for many, the list of losers is a long one—and even includes those who actually won. There was the young man who spent his millions on drugs and outrageous parties and 10 years later was broke and working at a cookie factory. There was the couple who quit their jobs, bought a massive house and he pursued his music dream. Affairs and a house fire left the couple at odds and homeless. When they split up they had $14. In Pennsylvania a winner was sued by his former girlfriend for a share of the winnings and then he discovered his brother had hired a hitman to kill him. A grandfather who won $315 million was robbed twice and was then the victim of a kidnapping plot. His granddaughter and her boyfriend both died of drug overdoses in his home. He said he wishes he had torn up his winning ticket. A Texas man lavishly celebrated his good fortune when he won more than $30 million. He was then harassed for money so much he changed his phone number numerous times. The pressure of dealing with the fortune and then separating from his wife was more than he could handle. He killed himself two years after his lottery win.
Still, people hold on to what they believe will be the answer to their problems, assuring themselves they could handle the windfall because, certainly, the priority would be giving to a favorite charity.
The opportunity to give an incredibly large donation to a project or organization is appealing to be sure, but the reality is most charities do what they do thanks to smaller gifts from many donors. Some individuals can make headline grabbing donations--most cannot--but that doesn't lessen the value of the donation. It's about giving what we can, when we can; knowing that every dollar given matter
We can await a day when we have what we feel is adequate excess before we give any away, or we can recognize that despite all the economic pressures being exerted, most still have more than they need. None of us are any more deserving than anyone else. We can either live like we are entitled to it all and more, wait for a windfall so we can give big, or decide that we can give a little more to the places that matters most to us.
Whether we have much or little, the act of giving becomes the easiest thing to do when we put others first. It doesn't take winning the lottery to have an impact. When it comes to sharing, our opportunity to bless others makes us the luckiest people around. And like the carnival Fish Pond, it’s a sure thing. That's my outlook.
