Now, this article was a bit shocking to me, even though I’ve heard many of the statistics before. I knew that a lot of people don’t have a good understanding of how to build wealth over time, but 21% of the population thinking the easiest way to do it is by winning the lottery? And it’s higher depending on which demographic you look at.
What a depressing state of affairs. And 10% of our population has a negative net worth? Yikes. We have got to come together as a nation and develop a curriculum for our youth to learn about money. It is a crime that so many people are so in the dark.
There’s a reason some people call the lottery “the idiot tax.” I try and be nicer than that, but there is a grain of truth to the name.
Itis amazing. I actually started my blog because some co-workers were starting a “Lottery Club†that would pool their money together and buy into whatever lottery had the highest payout that day or week. And these are well educated people making at least $60000 a year. I was amazed.
I totally agree about education. Every Middle School/High School should have a personal finance class. The information taught there would probably be much more useful to 98% of the population than History.
The Lottery, Casinos and etc all play into one thought: “I know the chances are slim, but somebody’s gotta win, and it could be me”. People don’t want to hear about probability or expected value and etc, they want to delude themselves with get rich quick schemes.
And of course, my race is one of the most credulous (the black people). *sigh*
still guys you gotta admit the lottery does give the states lots of extra money, without it, there might be higher taxes on other things…