In a recent chat with a friend they said that the recent multi-state lottery ticket price increase (Powerball is $2/play and MegaMillions is $5) is driven by a desire to maximize the number of one billion dollars+ lottery prizes going forward. This, they say, is because winning ‘a few million dollars’ is no longer impressive. Blame it on inflation, the greed of the top 1/10 of 1%, or the questionable claims of the financial worth of 47. Note, in the US a billion is one thousand million, while many non-English countries use the traditional one million million.
‘Big lottery prizes’ are marketed as something life-changing. The implication of course is that such an even would be positive, or at least net positive. Lawd knows I would put up with all the BS, stress and drama of having a billion (or even just a few million) dollars at my disposal. Not that I’m buying PowerBall or MegaMillion tickets.
But really, for me at this moment, ‘life changing’ starts much lower. I calculate $100k would clear our debts, the taxes, and our move back to Canada. Not enough to cancel my US and Canadian pension benefits, but would certainly make the stress of finding a new place, a new job for Husband (still pre-retirement age), and getting my NeuroDelightful brain ‘back in the groove’ much less daunting.
Yes, I know that if I had just insisted on dedicating myself to building a career out of school, instead of working only just enough to have time to do community work, I could be a millionaire now. But ‘building a career’ was incomprehensible while I was serving, however I could, my dying community. To say nothing of my aforementioned ND brain with dissociative amnesia and other fun conditions.
Should a generous well-off young queer feel inclined to recognize the grunt work I did, or if someone from my generation (there are a few of us left, you know) who has been able to do all that career-building stuff wants to help, check out this post for more.
