In a recent chat with a friend they said that the recent multi-state lottery ticket price increase (Powerball is now $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 event 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 or buy a house, 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.
