Winning the lottery

My name‿ is Rita. My husban(d) buys one lottery ticket‿ every Friday,│ and‿ I have looked‿ up the odds. They are‿ approximately one‿ in fourteen million,│ which‿ is‿ a figure that means nothing│ until you compare‿ it to being struck by lightning.

The interesting question‿ is not│ whether we will win but what the evidence says‿ about winners,│ an(d) the evidence‿ is mostly anecdotal‿ an(d) depressing. Several large studies have foun(d) that‿ a windfall produces‿ a measurable decline‿ in well-being for‿ a significan(t) minority of recipients,│ an(d) the reasons‿ are social rather than financial:│ relatives‿ appear,│ envy appears,│ an(d) the isolation that follows‿ is harder to manage than the money. Conspicuous spending‿ attracts people│ who would not‿ otherwise have called.

If‿ it happened,│ I would tell nobody outside my immediate family,│ buy nothing for three months,│ an(d) pay a professional to manage‿ it. My husban(d) says he would buy a boat,│ although he gets seasick‿ on‿ a ferry,│ which tells you something‿ about how we would squander‿ it. We are not rich,│ and‿ I am not sure we would be happier│ if we were,│ but I^{bud I} would rather find‿ out than not. One ticket‿ is‿ a cheap way to keep the question‿ open.