Do you agree that winning over a billion dollars in the lotto could have disastrous consequences?

Not for me it wouldn’t. I don’t have a ton of friends and I’d gladly help my family because they have all helped me over the years. I would love to have money for much needed dental work and not have to count every penny I spend when I grocery shop.

Yes, I agree that winning over a billion dollars could have disastrous consequences.
I also believe that winning over a billion dollars could have miraculous consequences.

99.999% of us will never have the chance to find out. But I’d take my chances with the billion. It sounds like an amazing adventure, regardless the outcome.

I am willing to take the risk, thank you.

Look up Jack Whittaker.
But I still play.

I agree that winning could have disastrous consequences. But that’s a risk I’m willing to make.
I figure the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Isn’t ⅔ of that billion lost to taxes and lump sum provisions?

I saw where the payout on the next, $1.3 billion Powerball could be $800m, @stanleybmanly.

Although, I agree that it would bite to win a billion and only take home $400,000,000. ~ ~ ~

Yes, I believe that it could have disastrous consequences. You won’t believe how many “friends” will suddenly come out of the woodwork and ask for a handout. Not to mention all the many charities. And since you can’t give handouts to everybody (and there will be some you won’t want to give handouts to), you are going to have to turn people away. Some of those turned away will be very unhappy and may even turn violent. They know where you live.
The problem with being the grand prize winner is that you can’t be anonymous. The media will be all over the place.
Having said that, I wouldn’t mind one of the “minor” prizes, like just $100,000. That would help a lot, without all the negatives.

I learned a small scale version of what I said above when I was in Thailand in the 90s. When you walked down the street there, you are often accosted by small children who come begging. They’ll come asking, “One baht! One baht!” Based on the exchange rate then, one baht was the equivalent of 4 cents, so I gave a boy one baht. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by dozens of children all asking for one baht. I gave out some more, but then I had to say enough is enough. Their numbers were increasing and they were not going to leave me in peace.

Disastrous or not, who here would not risk it? I’ve been told here (often) that my views on reality are warped, but the “disasters” involved with dominion over a billion dollars pale when considering the effort, time and considerable worry involved with the struggle to avoid the catastrophic consequences of being broke! Speculate all you want on the dangers in controlling a billion dollars, but no guessing is required on the consequences of too little money.

Only for my enemies.

Oh please don’t throw me in that briar patch.

But when you think seriously about it, the nightmare after attempting to set things right for those you care about, is in determining how to do the most good in a world with so much need. The responsibility itself is probably disastrous.

Only if you think you have to do everything right away at the same time, @stanleybmanly

I would keep it secret. Dole out some personal justice that has been coming for a long time, and then go talk to some people who know more about helping the world.

But that’s just it. Charity does begin at home. That’s easy. But what’s next? Consider the plight of so many in our own collective. What should one do about it?

Self control. If you have no self control, a huge amount of money can be disastrous.

If you have your shit together, a huge amount is not hard to deal with.

I see a parallel with liquor. Too much is dangerous. Handling your liquor well makes life enjoyable.

Meh. It took way less than a billion dollar windfall to break up my family relationships. The last argument I had with my mother started with a candy bar, and that was eight years ago.

If I won that kind of money I would provide small gifts to my sister, my brother, and my brother’s daughter. It would be up to my husband whether he gave anything to his sister and her kids. We’d pay, straight up, for someone to take care of his mom in perpetuity, and then we’d disappear. Poof. Into the ether.

The real n the deal is how disciplined you are and how tight your plan. People will come out of the woodwork and ply you for cash, way more than they would ever ask if you had not won. They figure what they are asking (which may be a lot) is a drop in the bucket on what you would have left. With that much scrill you would not have to worry much about buying a fleet of Ferraris and mansions to keep them in. Most of the time people go wild with spending, getting bigger houses for themselves, family, friends, lovers, etc. cars, boat, jewels, other trips and excursions, all of those things cost money, and cost to upkeep, and when they quit their job and don’t structure anything to bring money in, eventually the well will run dry or they will be back close to where they started. If you never thought of or have a ”get money list” you can get yourself in to messes you could have avoided, especially in a haste to bless people. If you gave $30,000 to your hairdresser or barber you had for the last 5–12 years because they always cut you right and you know their story and need, you would be locked into doing the same for the cousin you hardly know and don’t really like; how could you justify not giving to blood relatives and not look hinky? If you give 30k to the barber how can you give less to the gardener? Before you know it, with no plan you are tossing money around trying to be fair, and some might be over blessed. When you do go out to eat, they will feel funny if you paid, or maybe if you didn’t pay for it all, hard to gage pride in people. Some will resent your good fortune. What about the server at the regular restaurant you eat at, will they expect a ”very, very generous tip”? Could you even go buy stamps without someone you don’t know striking up a conversation and in the midst of it injecting how they do not know what to do about their aging mother who need an operation that isn’t covered and if she pays for it to save her life it will be at the expense of the family home they grew up in? How would you avoid 3 dozen or so soft soap stories like that daily? Sure, there is great opportunity with money like that but anyone who thinks people will act so different they would not change is a Folie à Deux; whoever wins it WILL BE MAKING ADJUSTMENTS, it is unavoidable.

As a billionaire I could afford to not give a royal fuck about looking hinky, even to the cousin that stole my graduation money.

I’m not worried about what my family might think either. I sort of disappeared off most of their radar screens years ago, anyway. Got sick of arguing about who had the worst time growing up, the jealousy and the judging and dirty looks. Done. I started picking and choosing a long time ago who was worthy.

I’d take the lump sum; I’d probably not outlive the annuity. As soon as I would hear that I’d won, I’d set it up as a trust. One third would be divided among the eight siblings and siblings-in-law (or surviving spouses); one third would be divided among our four children (a trust fund for education, to mature and pay out in full at a certain age, say, 30–35); and the other third would be for my wife and me for our next careers as professional philanthropists.

I’d also buy my wife that villà in the “south of France” that she’s always fantasizing about”

Yes. If money is bad for you I will gratefully take any extra money that you have.

I’d give most of it away, to my daughter, charities, etc. and keep maybe, I don’t know 15 million or so, more than enough to buy/build my dream house, be fully retired and just play all day. The rest would just be a burden.

@Yetanotheruser I’d take the lump sum; I’d probably not outlive the annuity.
I refuse to let the government rook me out of nearly half, I would take the annuity and shot the note around, I am sure I would find a buyer that would give me more on the dollar than Uncle Sam will. Even if I got a buyer to buy me out at 65 cents on the dollar I believe I would be doing better than Uncle Sam.

Yes, it could. But it could just as equally have amazing results. I’m fine with taking the chance, because an unbelievable amount of good could be done with that much money.

Back to @Aster‘s OP.

Respectfully. I suggest that a lot of Jellies here are possibly cursing generations, if not their entire families.
The evil that new found wealth can create is well documented. Randomly dividing 100’s of millions of dollars among family members sounds good, but in practice is probably a disaster waiting to happen. Yeah, you could set up a trust from which every member would benefit, but unless your family is composed of 100% mentally stable members with no tendencies to addiction, giving them wads of cash would almost certainly cause tragedies you’d be forced to watch.
I know controlling $800,000,000 is a fun speculation, but in reality it’s scary.

The best thing you could do if you won a large sum of money is to wipe the slate clean. Forget the fantasies and face the reality.
@Aster is probably more realistic about the potential for disaster.

Still, I stand by my answer:
“99.999% of us will never have the chance to find out. But I’d take my chances with the billion. It sounds like an amazing adventure, regardless the outcome.”

I would not want to win a billion dollars. I think it would cause more problems than it would solve. I’m financially secure and that’s good enough for me.

That’s a commendable attitude, @janbb.
However, I look at the good that Bill Gates is doing with his billions and figure, push come to shove, I could keep a couple million, give a few million away, and let the Gates Foundation administer the rest.
You have to admit that it would be fun to go to an organization like Kiva and fund every single loan offered that day.
Brazil’s short of money…think of the rain forest you could buy.

I’d have to give spending a billion for the common good a shot. Win, lose, or draw, it’d be a hell of a ride!

^ I’ve had enough rides in my lifetime, thank you very much.

^ Not me. Never. :-)

I could open a whole lot of free spay/neuter clinics with a billion dollars.
I could support Planned Parenthood with a billion dollars.
I could fund a lot of anti-poaching initiatives with a billion dollars.
I could create a lot of scholarships for women in the sciences with a billion dollars.
Hell, if I wanted to get into politics, I could try to overturn Citizens United, or failing that, get Elizabeth Warren elected (hey, if the Koch brothers can do it, surely I could).

As far as personal use, I’d probably pay off any and all debt that my family members may have and set up a college trust for the niece and nephews. I’d set aside enough for my own use that I could spend the rest of my life traveling the world. I figure a million for myself would be more that I could ever spend.

I don’t even play the multistate games but in my state when you win the jackpot you can take a lump sum of 50% of your winnings or you can take the whole thing over 25 years. I’m not sure what the top Federal tax rate for 2016 but I would guess around 45% and then there are state taxes in most states. The winner clearly will not be a billionaire. However, my thought on the lottery is that it would be a lot more fun for 800 people to win a million dollars each than for one person to win 800 million. Seriously.

I’ve often had that same thought, @MollyMcGuire.
What a gas to have 800 new millionaires in a day.
Instantaneous Kardashian competition. The news media would be weeks telling all the stories,

@Hypocrisy_Central I refuse to let the government rook me out of nearly half,
How can the government rook me out of something I don’t have to begin with?

The easy answer is this: I like the fact that the lottery (in Colorado) supports such programs as Open Space, parks and recreation programs, wilderness education programs and more. I guess I would trust the state government to spend the millions on the outdoor spaces, and the administration of the Lottery, that to trust the Feds to spend the millions correctly over the next 30 years.

Lottery tickets are an extra tax on people who are bad at math.

Lottery tickets are an extra benefit to people who skip a fast food lunch to buy them. ~

@cazzie @ibstubro LOL, I guess there are always two ways to look at everything…

Lotteries are voluntary.

Everything else is secondary.

I think it would be awesome to be in a position to be a major benefactor to others and charities. The things I could do. One of my passions would be to buy up 100’s of thousands of acres of wild lands and preserve them for the wild life, trees and generations to come, and purchase historic ranch properties like Ted Turner.

A billion dollars is the ring in the Lord of the Rings.

Funny, because my bug out plan is literally “move to new Zealand and become a hobbit sheep farmer”

I think I’m Samwise.