Math can do interesting things.
Fair enough. Now how about being fair and balanced and posting similar stories of individuals whose lives were changed for the better following their lottery wins? They certainly number more than the 20 losers you posted............
Of course, there are many more lottery winners who not only hang on to their winnings but increase their jackpots over time with shrewd investing and a conservative approach to money management. But those aren't the stories we want to hear.
Envy and hate are among our strongest emotions and thus we love to hear about others having a fall from grace. It's not fun to read about a lottery winner who, over time, turned a $20m jackpot into a $200m fortune. That's because we hate those people and we wish they were dead.
However, reading about people who blew a large windfall makes us feel better about ourselves. We can then rationalize not winning the lottery ourselves by pointing at those who did and lost it all. Those stories make us feel better about ourselves.
Again, it is human nature to hate people who are more successful than they.
I won $100,000 twenty years ago and lost it all day trading but made it back twenty years later because I learned everything I needed to know about the stock market which is NEVER SELL AT A LOSS EVER EVER EVER. I don’t care what stock it is, unless it’s some BS penny scam stock, EVERY stock will always eventually go higher than what you paid for it. I was a naive idiot when I got into the stock market, I thought it was like Vegas and gambling but it isn’t at all. You only lose if you sell at a loss. Every single stock I ever day traded on I would have made a profit on if I only held on to it and most not much longer than a year.
People just can’t handle wealth.
I know a lot of people who think that God wants us all rich and healthy but when you see what money does to people, it’s more of a curse than a blessing.