Instant Millions Can't Halt Winners' Grim Slide

NY Times ^ | 12/5/05 | JAMES DAO

[kiriath_jearim]

Instant Millions Can't Halt Winners' Grim Slide

By JAMES DAO Published: December 5, 2005

CORBIN, Ky., Nov. 30 - For Mack W. Metcalf and his estranged second wife, Virginia G. Merida, sharing a $34 million lottery jackpot in 2000 meant escaping poverty at breakneck speed.

Years of blue-collar struggle and ramshackle apartment life gave way almost overnight to limitless leisure, big houses and lavish toys. Mr. Metcalf bought a Mount Vernon-like estate in southern Kentucky, stocking it with horses and vintage cars. Ms. Merida bought a Mercedes-Benz and a modernistic mansion overlooking the Ohio River, surrounding herself with stray cats.

But trouble came almost as fast. And though there have been many stories of lottery winners turning to drugs or alcohol, and of lottery fortunes turning to dust, the tale of Mr. Metcalf and Ms. Merida stands out as a striking example of good luck - the kind most people only dream about - rapidly turning fatally bad.

Mr. Metcalf's first wife sued him for $31,000 in unpaid child support, a former girlfriend wheedled $500,000 out of him while he was drunk, and alcoholism increasingly paralyzed him. Ms. Merida's boyfriend died of a drug overdose in her hilltop house, a brother began harassing her, she said, and neighbors came to believe her once welcoming home had turned into a drug den.

Though they were divorced by 2001, it was as if their lives as rich people had taken on an eerie symmetry. So did their deaths.

In 2003, just three years after cashing in his winning ticket, Mr. Metcalf died of complications relating to alcoholism at the age of 45. Then on the day before Thanksgiving, Ms. Merida's partly decomposed body was found in her bed.

[ArrogantBustard]

but not enough to change your lifestyle so dramatically that you fall apart.

Money doesn't 'change your lifestyle': YOU (generic 'you') change your lifestyle (possibly because you have more money than formerly).

[dead]

I was really just joking around. But wealth is relative, and would imagine that she's now one of the wealthier gals in her social circle. For a couple of weeks at least.

[Alberta's Child]

That's right -- good point.

I should have said that most people can't change their lifestyle too much just because they've got an extra $200,000-$500,000 lying around. It's impossible for most people to retire on that kind of money.

[Gay State Conservative]

By your reckoning, Teresa Heinz Kerry (and her ugly husband) deserve their millions...

Kerry married his money...in fact,Kerry has,so far in his life,married almost $1.5 billion (his first wife was worth about a half a billion,something that very few Americans know) and his wife inherited hers from a husband who inherited his.

IMO,the farther you get from the "source" of the money (that is,the one(s) who actually earned it) the less you can talk about being "deserving"

[Fee]

When public schools find it more important to teach you that condoms come in five colors, Heather can have two mommies and Washington is a white slave owner, and not personal financial skills, what do you expect.

[RandallFlagg]

I rarely buy any tickets. I think I'm up to two in the last 25 years.

[Recovering Hermit]

"Any problems people have, money magnifies it so much, it's unbelievable,"...

I'd be more than willing to take my chances, and find out for myself.

[ArrogantBustard]

True ... and there's some sort of societal expectation that folks who get lots o' money are supposed to change their lifestyle. The sane thing to do (not that many people who play the lottery are really sane in this regard) would be to invest the lot, and keep on working. The bucks in the (bank|investment account|home equity) offer security to tell the boss to get stuffed, should that ever become necessary.

[Tzimisce]

See, if the government had taken all this money in taxes we wouldn't have to be reading this story.

(Leftist answer)

[wouldntbprudent]

Truer words were never spoken. Thank you.

[oldbrowser]

Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent.

When I read this sentence, I immediately thought of John Kerry.

[Mathews]

Never thought about it like that...

[TC Rider]

The obvious answer from the NYT is to stay poor.

You have it half right.

The obvious answer from the NYT is to stay poor and dependent on government.

[MEGoody]

That must be a hell of a girl!

He was probably just exceedingly drunk.

[bert]

This is the OGW publisher?

This is the media scion leading his family rag into oblivion? This is the famed publisher with the Al Franken SE grin?

Is that who that is?

[Windsong]

Money buys neither happiness nor class.

I remember a thread here where a study was done on lottery winners 10 yrs after they had won. They weren't any happier than before they won their millions, but personally I'd wager they were not church goers after they had won.

[Malesherbes]

Good point. Whenever the subject of money and sleaze comes up, the name Corzine is not far behind.

[Salgak]

You have a point. . . .and 500K would buy a FINE triple-wide ;-P

[Ruth A.]

It makes me wonder where you hang out and what you consider poor. Poverty can take a generation or more to rise above. Many "poor" are just hardworking people. We were "poor" growing up, but that doesn't mean my parents didn't work hard. My parents made certain that we got more education than they got. Some of us make more money than others, some know how to invest that money wisely, some are blessed with good health, some of us are blessed with children that don't get into serious trouble...

[NYCVirago]

Winning the lottery only acted to afford them the means to destroy themselves in a much more efficient manner. In what would have been a life long pursuit of death through drugs, poor decisions, alchohol, etc, the $34M gave them the ability to buy the tools of their destruction so easily and quickly, that what would have been a 25 to 30 year affair was cut to just 4 years. Sad.

The man died three years after winning the lottery, due to a life of drinking. What's to say he wouldn't have died that early, even if he hadn't won the lottery?