Instant Millions Can't Halt Winners' Grim Slide

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

[dead]

a former girlfriend wheedled $500,000 out of him while he was drunk

That must be a hell of a girl! Plus, now she’s wealthy.

[orionblamblam]

What a lovely Christmas story.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Sounds like they were on the path to destruction long before that lottery ticket.

But let's blame that.

[ncountylee]

Corzine's got more.

[ikka]

If you want to know what God thinks of money, look at who he gives it to...

[IronJack]

Evidence that poverty has a moral dimension as well as an economic one. You can give a poor person a lot of money, but that doesn't make them a rich person. Conversely, some of the richest people on earth haven't a dime.

[Fierce Allegiance]

The "winnings" were merely fuel on the fire.

These stories are all too commonplace.

[Prince Caspian]

Money follows value. The inverse is also true.

[Perdogg]

Your point is well made. I am going to be a bit more blunt about it. It appears the free market works and demonstrates that people who don't have the wealth, don't really deserve it.

Yes, there are people who work very hard in this country for little or no pay. I take my hat off to them. However, it is the free market that determines who becomes a millionaire.

[Lockbar]

The obvious answer from the NYT is to stay poor. For example, look at the people that died on the Titanic. If they had stayed in Europe and not wanted to travel to America for a better life, they wouldn't have drowned, would they? Maintain low expectations, don't strive to better yourself, just stay at home.

[TChris]

If you want to know what God thinks of money, look at who he gives it to...

If you follow that argument to its logical conclusion, then God himself, to whom all the earth and everything in it belongs, must be a terrible fellow indeed.

[basil]

Money buys neither happiness nor class.

[Clock King]

I doubt it. A slut like that'll go through a half mill in about 2-3 years.

[bobjam]

Poverty is a mental condition as much as it is a financial condition.

[Emmett McCarthy]

Yeah, look at the Kennedys. White trash with money.

[Altair333]

I wouldn't want to win the lottery. Honestly. I've seen too many stories about how winning it instantly turns friends and some family into resentful gold-diggers, removes one's incentive to work, and generally erodes one's character.

I've got a job I enjoy doing, and I like knowing that I have to work each day to provide for myself and my family.

[Dallas59]

*sniff...cough...wheeeeze*...Shame

[Space Wrangler]

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.

[martin_fierro]

Instant Millions Can't Halt Winners' Grim Slide

I'd love to prove myself the exception.