Well, in what way is buying a ticket not paying other people to provide you an experience which you can’t get otherwise on your own? Earning money is different, you expect to be paid a fixed sum and for many, there are multiple ways to do it.
If you want a strictly positive chance at getting a million dollars and the thrill of looking up the lottery drawings to see if you won, then you have to pay for it. People buy lottery tickets to have a fleeting, tangible hope, not just an imagined one.
If you want a strictly positive chance at getting a million dollars
You have a strictly positive chance of having a rich and unknown to you relative die and leave her fortune to you.
the thrill
Ah, that’s a good point. Yes, if you want the gambling thrill, then you have to pay for it, I agree. However from the expected-loss point of view, going to a casino is much better than buying lottery tickets...
For that matter, there’s a strictly positive chance that a meteor made of two tons of platinum will fall from the sky tomorrow and flatten my car in the driveway before I’m done brushing my teeth. The probability of almost anything you can think of is going to be positive, unless it’s physically impossible—and even there you have model uncertainty to take into account.
Well, in what way is buying a ticket not paying other people to provide you an experience which you can’t get otherwise on your own? Earning money is different, you expect to be paid a fixed sum and for many, there are multiple ways to do it.
In the way that I can, on my own, daydream about having a million dollars. I don’t need to pay other people for that.
If you want a strictly positive chance at getting a million dollars and the thrill of looking up the lottery drawings to see if you won, then you have to pay for it. People buy lottery tickets to have a fleeting, tangible hope, not just an imagined one.
You have a strictly positive chance of having a rich and unknown to you relative die and leave her fortune to you.
Ah, that’s a good point. Yes, if you want the gambling thrill, then you have to pay for it, I agree. However from the expected-loss point of view, going to a casino is much better than buying lottery tickets...
For that matter, there’s a strictly positive chance that a meteor made of two tons of platinum will fall from the sky tomorrow and flatten my car in the driveway before I’m done brushing my teeth. The probability of almost anything you can think of is going to be positive, unless it’s physically impossible—and even there you have model uncertainty to take into account.
Yes, of course, which is why talking about “strictly positive chances” in this context (of suddenly acquiring wealth) is kinda silly.