Wednesday, January 11, 2006

The Stupidity Tax & Flesh Eating Bacteria

I'm fully expecting click throughs from rss readers to skyrocket with this post.

The expected value of every dollar spent on the lottery is $.50 (or a 50% loss). If that isn't enough to convince people not to waste their time, Jeffery over at personal finance advice offers this tidbit:

"the odds of winning the lottery are 18 to 120 times less than dieing from flesh eating bacteria"
For more of Jeffery's take on the famed stupidity tax, see his full post here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the spotlight - although I wish this was something that didn't need to be taught...

Anonymous said...

My favorite is a variation on his last. For the really long-odds lotteries (Power Ball et al) if you drive a couple of miles to buy your ticket, you're more likely to die in an accident on the drive home than win.