In response to both Jim and Michael, buying a lottery ticket (or
spending your whole youth striving to achieve the NHL) is irrational if
one looks as the odds. But if it is the ONLY way out of a lifetime of
poverty or social and income stagnation, it is always deemed worth the
slim chance -- providing the prize if one wins is big enough to buy
one's way to a better life.
Paul P
Jim Devine wrote:
paul phillips wrote:
... Why do kids (and more
importantly, their parents) pay so much to give them a chance at the top
leagues? One reason is, of course, the love of the game and the fame of
reaching the top level. But, particularly for many parents, it is the
chance of a big lottery win. ...
aren't people particularly "irrational" when it comes to lotteries, if
we use NC standards of rationality as our baseline? That is, it makes
no economic sense to buy lottery tickets, but people do anyway.
--
Jim Devine / "Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective
power but that of self interest backed by force." -- George Bernard
Shaw
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