At 08:47 AM 7/21/01 -0700, Loree wrote:
>--- Lee Corbin <lcorbin@tsoft.com> wrote:
>> A majority of people will just
>> non-stop party when their ship comes in.
>Has there been any study done on the effects of
>lottery winning?
My impression is that many people who win big jackpots quite sensibly if
unimaginatively stay on at the job they've always done, at least at first.
They might buy a slightly nicer home, a new but modest car, give the kids a
present, take a trip. Maybe they go nuts later and splurge, but I believe
they get counselling these days advising them against making major changes
in life style, which of course are psychologically ruinous.
But none of this has anything to do with realistic pre-nano GI proposals,
which are just a way of ensuring that nobody suffers unduly from basic
wants while minimizing (or removing entirely) the huge costs and
bureaucratic power games of assessing or means-testing the very modest
payments. Or so thought Milton Friedman, that rabid communist.
Nobody is gonna party on minimal subsistence money. But they *will* be able
to use that backstop to finance next-step education, try a new business
(maybe with some others) without fear of going entirely to the wall, even
start `consentives' along the lines of open source or artist-in-the-garret
that can improve the commonweal without exchange of monetary fee (although
with plenty of satisfaction of creative urges, peer ego-boo, etc).
Damien Broderick
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