Thinking - Lotto Economics

I just wrote an email to some people about a person I knew ( I think that covers me) that never quite paid their way.

They would skimp a little when everyone was kicking in at the end of a meal in a restaurant or whatever. I've been quite poor (financially) at times in my life, and this was always something I managed to avoid.

Sometimes by just ordering a bowl of air.

Other times by skipping the air and just having the water.

Either way, I was less than a fan of the person who didn't pay their way.

But now I'm not so sure if they were perhaps contributing to the economy in a way I previously missed completely.

Damn me!

Perhaps the value of a (*dollar*) is better determined by someone who doesn't pay their way.

Or perhaps it already is.

I had this grand scheme where I recommend my friend should buy 5 x $1 instant lotto (scratch some kind of coating off to reveal you have lost yet again) tickets each week to get over their problem of being a decent payer. I figured it would be easy to be generous to the potential tune of $25,000 for only $5 week left as tips.

I figured they were dodging their due because they thought, not that they didn't have enough, but rather someone might be getting more. That was my big breakthrough idea. Force Them to give a potential something from them.

I figured it might be worth kicking that in the guts with only $5 spent per week.

Giving someone a ticket that only cost a dollar, but that might be worth $25,000 is apparently different to giving someone a dollar. It turns out it was nearly unbearable to think they might win.

UNBEARABLE!

Win more than the dollar they tipped.

UNBEARABLE!

Win more than the dollar they could have had themselves!

UNBEARABLE!

So...

what if you gave someone 3 x $1 instant lotto tickets for a $3 cup of coffee?

That would be fair.

Except we see from my friend that lotto tickets are seen as worth more than the cost of the ticket.

UNBEARABLY more!

But also from actual statistics, we see that lotto tickets are worth less than their face value.

Hmmm...

Obvious really.

Otherwise nobody would buy them.

Nope, I dont understand either...



Anyway...

We sometimes see the potential as being more than the real worth.

People see lotto and slots as worth slightly more than the real worth... of say a ticket...

Or a coin.

The promise of a return is the thing we value in a lotto ticket, or a slot machine, or a coin.

And we all know the return cant be quite as much as the cost of the ticket.

Somebody is making something.

But what if we all started using lotto tickets to buy coffee?

What if we all said I want to buy a $3 coffee with three $1 lotto tickets?

We all know the tickets are worth less than $3, but as in my friend's case, he cant deal with letting go of $3 worth of tickets for $3 worth of stuff.

So $3 worth of lotto tickets are actually worth $3.05, so you only need to pay 2.95 lotto tickets for a $3 cup of coffee. (ish)

Pay for something worth $3 with $3, and get some change.

Everyone nearly wins!

Free money!

Coffee!

War!

!


120 Things in 20 years thinks it just understood how the economy doesn't work..

Thinking - Multiverse

So, apparently we live in one small manifestation of the universe within something called the Multiverse. This is according to some apparently excellent equations.

I don't like it.

One version of the Multiverse says that every possible version of the universe exists, and there's some stuff about a new universe popping into existence every time a decision is made. And a stack of other stuff as well.

As far as I can see, the main upshot of all this, is that people tend to talk about it a lot. I'm not so sure it makes any useful predictions or anything, but that doesn't mean it isn't true.

As I understand it, I think it's more of an inevitable side effect of some awesome equations rather than something people really want.

I know I dont want it.

I've never been comfortable with the concept because it seems a little wasteful. Just think of how much energy is required to support a universe made entirely of blue paint with nothing (obviously) that needs painting. Painting blue paint blue is a foolish errand in anyone's book.

See my problem.

But this morning I found a yellow sticky note on my screen in my handwriting that said...


"This version of the universe just so happens to be one where the Multiverse doesn't exist."


Problem solved.


120 Things in 20 years has only had five hours sleep in the last three days, but I dont think anyone can tell.