Luck

I was driving to work yesterday and heard that nobody won the giant powerball lottery.  This got me to thinking about how lotteries are the quintessential example of taking from the many to enrich the few. In Oklahoma the lottery was tried several times to get legalized but failed until it got renamed as the "Education" lottery.  So far the actual vs. projected results of the education lottery have been dismal AND our
state public education system is still sorely lacking.
 
Google lottery winners and find out what researchers have learned.  Also see what reports about the Oklahoma Education Lottery say about ACTUAL money allocated to schools.  Every day children learn about the lottery from billboards, radio and TV ads, news articles, and everytime they go with mom to the grocery store or gas station.  What are we really TEACHING them with the "Education" lottery?

 Below is a link to a very nicely written article about a small farming village (Sodeto) in an area of Spain known as Aragon.  (Sounds like it could be from a Lord of the Rings movie.)   
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201305/spanish-lottery-winners-sodeto

One thing that stood out for me was how the experience of "luck" was shared equally and joyfully by everyone in Sodeto until the money actually started coming in--at which time secrecy and suspicion seemed to take over.  Let's just hope it is temporary and life is already back to normal in Sodeto.

ENJOY AND GOOD LUCK!

troy