Lottery Wishes, Dreams Deferred

One day driving from Nashville, my friend and I were talking and I asked him what would be the first thing that he would do if he had won the lottery.

So many people say things like this:
Quit my job.
Buy a house.
Buy a car.
Start a business.
Retire my parents.

With much deliberation, my crazy friend calmly says "I would change my phone number"(LOL!)

On the serious tip, have you ever thought about from what communities do most of the lottery dollars come from. Well, I thought about and asked a representative about where did most of the money come from in Shelby County. The representative said that it came from some of the poorest zip codes in the county. So the next question is from what income level do lottery scholarships usually come from? Middle class.

It has been proven that many of the worst performing schools are typically in the poorest neighborhoods. So many people in these poor neighborhoods are betting on the lottery (similar to athletics) as a ticket out of desperation. But in actuality, the small wealth of the poor is being transferred to the middle class in the form of scholarships. Even though those scholarships are open to everyone but you as a student are not being equally prepared in school for those scholarships.

So the next time you play the lottery, think about where is this money coming from and where is it going.