Millions and Real Stars.

    The average person is so nice it's hard to express and I can prove it.  Honest!
    A few weeks ago a regional lottery jackpot rolled over to about 560 million.  That's half a billion dollars.  Let's put that in a little perspective.  Mitt Romney is worth a quarter billion dollars. That means for a dollar you could be twice as wealthy as Romney. That kinda makes him look like he went about it the hard way.  All that "vulture capitalism" stuff does look like work.
    Every time the jackpots get high  we see the same comments about how unfair the lottery is.  You have a better chance of being hit twice by lightening.   It's an unfair hidden tax on the poor and gullible.  It is true, no one has ever seen Warren Buffett or Bill Gates buy a lottery ticket.  How'd ya like to be in front of or behind one of those guys in the lottery line?  Just give up and go home.
    It is true, they are long odds however,  someone does win.  Where else can you make a bet with a pay off that high in proportion to the the amount of the wager?  It's such a small price for a pleasant dream.  And what dreams!
    I love neighborhood-working class bars.  I, long ago, had my fill of  clubs and the like.  I like a place where the neighbors meet to watch the evening news and maybe play along with The Price Is Right, Jeopardy or Wheel.  The men generally look tired from honest labor and the women might even look long-suffering.  Everybody knows your name and if you're new there it won't be long before people do know your name.
    Thinking is, by far, the hardest work ever done but in the world of work once it's thought of someone has to dig the hole, pour the concrete, lay the block, frame it and eventually paint the whole thing.  I like them folks.  I think we can agree they are the literal backbone of this country.
    When those lottery jackpots get so astronomically high these people talk about what they would do with the money.  They all gripe about the immediate tax bite but that soon gives way to what they would do with the remainder.  Some would pay their debts, mortgages, car loans and such.  Most of the guys would buy new trucks.  I'd buy an old truck but the principle is the same.  Most would pay for their children's educations or pay their children's  mortgages and endow their grandchildren.  Most would do something for their local community. They would give more to their church or benefit a local school.  Some would travel mostly to visit scattered relatives or scattered children.
    Not one of them would try to take over Berkshire-Hathaway or corner the market on some commodity or buy Twitter.  They wouldn't run for President.  What they would do is, in a few moments, fund a lifetime of dreams they had always been working towards.  They would fund their American Dreams.  Their dreams are to fulfill what they had been doing to begin with.
    They're Americans and I am very proud to be one of us.  The price of admission to these true American  Dreams is only one dollar.  It's a very small price to pay.