by Mo Morrissey

Created on: March 28, 2008   Last Updated: March 29, 2008

very so often the multi-state lottery in which my state lottery participates reaches a level that catches my eye: $95 Million, $250 Million, et cetera. Of course the jackpot is never expressed as so-and-so-many-million dollars, it's expressed as $95,000,000 or $250,000,000. The jackpot amount for the March 28, 2008 drawing of Mega Millions is $113 Million (or, put another way, $113,000,000) with the up front cash option at $71.2 Million.

The odds of matching all five numbers PLUS the "Megaball" is 1 in 175,711,536. Most daunting, to say the least. So while I'm studying ways to reduce the odds to be in my favor, I've started thinking about the ways my life would change with $71,200,000 in hand or with $12,500,000 a year for twenty years. After all, with odds of winning like 1 in 175,711,536, what you're really doing when you plunk down $1 or $2 or $100 or even $1000 is leveraging the opportunity cost of buying a ticket against the dream that you'll beat those odds.

Here are the dreams my $2 in opportunity cost have bought me for a couple of days. My father used to say he would make 2 phone calls: one to a travel agent and one to the place he used to work. Me? I might not even quit my job, but I know what I would want to do.

$367,200: Lamborghini Murcilago

Lamborghini has had a troubled 30 years, surviving bankruptcy, receivership, Chrysler, and Tommy Suharto to come under the ownership of Audi AG. With Lamborghini's logo of Bull, it is only fitting then that the 2002 replacement for the Lamborghini Diablo was the Murcilago, named for a bull which survived 24-sword strokes during a bull fight and whose life was ultimately spared. The 0-60 speed is 3.8 seconds, with a 9.5 second ramp up to 100 mph and a top speed of 205 mph. This is not an automobile for the rational, as no rational person need attain a top speed of 205 mph. Nor is a $300,000 automobile a requirement; one can procure a more than satisfactorily serviceable automobile for substantially less money.

So why have one's mind set on a top of the line Lamborghini? This is an automobile of passion. This is an automobile that is not required to go from point A to point B. This is an automobile that announces that not only does the driver appreciate the absolute finest things in life, he can also afford the absolute finest things in life. With a net worth that has just increased by approximately $100,000,000, this announces to the world I have arrived. It also announces that I have also probably won a lottery,

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