Date:         Fri, 29 Sep 2000 08:59:47 -0700
Reply-To:     "William W. Viergever" <wwvierg@IBM.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "William W. Viergever" <wwvierg@IBM.NET>
Subject:      Re: In Celebration of a milestone!!!
Comments: To: "Mitchell, Brian [EESUS]" <BMitche3@EESUS.JNJ.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <51FBE3B7A19ED211BE3300805F0D68BA0160846A@eesusciexs4.eesus
              .jnj.com>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

At 07:08 AM 09/29/2000, Mitchell, Brian [EESUS] wrote:

>Actually there's a very good reason for non-rich people to play high stakes
>lotteries even though "on average" they will lose.  In economic terms, it
>has to do with a non-linear utility function so that they are willing to give up
>a small portion of their current income, an amount that has little effect on
>their standard of living, for a miniscule chance of being catapulted to riches.
>They may be poor but they're not stupid!

Ah - non-linear, eh: why not polynomial as well?

Also, I'd say they still may be "stupid", but at least they're "rational" <vbg>.

Also, being Fryeday, this reminds me of a:

>>Government Economist Virus:
>>Nothing works, but all your diagnostic software says everything is fine


>-----Original Message-----  From:   David L. Cassell [SMTP:Cassell.David@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV]  Sent:   Thursday, September 28, 2000 11:51 AM  To:     SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU  Subject:        Re: In Celebration of a milestone!!!
>
>Jules Bosch wrote [in reply to Mark Dehaan]:  > Ah, yes, the statistical aspect of lotteries.  >  > I think rule #1 is that Lotteries are primarily for people who flunked  > statistics.
>
>I prefer:
>
>Lottery, n., a tax on the math-impaired.
>
>:-)  David  --  David Cassell, OAO Corp.                           Cassell.David@epa.gov  Senior computing specialist  mathematical statistician

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
William W. Viergever                      Voice  : (916) 483-8398
Viergever & Associates                    Fax    : (916) 486-1488
A SAS Institute Quality Partner (USA)     E-mail : wwvierg@ibm.net
Sacramento, CA 95825

"Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter."
- Satchel Paige -

"Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese."
- Billie Burke, Glinda the Good Witch
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[text/html]