Schrodinger's Ticket

Schrodinger’s Ticket

I’ve just gotten off work and I swing into my local convenient store. “And one lotto ticket for tomorrow’s drawing please,” is how I finish off my purchases. A fool’s tax is what many call it, but I would disagree. At the very least I have found a non foolish way to rationalize the purchase.

Let’s examine the pros and cons of what I believe to be the three possible outcomes. Outcome one is that I win the jackpot. Outcome two is somebody else wins. And the third outcome I refer to as Schrodinger’s Ticket.

If I win the lottery I receive quite a return on my investment and don’t appear so foolish. My family is taken care of. My friends get to enjoy a few things they might have not otherwise gotten a chance to. I live life without letting finances affect most of my decision making. Good times.

But perhaps I don’t win the lottery. My dollar is thought to be wasted. If we break the dollar down, what do I really lose? Ten cents or so goes to administrative costs for the lottery system. If anything, this could be considered money lost, but it serves a function. Out of the remaining ninety cents let’s assume that amount is split between the government and the winner. So forty-five cents each, but the winner get’s taxed thirty percent making it really a sixty-thirty split.

With that sixty cents of mine, the government pays for schools, builds roads, preserves parks, and many other tasks that benefit my community and, in turn, me. Without lotteries the world wouldn’t have many of its greatest public works. The Great Wall of China was built in part with lottery money. Even Harvard was built with the help of lotteries. I am fine with spending sixty cents a week to help my community. I can afford that.

The other thirty cents goes to the winner. When John Lucky wins, arguably it is one of the top five happiest or most exciting times in his life. Now if you walked up to me on the street and said that if I give you thirty cents you could give a stranger one of the top five moments in his life, I would do it. Thirty cents and I give somebody that much joy? Sold. Not to mention the fact that most lottery winnings get spent in the first five years after being won. That means the money is back circulating in my economy. Maybe John Lucky will spend thirty cents with me that he normally wouldn’t. The money could come right back to me, possibly even with an increase.

The third outcome is what I call Schrodinger’s Ticket. This is a reference to physicist Erwin Schrodinger’s theoretical experiment that was coined Schrodinger’s Cat. I will try to explain it simply, and loosely. In the experiment a cat is placed in a box with a toxic substance that has a random chance of killing or not killing the cat. Schrodinger hypothesized that before we open the box to see if the cat is dead, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time.

So when I have the ticket in my pocket, before I have checked my numbers, the outcome of winning and losing both exist. My ticket is a loser and a winner until I check it. What I like about this idea is that it changes my thought and decision process the entire time I have the ticket.

If a friend asks if I want to go to Vegas in two weeks, I am stopped from automatically answering, “I can’t afford it, man.” Instead, I think of the ticket and I say, “Perhaps.” It opens up a world of possibilities. And our world is already full of possibilities. This is something I tend to forget and the ticket helps reminds me.

The ticket also stops me from constantly thinking negatively about my financial situation. I can look at my bank account and get depressed, or I can think, “Well, I don’t know that this is all the money I have, I could have millions in my pocket right now.” It retrains my brain not to come from a place of lack, but rather a place with the possibility of abundance.

There is another purpose being served too. Let’s say I have the lottery ticket in my pocket and I get a parking ticket. The lottery ticket reminds me not to get too upset about the parking ticket. If there is a winner in my pocket, I would not let a parking ticket ruin my day. So why is there any reason to get worked up now? Schrodinger’s Ticket tells me to rethink my reactions to the daily financial struggles that may arise.

There is a scene in the movie Office Space where two characters are talking about what they would do if they had a million dollars. They bring up being in high school and meeting with the guidance counselor. The counselor asks, “What would be your career if you had a million dollars?” In this exercise, whatever you say is what you should do, because you aren’t supposed to be driven by the money. You should let a force much stronger direct you. Passion. Joy. Your inner voice.

Now, I’m still going to make decisions based on finances. It would be ridiculous of me not to. But rather than my decisions being reactive and immediately made based on finances, I take the time to consider how I would respond in an ideal world. Sometimes we don’t comprehend all the possibilities out there because we let our perception of our finances dictate immediately what we should do. I think ‘perception’ is the key word there. What Schrodinger’s Ticket helps me do is remember that my perception might not be accurate. I don’t know the outcome of events to come. I have just as much a chance at guessing what the world has in store for me as guessing the winning lottery numbers. So why not keep an open perspective?

My wallet loses a piece of green paper and gets a piece of white paper. They are both just pieces of paper. It is only our perception that puts any value on them. So who is to say I made the fool’s trade? My world is endless until I’ve checked those numbers. And if I check them, and I haven’t won, I can always trade in another piece of green paper for another endless world.