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"we went to Waitrose and had bacon rolls and sat there in silence" (or words to that effect).
I'm pretty sure that's what most of us would do! But while I sat there reading the story in the Metro (the best newspaper in print) it made me start to think. What would I do with £56millon? After a silent half hour or so, the best I could come up with was pay off my student loans. Then it made me think some more.
Was this the lucky ticket?
Does money make people happy?
In short, the answer should be yes! Why do people work? Why do people gamble? Why do people play the Euro Millions or the bingo? Answer: money! After all, it's not the money we actually want. It's what we spend it on, electricity, fuel, clothes, food and drink, luxuries etc. that we want/need. But winning such a huge amount, £56million, cash, no strings attached, completely liquid- spend it on whatever you want- cash?
Surely YES, you should be happy! But (and there's always a but with me!) let me make an analogy for you.
Imagine you're back in 1996 playing Tomb Raider. You've spent ages getting to around two thirds of the game and mastered some pretty tricky situations in the process. You then discover a cheat website which gives you the codes to make you invincible. You become invincible and at first it is a novelty! You go back to that bear you had to shoot from afar last time round and stand there punching it into submission (bear with me). Suddenly, Lara Croft's life has changed forever! She can go where she wants, do what she wants without the having to worry about anything. After about an hour, the novelty wears off and you can only stand so many bats swarming around you that you can't be bothered to shoot anymore and it starts to become irritatingly boring. You wish you'd never found the website in the first place but you can't go back and start again without the cheat on because it will feel futile and a waste of time.
Now replace Tomb Raider with life, Lara Croft with yourself. Replace the bear and the bats and the difficult bosses you breeze past with the cheat on with luxury items you've always dreamed of. Replace the cheat website with a lottery win. See where I'm going?
Maybe it's just me but if I don't have to work for something, I rarely appreciate it. Now I'm not saying that Nigel (our new lottery winner) will be irresponsible and squander the money. I just think that in the long run, a massive unearned (sometimes undeserved) windfall will result in more problems than solutions. Yes, with money comes opportunities, but like that wise old guy always says: "with great power comes great responsibility".
Many may still be unconvinced, so let me put a different situation forward. Money is a pretty easy-to-come-by thing. You work, you get money. If you have a money problem you can guarantee that you can somehow resolve it with hard work. Take the money problem away completely and as humans, we find other things to be discontent about. It's completely natural. That's why lottery winners make ridiculous dirt bike tracks in their new palatial gardens. And the issue is: relationships with other people and with yourself are much more complex and there are no simple solutions most of the time.
In short I think that people who have to think about money are far better off than those who don't. Life is simpler. Life is engaging and challenging and everything it should be. And without stating the obvious, I'm not talking about those living on or below the bread line because money isn't what these people strive for; food, clean water and basic medicines are what they need. When I say "money", I mean anything left over after the essential life ingredients.
Obviously this is a general statement and does not include the truly remarkable individuals who can work wonders for charity and so on. Nor does it include the distinctly lazy, unremarkable portion of society who don't step up to the challenge and enjoy life for what it is.
