What would you do if you won $41 million dollars in the Powerball
Lottery? Explain your decision based on your personal philosophical
conception of happiness. Be sure to critically evaluate at least
some of the philosophical conceptions of the good life discussed in class
and the textbook. Do any of the philosophies we have discussed apply
in terms of guiding you in this decision? If not, why?
See the article below from CNN.
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(CNN) — A Minnesota mother, a couple from Maine and an unemployed
ex-convict from Kentucky joined the exclusive club of Powerball winners
Monday, each claiming their $41.5 million payout from Saturday’s $295 million
jackpot.
The first winner to face the media was an ex-convict who had turned
his life around only to lose his job. He now has plans to help his family
with part of his winnings.
“It’s a poor man’s dream,” said David Edwards of Ashland, Kentucky,
after lottery officials validated his ticket. He chose the lump sum payment
of $41 million.
Edwards was convicted in 1981 of robbery in the first degree and sentenced
to 10 years in jail, according to Kentucky corrections officials. He received
an additional conviction of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon
in 1991. He spent a total of 11 years in jail, spread out over 16 years.
He was released on Oct. 1, 1997.
The no-longer poor man said he plans to buy a cream-colored Rolls-Royce
Bentley convertible to replace his 1992 Buick Roadmaster that has “130,000
miles on it and a bad radiator.”
A new pickup truck is on the list of items a Maine couple plans to buy
with their share of the jackpot from a ticket they bought in New Hampshire.
Their attorney came forward Monday to identify the overwhelmed couple
as Pat and Irwin Wales. She works at a bank; although he is disabled, he
works several part-time jobs.
One day after Pat celebrated her 60th birthday, she crossed over the
border to buy some lottery tickets, according to the lawyer. After tickets
for two other games turned out to be winners (for a total of $25), she
stayed up late Saturday to watch the Powerball drawing live on CNN.
Her attorney said when Pat went to tell her husband of 17 years that
they were millionaires, the 70-year-old Irwin just said, “Un huh,” and
went back to sleep.
In Roseville, Minnesota, Sheryel Hanuman, a medical records clerk in
her 40s with a husband and three young sons, said she was still “shocked”
by winning the drawing.
She bought just five $1 tickets at a Cub Foods store Saturday when she
stopped to buy a card on her way to a wedding — only the fourth time she
had ever played Powerball.
“It means at little more freedom. It means I’ll have a more secure future,”
she said at a news conference at Minnesota Lottery headquarters. “It means
I’ll be able to help my family in ways I never even thought of prior to
this.”
There were four winning tickets sold for Saturday night’s drawing. The
outstanding ticket was sold in Delaware, where winners are allowed to remain
anonymous. The winning numbers were 8, 17, 22, 42, and 47 and the Powerball
number was 21.
If each ticket has one owner, each winner would have the option of taking
$2.9 million a year for the next 25 years, or an immediate $41 million.
Last weekend’s jackpot was just shy of the $295.7 million won by a group
of Ohio factory workers in 1998. It ranks as the third largest lottery
jackpot ever in the United States, behind the 1998 jackpot and $363 million
Big Game prize won by two players in Illinois and Michigan last year.
Prayer and $7
Last week, Edwards’ unemployment benefits were running out, he needed a
back operation, his future mother-in-law had a serious illness and his
daughter needed a computer for school.
At the time, “I only had three more unemployment checks left and I didn’t
have any medical insurance,” Edwards said. “My back was against the wall.”
That’s when he decided to take $7, say a prayer and buy lottery tickets,
one of which made him an multi-millionaire.
“The first thing I did was thank God,” said Edwards, 46.
His fiancée joined him at the Kentucky Lottery Corporation news
conference.
“I’ve checked the ticket 50 times and now they have it so I can’t check
it again, but I probably would if we still had it,” said Shawna Maddux,
26, who is now planning a big wedding. The former waitress also told CNN
she was “getting a Ferrari.”
Edwards’ ex-wife got married on Saturday, just hours before he became
a multi-millionaire.
“Congratulations, honey,” Edwards said. Edwards — who hired an armed
guard to protect his winning tickets after Saturday’s drawing and traveled
to Louisville for Monday’s news conference with bodyguards — conceded
his life would change drastically after winning millions.
“I would gladly trade my old problems for these problems,” said Edwards.
“It’s just up to me to make that positive change.”
One reporter asked Edwards about his felony record
“I’ve made mistakes in my past and that’s been a long time ago. I’ve
paid for those mistakes and I’ve went on with my life and straightened
my life out and I’ve been productive since then,” he answered. “I can’t
go back and change my life, but I can do something positive about my future.”
Edwards said some of his winnings would go to help the youth in his
own community to help prevent others from making the same mistakes he did.
He also plans to set up a trust fund for his daughter’s education, for
his fiancée’s three sons and for future generations of his family.
He will also buy a house for his mother-in-law who suffers from lupus.
He said he is getting advice from a tax accountant and other financial
experts.
The owners of the Ashland Pump-N-Shop will receive $450,000 for selling
the winning ticket, Kentucky Lottery spokeswoman Nichelle Lee said. In
contrast, the Cumberland Farms in Rollinsford, New Hampshire, will get
$30,000 for selling a winning ticket, according to Rick Wisler, executive
director of the state’s lottery.
This content is sourced from www2.hawaii.edu and is shared for informational purposes only.
