POLL: 'Moral' obligation for a jackpot winner

Reply #49

guesser — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 05:51:01 GMT

At almost any age, all anyone 'NEEDS' to live the rest of their life on is about 3 million cash, in the bank.

$50,000 x 60 (years) is just that, assuming you win at age 21 and live until 81.

And please don't jump in and say anything about taxes, or the higher cost of living in later years, we are just discussing a raw number for today. Besides, it's safe to assume this 3 mill will grow over the course of your life expectancy, even if only 2-4%, or up to 5-8%, compounded.... [ More ]

Reply #48

manzplan — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:39:13 GMT

Ya know it depends on how much a person wins and such. Someone making say 25k a year to continue working after getting 40 M after taxes is a bit rediculas even. However with some peoples views of how many people they can help if they win the lottery I would say they should keep working cos they will be broke soon enough.

There is a difference between Income and Interest Income. Interest Income from a lottery win only grows if you don't spend money or give money away. Look at David Edwards h... [ More ]

Reply #47

RJOh — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:30:26 GMT

Before I removed my e-mail address from my profile, I would get e-mail telling me I didn't NEED to play the lotteries and the money I spent could serve the NEEDS of others better.

I didn't need to response to them but I did because I had a need to tell them it was none of their business.

Reply #46

justxploring — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 02:58:13 GMT

I see where both Guesser Coin Toss have valid points. If that hypothetical single person even makes $150,000 a year, he still needs to work, because he has no idea when/if he will be out of work or sustain an injury! Maybe I'd work just for the health benefits. Just because someone has a job one day, doesn't mean he'll have it next year.

Actors who are millionaires several times over still accept roles in pictures for many reasons,and they paid quite a bit too. Maybe they want to work,... [ More ]

Reply #45

Coin Toss — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:43:40 GMT

guesser

In your example above, you're making $50,000 a year. It's still a job and regardless of marital status etc... you need to work.

The person in the OP who hits the jackpot no longer NEEDS the job.

In your example you never show where you don't NEED the job.

Now, since the jackpot winner no longer needs the job should they make room for someone who does

Reply #44

manzplan — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:53:46 GMT

no one has a moral obligation to do anything whatsoever to make life easier for another.

I think it's more of a way that some people try to justify their own views on what they would do if they won a jackpot. Some people might have the idea that if they say they will quit their job people may view them negatively so they justify it by saying they are or would do it for all these moral reasons......

heck with that if they wanna quit their job so they can just play I say fine let them........ [ More ]

Reply #43

guesser — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:33:27 GMT

I don't understand this 'moral obligation' garbage at all, let's take it one step further, hypothetically speaking:

1) I make $50,000 a year, am single, and have no kids, never been married.

2) There is a guy that is unemployed, married, and has two kids, and he is perfectly qualified to do my job.

So do I have a 'moral obligation' to quit so he can have a job and support his family

Reply #42

irondoor827 — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 08:19:03 GMT

here again this question come up as to why should a person keep his job if he or she wins a large sume of money ???

answer : Because they were there first and its there choice and they don't owe anyone an explanation why they keep working ...................employment for some people is a habit ....a way of life and daily routine ...a habit thaat takes a life time to break.....and they might just want to keep the friends... [ More ]

Reply #41

manzplan — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:23:00 GMT

Actually I am telling people not to let anyone tell them how to spend their money other than a good financial advisor....

I am telling people to beware of schemes and scams..... relatives that didn't know they had, scam charities,,,,,, siblings with sure fire schemes and too big of dreams and such.....

telling people to do their say 10% blow the money thing then sit on the rest for a couple of years til they get their head around having so much money......

IE I am telling people they s... [ More ]

Reply #40

truecritic — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:31:25 GMT

people who talk of winning $100,000,000 or a billion would argue about giving up a $25k to $150K annual income.

Yeah, but Coin Toss, that wasn't your question.

Does a jackpot winner have a moral obligation to leave their job?

I voted no. BUT I would have quit any job I had, most likely, however not based on any moral obligation.

Reply #39

truecritic — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:15:40 GMT

I've always had a desire to help out the underdogs in our society.

Such as the George Costanzas of the world

Reply #38

jarasan — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:55:47 GMT

w/ mountainman, four4me, sir metro (good), ct. You all said it pretty good.

Reply #37

mountainman — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:39:53 GMT

You are right on, there is a lot of socialist talk right now, this person owes me this and that. This is America no one owes anyone a damn thing, it must be earned.

Reply #36

four4me — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:31:54 GMT

While i don't think it a moral obligation to keep working or quit. I do think it would be hard on the person whom won. It might cause the person a hardship as fellow workers might continuously harass you by asking for handouts and such, some might even be envious or jealous. Which can create uneasiness among coworkers.

In such cases leaving the job might be the best idea. All this depends on many circumstances including your job position and description. If sitting behind the desk and making... [ More ]

Reply #35

mountainman — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:30:12 GMT

If an individual wants to spend his last penny of lottery winnings on hookers and booze why should anyone care

Reply #34

Coin Toss — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:18:13 GMT

KYFloyd

Actually I'm a little surprised that people who talk of winning $100,000,000 or a billion would argue about giving up a $25k to $150K annual income. Go figure .

Then again, it's extremely entertaiing knowing that most of the people saying that, if they actually hit a jackpot, wil quit in the proverbial New York minuite .

A wise sage once said that people who want to live forever don;t know what to do with themselves on a Sunday afternoon.

Sir Metro

Excellent post.... [ More ]

Reply #33

SirMetro — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:56:42 GMT

Moral...Morality...ethics...funny little words.

Perhaps in its simplest sense of definition, one could say that it is defined as being that which is approved by reigning majority that surrounds oneself

Not really complicated. If one was at a nudist camp, then the wearing of clothing could unethical or against one's morals .

Yet by the very same token, within a Catholic monastery, nudity is easily considered unethical or against one's morals .

Society, be it Capitalist, Social... [ More ]

Reply #32

pacattack05 — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:30:48 GMT

You and Manzplan would get along just fine together.

You're the authority on what definitions of bearer instruments are, and Manzplan is the authority on how someone should spend their money.

Yokel and dokel.

Keep handing them flyers out at the airport. I'm sure eventually, you'll have a following. Just be careful though, Janet Reno might come after you.

Reply #31

KY Floyd — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:33:39 GMT

Surely you're not actually surprised at the results you got. You asked about morals in a group where the majority think they're still in the 3rd grade and that if they find somebody else's property they get to keep it. Why would you really expect that many of them would feel a need to meet a moral obligation to anyone else when it would interfere with one of their rights? Not that a bunch of them actually understand that distinction, of course. For those that don't understand, if you go to the b... [ More ]

Reply #30

Coin Toss — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:19:38 GMT

What says he doesn't? I did mention run of the mill blue collar or white collar job.

All too many of us do whatever we do by rote. Once you're trained for a job it just becomes repititious.

Very few get to be really creative or to really use their minds.

Since that's the average person that's the type job I'm talking about.

My jobs were the Army, refinery work, the post office, and casino work. Had I hit a jackpot when I was working I would have walked from any of those. I think... [ More ]

Reply #29

DoubleDown — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:15:02 GMT

Not your day, is it CT ?

Oh well, someone has to be the hammer and someone has to be the nail...

Peace out...DD

Reply #28

guesser — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:10:42 GMT

So what makes you think the unemployed guy has the knowledge or qualifications to step in and take the lottery winner's job ?

Not all lottery winners bolt wheels onto cars or deliver the mail, some are skilled labor.

Reply #27

Coin Toss — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 05:41:52 GMT

Well that's a little harsh.

As far as head out of the sand and 60's rose colored glasses, you've got the wrong guy, pal...in the 60's I was in the freaking jungles in Viet Nam getting rocketed and mortatred, and you?

I find it quite interesting that all I did was pose a question and am getting jumped on by a lot of people. Yeesh.

I guess actual discussions will always take second place to What I'd do with a billion . Yeesh.

Lesson learned.

Reply #26

BaristaExpress — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 04:17:16 GMT

I say NO to the moral or ethical obligation!

What makes you think any company is going to hire anyone to replace a person (in this day and age) that leaves them? Most companies these days are look for ways to get rid of as many people they can! Less people on the payroll, less money out of pocket for their health care insurance and unemployment insurance payment the company has to pay to the state for each and every employee they have on the payroll.

There is no moral or ethical oblig... [ More ]

Reply #25

ArtVandalay — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 23:44:58 GMT

The obligation isn't moral; it's pratical. If I owned my own business, and if it was more than just a way to make money , then maybe I would keep that business as a means of some sort of fulfillment. As it is, I work a blue collar job for an hourly wage, and I would quit my job in a New York minute if I ever won enough money to retire on, not only to free up the job for somebody else, but also to free up myself to do the things that I want to do. I like to think that I would throw myself into... [ More ]

Reply #24

manzplan — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:23:21 GMT

I can't really see the point of someone who wants to keep their hourly wage job going after a Huge Jackpot.

As for moral obligation to anything in the event of a huge lottery win... Morals are subjective things in these sort of cases.

Some areas there is a worker shortage and their quitting would really put the company in a bind.... Other areas have high umemployment.

Most people after a huge win do quit their job and many after a small jackpot win do as well.

Frankly I am rather... [ More ]

Reply #23

Stack47 — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:07:00 GMT

I voted no but believe they will eventually quit their jobs anyways.

The auto industry has been downsizing for years so if a jackpot prize winner does quit, they probably wouldn't hire anybody to replace them and if they did, because of seniority rights that new hire would never get that job or those wages. Ford has 30 and out so it depends on the number years service an employee has and the amount of the jackpot before this scenario could even play out.

This poll should be a no-braine... [ More ]

Reply #22

Coin Toss — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:32:05 GMT

Bingo! The lady you mentioned is exactly what I was referring to.

Re: the CEO's - true about what they can negotiate for themselves, to a point. In the late 1980's, the people at the top at GM stiffed their employees on profit sharing one year while still divvying up millions in bonuses for themselves. The employees got a letter that stated GM didn't make enough that year to pay anything in profit sharing- while they still got theirs.

Pre WW II CEO's made about 20 to 100 times what their... [ More ]

Reply #21

justxploring — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:07:16 GMT

You're mostly right about the CEO's salaries and bonuses. consider the guy who ran K-Mart for about six months and got more in severance pay than most people make in a lifetime. He got more in severance pay than a ot of CEO's make working!

It's true that I will probably never make nearly as much as some top executives, but we don't live in a communist country. People have a right to work their way up to the top and negotiate for whatever salary they think they're worth. Top models mak... [ More ]

Reply #20

Coin Toss — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:22:37 GMT

truecritic

Does anyone retire from a job with the idea that they are helping someone else get that job? I wonder if that even occurs to anyone as a moral reason for retirement?

Well for some people there definitley comes a time to move on . Others are forced to move on. It all goes to make up attrition rates. Even multi-million dollar athletes hiy a time when it's time to move over. Earl Weaver said in all his years of managin baseball the hardest thing he ever had to do was tell... [ More ]

Reply #19

hypersoniq — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:18:36 GMT

If I didn't have to be there, I wouldn't. It WOULD be partly to free up the job, and partly because I would be free from the bonds of corporate opression!!!

But I don't think it should be mandatory. Some people like their job. (I am NOT one of those). Everyone's situation is different... could be the routine would help them get into the role of millionaire without making such crazy decisions... I don't know.

I have no doubts that the lottery should at least DELAY the announcement until the... [ More ]

Reply #18

truecritic — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:10:35 GMT

Coin Toss

Not that same thing for the Ford workers, although they are well paid, they need the job. Nobody puts years on an assembly line for fun.

The jackpot winner no longer needs the job.

Why I say it is the same thing...it is a matter of perception. $50,000 would last me a minimum of 3 years. So by my standards, I say they don't need the job. Let me have the job for 3 years. They have their $50,000 too bad if they didn't save it. Just like some lottery winners that also... [ More ]

Reply #17

psykomo — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:06:31 GMT

ODK

Had to vote let us see on this WON?????????????????????????

It sounds like (2) Inquisition -(5) Saint Mary RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

(9) Labyrinth of Prayers^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

(ALL COMBINED in ONE)

GREAT..........................POLL..........but, (A Photographic Memoir)

PSYKOMO

Reply #16

MegaWinner — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:11:45 GMT

Why should they? Its their money and their choice.

Reply #15

weshar75 — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:41:17 GMT

In my opinion it depends on the individual as to whether they view moral obligation externally as in the sense of it being objective and applicable to them. Or their view is internally based on their own desires, upbringing and conscience.-weshar75

Reply #14

pacattack05 — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:40:58 GMT

Rjoh made a good point. But i'd like to elaborate on that a bit.

We first have to define morality, and it's varied roots. You think the powerball odds are high?...LOL

Given the complexity of the variables involved, may lead someone to believe the task of pointing out the correct one would be a monumental ordeal. And they would be right.

Cows are worshipped in India. They are pretty much allowed to do, and go anywhere they want with no impedence. Much like Monks who cherish, even the mos... [ More ]

Reply #13

mountainman — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:18:42 GMT

Since we have brought up the assembly line in Michigan, from what I have heard those 50 a year jobs are starting to disappear. 50 or 60 really ain't that good in Michigan or the Northeast. Right on man, you are exactly right, this is what is wrong with the education system in the U.S., and it is robbing most of the kids of a decent education. When I was younger, going to the public school down the block wasn't humiliating, because the C.E.0's kid did too.

Reply #12

bambini — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:56:49 GMT

I am an AMERICAN, I have no moral sentiments, period

Reply #11

RJOh — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:16:09 GMT

OK, let's take it another step. The guy who can't get hired is thinking, Sure, no work for me and he has $48 million and a job.

So the lottery winner quits his job and a young, single and more qualified guy gets his job so does the guy who can't get hired start thinking Sure, no work for me and he's single with no family and gets the job, he could've got a job anywhere.

WHEN DOES THIS GUY START TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS OWN SITUATION?

Had he been qualified he might have had... [ More ]

Reply #10

MIlottoplayer — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:12:24 GMT

Yeah, I can't believe I wrote it that way. It is funny the way it came out. Obviously you know what was on my mind, but at least you got my point. I think my brain works too fast sometimes for my fingers to keep up

Reply #9

Coin Toss — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:03:49 GMT

truecritic

Not that same thing for the Ford workers, although they are well paid, they need the job. Nobody puts years on an assembly line for fun.

The jackpot winner no longer needs the job.

MIlottoplayer

This is priceless, I kow it's a Freudian slip, but still, priceless:

I don't think a huge jackpot winner has a moral or ethical jackpot to leave their job...

Justxploring, agreed, I think they will eventually quit anyway. All the I'm going to keep working in th... [ More ]

Reply #8

justxploring — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:54:54 GMT

someone working hourly wage or salary at a normal run of the mill blue collar or white collar job

Absolutely!

(although my vote was they'll quit anyway

Reply #7

truecritic — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:48:35 GMT

Following that same line of thinking, everyone working at Ford Motor that makes $50,000/yr (or more) should quit because they have $50,000 plus a job and I don't.

I don't think anyone should quit if they don't want to, whether they like the job or some other reason.

Reply #6

BevsPicks2 — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:48:04 GMT

no.

Reply #5

MIlottoplayer — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:43:51 GMT

I don't think a huge jackpot winner has a moral or ethical jackpot to leave their job. I think most people would leave their jobs, but the majority of those people who do leave their jobs after a windfall aren't doing it to be moral or good to their fellow man. They leave pretty much for purely selfish reasons to go travelling or spend more time with their family...which is perfectly fine in my mind. So mark me down as NO.

Reply #4

emilyg — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:36:55 GMT

imho no

Reply #3

Coin Toss — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:28:00 GMT

Ok, let's take this one more step. Two people in the same town. One can't get hired because there are no openings, and one hit a jackpot for let's say $48,000,000.

So the one who can't get hired has to be thinking, Sure, no work for me and he has $48 million and a job.

Reply #2

Guru101 — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:30:27 GMT

I don't think they do.

Reply #1

stavros — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:29:53 GMT

I'm not sure. Many people love their job, and they get great satisfaction out if it. It would have to be an individual decision, and I don't think it has anything to do with morality or ethics. If you want to keep your job, then keep it. If you want to retire, then retire. At this stage of my life, I would retire, however, I am self-employed.

POLL: 'Moral' obligation for a jackpot winner

Coin Toss — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:18:19 GMT

Does a jackpot winner have a 'moral' or ethical obligation to leave their job, in order to free that job up for someone who really needs it?

I'm talking a sizeable jackpot that would let someone retire if they wanted to.

We're not talking about a business owner here, but someone working hourly wage or salary at a normal run of the mill blue collar or white collar job.

I'm thinking they should leave that job to inded free it up for someone who needs it, as they don't anymore, and also i... [ More ]