The New York Times estimates that about 50 million people incur “net losses that average $1,000 a year” playing the lottery. Don’t play the lottery. Play sensible investment in low-cost index funds, which is just as fun.

The Powerball lottery has swollen to $1.3 billion. “Biggest jackpot in the history of the world. Absolutely confirmed,” Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery, which is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association that runs Powerball, told the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the Association is quietly trying to deal with a multi-state jackpot rigging scandal that has forced the man who has run the Powerball game for 28 years to be placed on indefinite administrative leave.

America’s student loan crisis is heavy weight that hangs over the heads of millions of people young and old, often preventing them from living the life they once dreamed of. One New Jersey legislator has a patronizing and useless pseudo-solution to this problem.

You don't need John Oliver to tell you that state lotteries—or, as your mom calls them, "the stupidity tax"—are a bad deal, but you may not have realized the extent to which they suck.

25-year-old Brian McCarthy of McLean, Virginia won $107 million in July's Mega Millions lottery. A tipster points out, and public records confirm, that he happens to be the son of Marriott, Inc. Group President Robert J. McCarthy, who earned $1.2 million in 2009.

The Way We Live Now: Misprioritized. We blow our emergency cash on suits. We spend all our time thinking about the lottery. We acquire stress ulcers while our wealth actually grows. Straighten up and fly right—for America.