Greed Not Good?

A new radio commercial for the California lottery asks, "What would you do if you won millions of dollars?" Nothing overly original/noteworthy there. The responses, though, are interesting. The first "winner" says she would help her brother film his screenplay. Not to be outdone, the second "winner" talks (in sort of gruff tones--probably what a northern Californian imagines someone from Brooklyn sounding like) about how he would use the money to hire celebrity TV chefs to prepare meals in soup kitchens.

Altruism! We remember when lottery commercials evoked the wealth and status that you, THE WINNER, could acquire through the simple wager of a dollar: mansions, yachts, fast cars, loose women (OK, that last one was more implied than evoked. Still). Should we be optimistic about these new appeals to the better angels of our nature? Have we become more likely to crave wealth not so much for what it can buy as for what it can do?

Wouldn't it be pretty to think so.

But we still want a private jet.