Editorial: No $16.2m? Oh well, it's work again

Saturday's $16.2 million winning Lotto ticket has yet to be claimed

As of last night, Saturday's $16.2 million winning Lotto ticket had yet to be claimed.

Given the ticket was sold from a Hamilton supermarket, the winner, sadly, is not this writer.

I was reminded of the parable of the Mexican fisherman who meets a wealthy banker holidaying in his coastal village. When the Mexican's boat docks, the banker asks him how long it took to net his modest catch.

"Only a little while. It's enough to support my family."

"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos."

"You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats until eventually you would have a whole fleet. You could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. It would take 15-20 years but you'd make millions. What would you'd do with your time and empire?"

"Senor, I'd retire to a small coastal fishing village, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening to sip wine and play guitar with my amigos."

Putting aside the wealth-contentment argument, the Lotto draw also shows how relative "good news" is. Saturday's win is great news for one punter - while the other 4,545,463 of us had little choice but to head into work today.

While I do already fish, wrestle with my kids, enjoy a rare midday nana-nap, drink a sizeable volume of plonk and pluck a six-string, I'll keep buying Lotto tickets to hedge the bets. Either way, I'm thinking the race is all about having the fewest wants.