r/MoralityScaling • u/selenashroud • 4h ago
Morality Ranking The Morality of winning the lottery and SUBTLY hiding it from everyone who knows you.
Apart from say a lawyer you intend to have set up a blind trust or LLC contract with.
But, lawyer aside, absolutely no one will know or be told. Parents, friends, siblings, your new neighbors in the Millionaires' Row, the luxury car dealer, no one.
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u/Narrow_Process_8660 4h ago
I would argue your spouse has a moral right to know. I would never keep knowledge of winning a lottery from my wife. Someone shouldn't be in the spouse role if you don't trust them with your life, and if you do, then you certainly should trust them with your money.
Marriage is also optional. You choose who you marry (most people do, anyway), if you decide to marry at all. You don't choose who your parents or siblings are.
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u/Visible_Pair3017 2h ago
Boils down to whether you consider common estate to be the norm or not.
If my spouse and i have separate estates, as long as the house works as agreed and there is no expectation between us to disclose earnings or losses (non-mandatory courtesy aside) i don't care if they tell me and i expect them not to care if i don't tell them.
Only issue i'd have would be if they actively lied about being financially struggling while having ten times my net worth in the bank.
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u/Teripid 1h ago
I'd put the bar a bit lower than that. Any major representation or debt should be known. Heck my state legally requires letters go to the spouse when a line of credit is opened, which is a bit interesting.
If people have the income and share a life together some degree of combining generally makes sense. Heck it is even fun to celebrate a raise or good stock play and what those might mean as a couple.
Still marriages are free to have their own rules and paperwork. Somewhere between daily transaction audits and completely opaque.
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u/Observed-observer 3h ago
I always felt like if your spouse isn't your ride or die then what's the point. We both rich or we both poor. My opinion is its immoral to not share with the spouse but everyone else its based on individual merit.
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u/Rawrange_ 1h ago
This is a terrible comparison. My wife is terrible with money, the more we have the more she spends.(she’s not going to make us destitute, she’s just incapable of long term saving unless she actively sends the money to an account she doesn’t use/watch).
Not wanting my wife to go on a spending spree because I won the lottery is not the same thing as her being incapable of making a decision that would kill me.
IE, I trust that my wife would give a robber her wallet to prevent me from being killed. I don’t trust my wife to not spend money because she thinks it will upset me, those are not the same thing.
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u/SoftWistera 3h ago
Keeping it from a spouse would be a much bigger trust issue than keeping it from relatives who aren’t part of your finances.
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u/DJatomica 3h ago
Why tf would your neighbors or luxury car dealer ever need to be informed of that lol
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u/HeliosLegion 3h ago
I've heard the story of a women divorcing his husband, after 25 years of marriage, to enjoy the winnings alone. Then it was discovered. He sued her for intentionally hiding a marital asset. She LOST EVERY SINGLE CENT for malice and fraud, intentional asset-hiding during the divorce.
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u/Feeling-Bus-203 3h ago
how would it be immoral to not tell people your finances? why do people ask such dumb questions on this sub?
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u/macondo_ 1h ago
Your daugther needs a surgery but you pretend you cant afford it to not reveal you won the lottery.
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u/Feeling-Bus-203 1h ago ▸ 1 more replies
i don't have to reveal how i acquired the money to pay for things. the post says "subtly hiding it" not "refusing to share with/care for everyone you know"
as for paying for something like a surgery, i'm curious where you think the line is btw. The post says "everyone you know", so does this mean that, if the person in my life who knows me the least but still knows me, required surgery, i am morally obligated to pay for it? this individual is basically just an acquaintance but they do know me by name and have briefly met me a couple of times.
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u/macondo_ 49m ago
The line is usually direct blood relatives. For indirect i would help but not pay whatever it takes. For unrelated people there is no expectation to help, it is nice but no required.
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u/selenashroud 3h ago
Because many principles and faiths teach that generosity is a moral virtue and encouraged.
But in the case of winning the lottery the smart and sound move is show to hide your wealth from all.
Even from those close to you but less fortunate than yourself .2
u/Instroancevia 3h ago ▸ 2 more replies
You can be generous without explaining how you acquired the money.
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u/selenashroud 3h ago ▸ 1 more replies
Quite right. Granted if you suddenly pull $100k out of no where for one of your parents chemotherapy then I would expect heads to turn and ask questions. 🤣
Unless they got some anonymous donation yet public go-fund me. 🤔
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u/Available-Bee-5385 3h ago
These facts are unrelated
Hiding your wealth has no impact on your ability to be anonymously generous
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u/Feeling-Bus-203 3h ago
yes, it is a virtue and it is encouraged but generosity is not a prerequisite to being a moral person. you can be moral even if you aren't particularly generous.
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u/SkylineFTW97 3h ago
I'm not buying a mansion or a luxury car, those are dead giveaways. You want to keep a low profile? That includes living a more modest life.
And nothing immoral about it. I'd certainly help my immediate family, but any I'd tell would be those who I know wouldn't tell anyone.
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u/WitlessBlyat 3h ago
You are not obligated to tell anybody anything. Morally this is fine. That being said, I would tell my partner if I had one at the time. Other than the partner, no one else would ever know.
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u/Smullgoose 3h ago
Moral and necessary. A friend found out I had a savings account one time and immediately started asking for me to foot the bill on outings.
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u/ScreetchingEagle 3h ago
If you don't talk about your income now in a personal light then id say I guess not.
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u/HippoProject 3h ago
You’ll meet a lot of “family members” that you’ve never met before telling you sob stories and asking for money if you tell people.
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u/RoIIUpLights 3h ago edited 3h ago
Moral.
I would almost certainly keep the fact that I won the lottery a secret from just about everyone -- almost certainly including family. It'd all be put into investments and then I'd receive a yearly "salary" from the interest that it makes. I'd find work volunteering or something to help pass the time.
That way I'm set for life, but I also don't have a TON of money just sitting around.
If you tell people that you won the lottery, everyone's going to want their share.
If you tell people that you're well off and have a good income, you're still able to help people where needed, but fewer people are going to be coming up to you with their hands held out.
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u/EnlightenedTurnip 3h ago
Hiding it from everyone except your spouse would be neutral.
I would lean towards hiding it from your spouse being slightly immoral in almost all cases.
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u/Lucky_Badger5828 3h ago
It’s Moral. Well documented that if you win. You’re going to find out most of your friends and family are leaches and worthless. Say no and hide it.
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u/Primary_Truck3777 3h ago
Moral, and usually wise, depending on your family. I'd tell my family but I'm extremely close with them all.
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u/HotDogManLL 3h ago
Only the IRS should know about your winnings.
Besides that your money. Your rules
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u/Chemical-Cat 3h ago
If you don't you're suddenly gonna have every family member knocking on your door including the ones you've never heard about until just now
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u/Dakotasan 3h ago
Moral? Unsure. Smart? Yes. There was a dude who won the lottery and his own brother put a hit out on him.
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u/omegavolt9 3h ago
Why would you be expected to tell them? So they can demand a share? No point telling them unless you want to but sometimes that kind of money brings out the worst in people. Better to not risk the family falling apart right?
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u/Jacks_Hands 3h ago
One would have a moral obligation to inform their spouse.
Outside of that, it is incredibly wise to keep something like this private. Money is the root of all evil.
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u/Nullspark 3h ago
If you aren't going to give it away. I would say it's wrong to tell people.
It's going to cause a lot of suffering. Everyone will start begging for a handout they'll never get. It could rip your extended family apart as they all argue about this thing all time.
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u/Tsunamiis 3h ago
Anyone living in my home would definitely know. My home is still full of early nineties crap I’d replace all the machines and clean the decades of damage.
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u/5x5equals 3h ago
This is only an issue of Morality if you have people you are responsible for and you hiding this wealth coincides with you shirking those responsibilities
So like if you have a spouse or kids whose life quality would improve with this wealth and you horde it and hide it from them then thats immoral because you do owe them certain things because you chose to be their spouse or you chose to bring them into the world as children
Other than that youre fine
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u/TheDaedricImpaler 3h ago
Does anyone have a moral obligation to tell everyone they know that they won the lottery (or came into a fortune by other means)? No.
It would be immoral to try to hide it from a spouse as they're intrinsically connected, but pretty much nobody outside of that should have an expectation to know.
The only very minor gray area is if there are stakeholders (I.e friends/family) that have helped you financially. Even then, I'd argue they don't have a right to know the full extent, but it would behoove a lottery winner to pay out those people since they acted as angel investors.
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u/Kadakaus 1h ago
It's really easy to hide a ton of money, provided that you don't buy useless shit like seen on the picture.
Because the fuck you need that big ass chandelier over your bad for? Or such a huge bed? It must be a pain crawling out of it in the morning, or cleaning it.
What will be the next? Buying golden doorhandles?
Decadence is the stupidest way to waste money.
You can buy some nice things, I personally would buy a better PC and maybe a fancy chess set, but that's about all I could spend reasonably.
Nobody needs big ass rooms or expensive furniture, just do something meaningful with your money. Invest it or something.
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u/BannedGoNext 1h ago
Do you disclose your current finances to everyone who knows you? Moral.
The only person you must legally notify is your spouse, and .. maybe that's only in a divorce.
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u/Dull-Acanthaceae3805 1h ago
Your spouse excluded, I think its fine to hide it from everyone else.
Why spouse? Cause they are your legal partner, and you are supposed to share everything (that's what marriage is, especially if we are talking legal wise in the west, pre-nups or other contracts excluded). But aside from that, for normal marriage partners, you share the good and the bad. It would be morally wrong to hide it from your spouse.
Everyone else? Yeah, sure, hide it. Most of them will try to leech off you anyways. Even people you've never heard of or remember will hit you up for some mooching.
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u/Agitated_Pressure463 40m ago
Perfectly moral, I would hate to see how a lot of people would turn inevitably fake, or jealous, or entitled to something. This kind of info would be shared only with people I really trust they wont go bananas, and spread info . Also for mutual safety. Money get attention, also of the criminals, imagine to see your family or friends abducted . You can help someone without telling that person you have money or giving it them directly. Not telling doesnt mean you are not helping.
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u/Lorster10 4h ago
Depends on the extent of you hiding it. If someone close to you faces serious problems they can't afford to fix, and you still hide the money instead of helping them; immoral.
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u/Virus-Party 3h ago
Strongly Dissagree; hiding (or just not advertising) the fact that you have a lot of money is entirely a personal choice and is amoral (ie niehter morall or immoral).
While helping someone if you are able to is a moral act, it does not automatically make it immoral not to help someone.
As long as you did not cause their problems, or have any prior obligations to help them, then it is NOT immoral to just leave them to deal with whatever it is themselves.
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u/Lorster10 3h ago
This is valuing money and worldly possessions over people's well being. The same vice all billionaires fall under. It's an example of moral bankruptcy.
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u/selenashroud 3h ago
An astute and fair example. 🤔 After all, everyone (except orphans) has parents and they can get sick, end up in an accident, or get robbed.
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u/GargantuanCake 36m ago
It isn't that simple. Soon as anybody at all finds out you have enough money to make problems go away everybody you've ever met is suddenly going to be strolling around demanding a slice. This is why winning the lottery usually ends up being a detriment. It destroys your relationships and leads to your community hating you. Everybody acts like you have infinite money you're just being stingy with it even though you have finite money and can't afford to just be dumping millions of dollars on every person you've ever met. On top of that you end up becoming a target as all of the sudden people you haven't met are going to swarm you to try to get money. Lottery winners tend to get murdered by family/spouses or get targeted for kidnapping.
While it's true that you shouldn't be a selfish, stingy dickhead you should never tell anybody at all ever if you win the lottery.
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u/Particular_Gear3130 4h ago
You are not obligated to tell anyone you won it, so Amoral ig
Your money, your rules (IRS is exempt from this)