Blaise Tapp column: The more we have the more we want

Lots of us regularly think about it, yearn after it, even. Some people go to bed dreaming about it, while others wake up in the middle of the night with it playing firmly on their mind.

No, not that! What I am talking about is winning the lottery, it used to be the Pools but for the past 25 years, we have become a nation of daydreamers, who regularly get carried away with the vague notion that one day, just maybe, our six crucial numbers might just come up.

I have lost count of the number of times that I have spent my imaginary win in my head: the JR Ewing-esque mansion, the gold Roller, the holiday homes in countless different exotic locations and, every bloke’s ultimate fantasy, the bath with a telly in it — the list is endless.

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There are also those folk who routinely share their dreams of winning the lottery, the EuroMillions if they are especially ambitious.

It is not uncommon for relative strangers to reveal to me how they would spend their not so unexpected windfall.

Almost everybody says that they would take care of their loved ones first – it is a social norm to say that but I suspect, in reality, many of us would forget that we ever made such a commitment.

Then there is the amount – we all have different figures in mind when it comes to our imaginary big win with the modest among us saying “just a million would do me”, while the would-be Viv Nicholsons out there claim “I would easily get through ten million quid so would probably need 20”.

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But one thing is for certain – we are all pretty confident that a monster win would make our lives a whole lot easier, especially at this time of year, when we have to deal with Santa lists that contain the latest Nintendo and dolls that do their business in expensive outfits.

In short, we ignore the naysayers who bleat on about money not being the route to genuine happiness and we plough on with our pipe dream of hitting the jackpot.

However, it seems that these safe, sensible people, who put the simpler things in life ahead of pockets full of filthy lucre, might be onto something after all, following the first study of its kind.

A Harvard professor has undertaken a study with 2,000 millionaires, asking them, on a scale of one to ten, how happy they are and how much more cash would they need to score top marks.

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Of those worth a million quid, a quarter of them said they would need 11 times the amount before they were well and truly satisfied with their lot.

This trend continues with people with even more loot, even those worth £7.5 big ones. Apparently the study shows that just because you can afford a sit-on lawnmower for your gardener to use, you will always be looking over the garden fence at what the neighbours have.

Even the super wealthy want to keep up with Joneses. But never, ever the Kardashians, as there is no point in even trying.

While it is nice to know once and for all that people with more money than sense are never completely satisfied, it doesn’t mean that I will stop dreaming about the big one any time soon.