Millions of tickets were sold. The prize an estimated $600M. Lines for hours. One winner in Zephyrville, Florida. When I was reading about the statistics from the drawing last night for Powerball, I read that despite all of the tickets being bought, only 80% of the combinations were bought. Think about that. 20% of the combinations were not bought. What kind of odds do you think there are in a regular week that someone is going to win? Pretty slim which is why, especially with California now involved in Powerball that the jackpots are going to get higher. If no one had won last night, the jackpot would have increased to $1B. You would have instantly been one of the richest people in the US, just by winning a lottery.
Florida?! Typical.
ReplyDeleteZephyrhills.
ReplyDeleteFree meth for everyone.
How is that typical?
ReplyDeleteUgh. Florida. An alligator probably won
ReplyDeleteOMG! That was hilarious!!!
DeleteDang, I live in FL and had a ticket. Wish that was me and I dont live in either the mysterious land of Zephyrville or even Zephyrhills which is an actual place about an hour north of me.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I am not insane even though I live in Florida.
I live in Florida too and had my weekly 5 chances in my purse. Oh well, better luck to all next time!
ReplyDeleteGood for them, they owe me $12 bucks. jk Hopefully its someone that will do a lot of great things with it.
ReplyDeleteI find this kind of disturbing, actually. Nobody needs that much money. They should have had 50 draws. Every winner would still have a nice chunk of change, and so many more people would benefit...
ReplyDeleteCommunist lotto. LOL
Delete*sigh*
ReplyDeleteI tried.
I like to imagine what I'd do if I won, but never buy a ticket. I can find better ways to throw money away.
ReplyDeleteYou would be in the 1 %, but not one of the richest, considering lump sum payout amount and taxes.
ReplyDeletehope it's a group and not one lone person it's just too much money.
ReplyDeleteYes, the winner is still an example of how the system is tilted in the extreme to the already-rich, and even winning $1 billion wouldn't put the person in the richest category. This is because the winner would pay straight income tax as opposed to the capital gains tax on the winnings. So even $1 billion would be sliced in half, unlike with the billionaire who paid 14 percent in taxes instead.
ReplyDeleteDidn't have a chance to get a ticket, but I enjoy the whole lotto thing. How exciting for the winner! Can you imagine?
ReplyDeleteY'all know this will not end well.
ReplyDeleteY'all know this will not end well.
ReplyDeleteTrue Amy you talking about Mr. Buffett?
ReplyDeleteSomething inherently wrong with giving one person that much money though I guess they don't get all right away unless they opt for the lesser one time payout but still.
The biggest lottery where I live, Loto Supermax, the highest jackpot will hit $50 million but when the jackpots are unclaimed they start giving away several one million dollar prizes too and in Canada we don't have to pay taxes on lottery winnings or contest prizes, not yet.
But then we don't get the mortgage interest deduction, you Americans still have that right, Obama hasn't taken that away has he? I think most Canadians would rather be able to deduct their mortgage interest rather than have no taxes on lotteries.
@Tina...Just a point about the way our system works (I use "works" loosely here); Obama doesn't have the ability to take away, or give, tax breaks. Only our Congress does. The President doesn't make laws only accepts/rejects them. He has a limited ability to issue, presidential orders which have the force of law, but those abilities are limited in scope.
DeleteThat is, of course, the short version.
Also, just a point... Warren Buffet actually believes the system IS tilted too much in favor of the rich and has gone on record that it is ridiculous that his secretary pays a higher effective tax rate than he does. He thinks the wealthy SHOULD be taxed more.
ReplyDeleteI think everybody should be taxed evenly. You pay 10% (or whatever) of your gross income every year, across the board, no matter how much. That's fair. And bonuses, frankly, should be taxed higher.
ReplyDeleteCee, but then you get into the argument of what, exactly is income. Generally a flat tax would still be recessive because the money most wealthy people make each year is not traditional "income", it's capital gains. So a middle class person is being taxed on 100% of the money they make in a given year while the wealthy are taxed on a much lower percentage of the money they "make".
ReplyDeleteWe also need to revamp the way we tax for Medicare and social security. It is the first however many dollars you make that are taxed (not sure of the number right now), no matter how much you make. So someone who makes $10m a year pays the exact same amount in medicare and ss as someone who makes $50k.
The smart thing to do is put a flat tax on everything, except primary residences and post high school education. This would do away with the off the books economy and the bloat that is the IRS. The stripped down IRS would than have time to adequately scrutinize the nooks of the corporations and squeeze every last dollar out of them.
ReplyDeleteFlat Tax's only major draw back is that it would put a premium on savings. The last thing the government and bankers want is people to save money, which is why the interest rates are so low.
And someone who made $10m and someone who made $50k get the exact same Medicare coverage. Why should one pay more for the same benefit?
ReplyDeleteHow long before the person's family murders the winner and buries them in the backyard? I'm taking bets.
ReplyDeleteMost of this nation's wealth was made by cheap or free labor, from the opium trade and was inherited thereafter, or by selling toxic goods to 3rd world countries, by doing business with the Nazi's during WWII and even providing services to Nazi concentration camps, by stripping the commons of its valuable resources and polluting our air, land and water and by stealing from the middle class and poor. Flat Tax? No. Not fair. You game the system, YOU PAY BACK INTO IT. If not, I welcome you to try and game the system in any other country and make even 1/10th as much wealth. Good luck with that.
ReplyDeleteI love these intelligent converstions we have on here.
ReplyDeleteAww yeah, Florida! Of course I am a Floridian, wish it had been me. I'd buy an island and get the fuck AWAY from everyone forever. If anyone wants to support my dream I'm taking donations :)
ReplyDelete@MadLyb: Fuckin' A!!
ReplyDeleteI used to live in Tampa - and yes, FL is crazy! The local news always had disturbing stories and there were also disgusting critters and alligators everywhere!
ReplyDeleteI do miss the beaches, baseball games, football games and the hour drive to DisneyWorld, though. :-(