Do as I say, not as a I Powerball

Powerball, I spit on you! I belittle you're very existence! Powerball is a tax on the poor, the ignorant, and the wishful thinkers. I must have caught a case of the last one pretty bad because I broke down and bought a ticket when the jackpot hit $340 million.

I spent a good deal of time wishful thinking, enough anyway to check on some things to make sure I could fit all of my plans into my 'winnings'. I found I had to scale way back. A good rule of thumb is to take the lottery jackpot and divide by 4 - and you'll get your true winnings. Now $340 million divided by four is still $85 million, but it's not enough to buy the Twins and build a stadium. It's barely enough to have a stadium named after you. It's certainly enough to let you quit your job, but not enough to live like Paris Hilton - more like Jacque Jones. $85 million handled prudently should generate about $5-$6 million a year, just about what the Twins RF makes.

One guy at the dog park tried to justify getting tickets when the dollar amount exceeded the odds - 1 in 146 million. At first I bought this. On further inspection, the true 'break even' is much, much higher. First off, we need to take the $146 million times 4 in order to get your dollars odds to match your lottery odds. So the jackpot has to be $584 million. And let's not forget that you are buying your lottery ticket with after tax dollars (as opposed to putting them in your 401k), the jackpot would have to be about 25% higher - or $759 million.

Policy wise I'm torn by the lottery. It is appalling that government would prey on people's ignorance and greed just to bring in a little extra revenue... (why did Enron just come to mind?) On the other hand, I do believe that every citizen should pay taxes - rich poor or otherwise. All of them get to enjoy the services provided by government, all of them should pay for it. In this age of hand wringing over the 'poor' the lottery (and cable taxes, cigarette taxes, alchohol taxes, and gas taxes) is the only available means to tax the poor. Some of the sting is taken away with the realization that the tax is voluntary, but then why does the government ban lotteries assembled by private citizens? Why was the numbers game in New York City something undertaken by the mafia and Malcolm X? I dare say we have a double standard.

Moral of the story, don't play lotto unless the jackpot is more than $759 million - and until it is, make fun of people who do play it.