Posted on 01/12/2016 4:23:46 PM PST by PJ-Comix
The lottery is the way to get the 47 percent who pay no taxes to pay taxes.
Short example of what’s possible:
$1.5B pot
$930M Lump sum, pre-tax.
~$590 after tax payout
30% of taxable income is max amount of deductible, charitable contributions.
~$280M
At a 40% tax rate, ~$110M would be refunded in 2017.
Give away the remaining $280M
In 2 yrs:
You’ll have given away all $590M and still have $110M.
A big chunk of the money you spend on those Powerball tickets gets skimmed right off the top to pay for ‘education’ or whatever accounting shell-game tricks the participating state is doing. Then you pay the top marginal fed and state tax rate on the remaing winnings (over 50%), leaving an expected payout of 30% or less.
It is one of the worst expected payouts in all of legal gambling. In Vegas the expected payout for most games is 90% or better, and some games like Jacks-or-Better or Blackjack can routinely hit 99.5% better for optimal play.
The wags are right: Powerball is basically a tax on stupid people.
That kind of goes in line with my plan, which is:
1) Sign the ticket - that way it will not be of any value to anyone but you, and if someone gets it and tries to turn it in, you can probably win any dispute. Hide the ticket and REMEMBER where it is. It is safe as long as no one knows you have it.
2) Get out a pen and paper and write down the name of everyone you consider a friend, and keep the list. You will not have any more friends, or at least friends that you can fully trust.
3) (if you have a spouse) Buy 6 feet of 1/4 inch chain, and a pad lock. Tell your spouse you want to try some new, kinky, sex. Chain your spouse to a solid bedpost, and make sure there’s no communication equipment anywhere nearby. Break the news to your spouse. When your spouse calms down enough (probably days), then your spouse can be released.
4) DO NOT TELL ANYONE ELSE. My wife has siblings that she loves and trusts, they must be kept in the dark.
5) Go to the biggest, most expensive, law firm you can find. Demand to work only with the top attorney (i.e., a person who is already loaded). You can usually tell if you have the right guy by him being old, white, bald, and fat. Then sign up with them.
6) Next is the bug-out. Go to some place that is UNTRACEABLE on the Internet - maybe an old friend that you fully trust. Tell them you’d like to visit, try not to leave electronic fingerprints, use cash even if you have to take a loan. Once secure there, tell your story and promise them a decent cut for keeping quiet. Obviously bring your ticket with you. Leave your house empty. Wait a while...if you have 6 months to cash in, wait 3 months, so things quiet down a bit.
7) Then work with the lawyer to cash it in, and then retreat to back to your hideaway, particularly if your name and face will be public.
8) Then wait again.
9) Finally, do what you can to change appearance. Easy stuff like facial hair and hair color, or getting rid of all hair, and maybe even plastic surgery to change appearance.
10) Then have fun.
Statistically it makes no difference. The odds are the same for every combination at every drawing.
Right on!
I think I wouldn’t have problems saying no however.
Wrong. There is a chance I can find the ticket on the street so it’s not zero.
That’s gotta suck really, really bad.
“Therefore, to play the lottery intelligently, buy one, and only one, ticket.”
I read an article by an economics statistician which said that the best policy is to buy a ticket when the value of the jackpot per a $1 ticket exceeds the odds in winning. For example, a Powerball ticket costs $2, and the odds are about 300 million to one, so you should buy one ticket for every $600 million in the jackpot. Something about the utility of spending the dollar verses not spending it. I couldn’t really follow the math.
I overspent, buying five instead of three.
“...the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.”
Well, I’m already paying tens of thousands on taxes that I never get any direct benefit from - so I’m not going to worry about the $20 I wasted today.
I saw I had matched two of the white numbers from last Saturday’s drawing! In the correct order or columns or whatever. I guess if I show some matching numbers I’ll investigate more - but do the numbers have to be in the same sequence as the winning number? Or can you just match any numbers?
e.g.: 16 40 76 2 is the same as 40 16 2 76?
Hmm. I honestly do not know. I’m sure some other Freeper will have the answer.
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