Watching revelers celebrating at the 7-Eleven in Chino Hills where the single $1.5 billion Powerball winning ticket was purchased makes me feel surprisingly sick to my stomach. Perhaps I'm being a bit negative and a big downer and overly-conspiratorial and too serious. However, it struck me that these upper lower class to lower middle class people I was seeing are reduced, in this dystopian interpretation, to celebrating this distracting scam. All the while the ownership of the nation benefits from the distraction it affords them and delays the day the torches and pitchforks come out. Meanwhile, the government of the nation laughs all the way to the bank as it collectively on the state and federal level takes about 2/3 of that winning bounty in taxes. For more details on this read HERE. This means that the real winner of the Powerball was the United States Federal Government, not some poor schlub in the Inland Empire.
*NOTE: since this was posted, it has been revealed that at least two other people (Tennessee & Florida) have winning tickets so the $561 million or so left over after the government gets its cut will be divided at least three ways.
Agreeably enough. "A tax on the stupid" as someone said. Clouding the consciousness the create an illusion of the astronomic lottery values. A simple trick still it works out.
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