Instead of giving one person 1.35 billion dollars, how about a universal basic income?

Talking about the lottery. The MEGA lottery. The 1.35 billion dollar winning ticket.

One person wins it all while the rest of us struggles in the gutters.

Gutter struggling.

Great idea!

Take 3 billion dollars from all the suckers out there. Then give 1.35 billion back to all the suckers out there as universal basic income. Pretty soon, everybody's rich (or at least pretty well off), right?

IDK - seems like there is a flaw in there somewhere. Just having trouble putting my finger on it.

US federal taxes will take roughly $500,000,000 of that prize, so chill.

people have no need to be rich, people have needs like food or shelter, so just little bit money helps with that.

Of course the gov't won't criminalize lotteries because they're paid for with after tax dollars-double dipping again and again.

$1.35 billion divided by 332 million people in the US is like $4 per person? How does extra $4 help any person?

I would feel better if 1000 people each got $1.3 million.

Then feel free to start your own lottery.

I have thought about this. For 1) the lottery should drastically decrease the amount of money in the jackpot and instead put some of that money in the smaller winnings and increase the odds. 2) I would consider supporting a federally funded "lottery" system where something like 10,000 people each year, chosen at random, received a $10,000 check from the government. No crying about fairness, eat the rich, the poor don't do anything, race, whatever. It's enough money that it would make a difference in most people's lives but not enough for them to go off the deep end. Would only require us to decrease our military budget by like 0.01%.

Makes perfect sense OP

After taxes, split among 340m Americans, this is $2.48/ea

I think you may be missing the point - the lottery already helps people and you numbskulls are going to mess it up.

First, the jackpot has to be lucrative to get average idiots to go out of their way and buy what amounts to a chance to win. How many people are going to buy a ticket if their proceeds are given away?

And perhaps more fundamentally, the proceeds from the venture already go to help out masses of people, and if you mess that up, you lose that vast public good:

"It funds college grants and scholarships, early childhood education, vocational excellence programs, charter schools, and other education programs."

Those are basic components of vehicles out of poverty and destitute conditions. So let them wave the lottery winnings carrot and thereby give those who need it an affordable chance to self-sustenance.

Thats illegal

The lottery provides exactly zero benefit to society, and government involvement is moral bankruptcy. Since money is fungible, the funding that lotteries provide to education are just offset by lower funding from taxes, which keeps funding levels the same. Lotteries are simply a way for the government to shift funding from taxpayers to addicts and low information citizens.

Look at Kansas, that instituted vending machines that sell lottery tickets, so they could fund much needed support for psychiatric hospitals and the like, We know that these things don't get support from tax dollars. but perhaps strategies like Kansas's could make advances in these areas elsewhere.

kmuw.org

New Lottery Machines Could Offer Chance At Funding For Kansas Mental Health Facilities

Additional funding for some mental health facilities in Kansas may depend, at least in part, on the number of lottery tickets sold from new machines.The…

Link:www.kmuw.org/health/2017-04-10/new-lot...

"Lottery Ticket Vending Machines
Legislation passed in 2018 authorized lottery ticket vending machines in Kansas. Lottery ticket vending machine sales began in FY 2020.
Beginning in FY 2020, up to $8.0 million from the annual sale of lottery tickets through the vending machines is transferred to the following funds within the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services:
75 percent to the Community Crisis Stabilization Centers Fund
25 percent to the Clubhouse Model Program Fund"

Government would serve the citizens better by not scamming the most desperate and gullible citizens into buying lotto tickets

I'd be down with that if they would actually fund those good and necessary programs with tax dollars to adequate levels. But they don't, and they won't in the current political climate, So I'm not so eager to jump on a high-horse about this questionable funding source.

The day universal basic income is reality will be a great day. For anyone earning less than about $35k/year it will immediately make more sense to stay home. This will free up millions of jobs. However, now to fill those minimum wage jobs workers will demand $40k and $50k per year. Paying $40k to $50k to fill mindless minimum wage jobs will result in an immediate and dramatic increase in the price of everything… making everyone worse off. Also, the money for universal basic income must come from somewhere so taxes must go up… also making everyone worse off. Finally, since minimum wage job that require zero education now pay the same as what many college graduates get payed, everyone will stop going to college for all but STEM degrees… actually, this one would make everyone better off.

I mad bro?