Dean James AMERICA’S FREEDOM FIGHTERS–

How would you like to win $300 million dollars? I know that I would love it! HELL YEAH!!! 

Well, you have a chance to win both the Mega Millions and the Powerball jackpots which have both topped out at over $300 million.

Of course, if you did win, then Uncle Sam would take a large chunk of it which sucks but you would still be rich as hell!

Journalist Robert Gehl at our good friends at The Federalist Papers Project has more:

Then there’s the states. Depending on where you live, you’ll pay pretty handsomely. On that $200 million payout, in New York, the state with the highest tax rate on lottery winnings, you’ll give them a cool $17 million. Other states, like California (surprisingly) and New Hampshire, have no taxes on lottery winnings.

Oh, and if you live in New York City, they’ll impose an additional 3.876 percent tax on those winnings, or about $7.75 million.

So that big $300 million winning lottery ticket could turn out to be worth about $125 million after the government has taken its share.

For the feds, it just goes into the big IRS pot – money to be doled right back out for welfare checks, fighter planes and research studies on bird watching.

Each state gets to decide how to spend their largesse … Education is usually where most of the money goes, but not everywhere. Pennsylvania gets about $1.3 billion every year in lottery winnings and they spend $900 million on programs for the elderly. Wisconsin spends almost all of their revenue to lower property taxes and Minnesota spends much of it on natural resources.

Not to mention that lotteries typically amount to a tax on the poor. People who are desperate or lower income (and can least afford it) are most likely to spend money on the lottery.

Cornell University economics and management professor David Just told NPR another reason why gamblers bite. “What appears to be happening is that they really believe that there’s going to be a return on this investment,” he says.

Just and his colleagues crunched lottery data from 39 states. He says many people, especially the less educated, simply don’t understand how abysmal their chances are.

Even if everyone did understand, Just says, his research shows why some still might play.

“It’s the desperation play,” he says. “People don’t treat it like entertainment. Instead those — particularly those who are poor — are treating this more as an investment opportunity. It’s their Hail Mary pass to try and make it big.”

The point here is that while there may be one or two big individual winners of the lotteries on Saturday, the big winner – now and forever – is the governments – federal and state – that take their fair share of your winnings.

The bottom line is that the government is going to rape you as usual but that’s not stopping me from buying some tickets!

Thanks again to our buddies at The Federalist Papers Project

God Bless.

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Dean James III% AMERICA’S FREEDOM FIGHTERS

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