The Patriot Post® · No, the Powerball Is Not Our Ticket Out of Poverty

There’s a photo spreading like wildfire on Facebook that claims the Powerball lottery, which earlier this week stood at a record $1.3 billion for Wednesday’s drawing, is large enough to spread $4.33 million of wealth to everyone living in America, effectively eradicating poverty. That’s a chunk of change. And egregiously wrong.

First of all, the photo claims the U.S. population is around 300 million. According to the Census Bureau, it’s approximately 322.8 million. Moreover, the latest Powerball estimate for tomorrow’s drawing is $1.4 billion. Now for the math. Divide $1.4 billion by 322.8 million and you get a whopping $4.34 per American. Or just enough to buy you two Powerball tickets. A misplaced decimal here, a misplaced decimal there — and people wonder why we can’t get our fiscal house in order. But if a Bernie Sanders fan wins and still wants to spread the wealth around — all $4.34 of it — have at it.