Our country went into a lottery-crazed frenzy upon the Power Ball jackpot winnings reaching a whopping $1.6 billion dollars! The idea that a $2 ticket could change a person's life forever was convincing enough for even the most pessimistic Americans. The numbers were drawn Wednesday night Jan. 14 at 11 pm. Finally reports flew in everywhere of winnings, and three states have reported jackpot winners. While exciting, some people are frustrated with the idea of giving away such a large amount of money when there are so many pressing problems in America that could use the money. While it seems like a lot of money, most of the holes our country has dug itself into could still not be fixed with 1.6 billion dollars.
Split it among our citizens
This was an actual accusation that caught the most attention across social media outlets. There were tweets flying around that if you divided the winnings amongst the 300 million Americans, we would get $3 million each. Sadly, with the proper calculations, it evens out to around $5 for everyone.
End national debt
One would think that 1.6 billion dollars must put at least a dent in our country's national debt, right? Unfortunately, the Power Ball winnings are only .008% of the $18 trillion of the United States National debt.
Pay for everyone's college tuition
In order to just pay for the number of undergraduates in school right now to attend a 4-year university, without lowering the average cost of tuition, it would be a little over $1.5 trillion. So donating your jackpot to that cause would cover around 10%.
End Poverty
Just in the U.S. alone it is estimated that it would cost approximately $173.5 billion to be just above the poverty line. Even $1.6 billion would only be enough for around .92%.
End homelessness
While an easier obtained goal than ending poverty all together, is estimated that it would cost around $20 billion to eliminate homelessness- nearly 12.5 times the winnings.
Pay off America's student loans
Without opening another jar of problems, America's student loan debt has crossed $1.2 trillion, the lottery, only covering .13%.
End world hunger
The united nations estimates that it would cost around $30 billion to completely end world hunger. Compared to the 2012 U.S. defense budget of $737 billion dollars, ending world hunger seems doable. However an impossible task, with a mere 1.6 billion dollars.
As you can see, while it seems wasteful to give away such an absurd amount of money (to a hedge fund manager none the less), it is nothing compared to the even more absurd amount of money it would take to climb out of the ever-present holes America and our world has created. That being said, while the cost of fixing these crisis is absurd, the wastefulness of the government tops the cake, and while those numbers are surprising, some larger numbers already being spent might shock us.
