thats why i think they should implement a new social program called "punish the Poor". Its easy, all you do is take away all foms of welfare and stop rewarding bad behavior. Also you make more money by taking the lump sum and investing it yourself than taking the payments.

More telling than winning the lottery is what lottery games they play. I worked in a 7-11 in Chicago just after getting out of the Navy, while in school.
Blacks would almost ALWAYS, about 98% of the time, play Pick 3, where if you hit all three numbers, you won a $1000, but if you won anything, you're WAYYY more likely to win $5-25 and they almost NEVER bought LOTTO tickets, where the pots were multi-millions of dollars while whites were just the opposite- 98% bought LOTTO tickets, and very few bought Pick 3 tickets. This was before Powerball or Mega-Milliions.
Most Blacks seem to only worry about tomorrow, while most Whites worry not only about tomorrow, but next week, next month, and next year. It's just a different mentality, like the morons who actually believe the likes of calypso louie, that the levees were blown up to kill blacks. I can almost understand the stupid blacks believing that, but college-educated ones also do. Un-friggin'-believable.

losiguy - But most people who take the lump sum don't make more money because they don't invest it. They blow it all. Also, if you figger out the taxes you have to pay on a lump sum, you actually would not make more money by taking it that way. Now if I did play the lottery (and I don't), and I did win, at my age, I would take the lump sum. If I were 30, I would take the 20 year payout.

Assuming the person who has won the lottery isn't a retard, I still think you could get a better return investing yourself. lets say you win a 4 million dollar jackpot which is around average for Florida. When its all said and done you have about a million dolars after taxes. You spend 250,000 on stuff and invest the 750,000. If you can get a 10% return a year which is very attainable, you would have $5,045,624.96 after 20 years(well not really thanks to uncle sam). My curent fund i'm in now has averaged about 17% and there are a lot that have done even better.

A $4 million payout equals $200 thousand a year. I'd prefer that. I could live real well om $90K, pay $60K in taxes and invest $50K per year. That investment would give me enough money to continue living well the rest of my life. Most of the people who win the lottery don't know what to do with the money. They take the lump sum and blow it all. It's like people who sell accident benefits for a lump sum. They blow it all. But then, that's why they're poor in the first place.

I have wisely invested my money and am pretty well set for life.

If you play the lottery for entertainment, instead of going to a movie and happen to win a few million (odds against you 140,000,000 to 1) taking the lump sum is the better deal IF you invest and spend wisely. The poor buy a lot of lottery tickets and if they win, they buy bling-bling, Cadillacs and fur coats.
But if you take the annuity payout, you get only 3% interest on the lump sum amount. Take the lump sum, spend like you aren't rich, and you will become rich.
Just don't really plan on winning.

There are several kinds of poor people. Some could be trusted with money, some not.

I'm Poor now, having spent and given away and lost my fortune.

But IF I ever was to come into money again, I can assure you I would invest it wiser than I did in the past.

Oh, I might buy me a new Pickup and small trailer and see some more of our beautiful country.

And spend some on the ladies, of course.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

There will always be a few who abuse the system. Fact of life in any city. But their actions should not affect those in dire need of help.

Teresa - I have no problem helping those that are genuinely in need. As LBJ said when he started the Great Fucking Society, welfare is to be a hand up, not a handout. Unfortunately, the majority of the poor both black and white (And there are more whites on welfare than blacks. The blacks congregate in big cities, the whites live in trailor parks.) are poor for a reason. There is also a lot more food stamp abuse than you realize. I wish I knew the solution, but it is not giving people money without accountability. As I've said over and over you don't solve poverty by giving poor people money. We had less poverty before the gummint got involved.

I'll add one more thing- This used to be the case, and I doubt it's changed since I last lived in Chicago in '89. The Greyhound buses that went up to Milwaukee around the 1st of each month are known as the "welfare express", because a lot of the blacks go up there to sign up for welfare in Wisconsin (even though they don't live there) to get their checks from the taxpayers of Wisconsin, on top of what they get from the state of Illinois.

Okay, Denny, Lets say that my home and business got wiped out due to Katrina. How do I prove it with all my records washed away? In my home town newspaper today, 2 women were arrested for fraud. For claiming that they were Katrina victims. There will always be those types of people. They should not be the majority make. Just like the ones who are handing out these debit cards. How would they have any idea about such persons character? How would they have any idea who is going to cash in on an expensive purse or who is going to find a home?

But Teresa - You're in Nebraska. How could Katrina wipe you out? Just teasing. You raise valid points. Don't confuse me with logic. But, handing out $2000 debit cards was just a flat ass bad idea. What would I have done differently? I'll have to think about it.

$2,000 debit cards to people who earn less than half of that in general assistance or disability in a month's time...STUPID....JUST STUPID....

These people were in dire straights long before Katrina hit and that is what p***es me off...we now pay the tab for slackers.

Try to win a war with newby soldiers, try to win a football game with beginners, and then, the hardest, try to win a good place in society if you're never taught.

Society is jungle, it's a game, no room for everybody to be rich, don't you think the skills your parents can teach you make all the difference.

The challenge of being born in a poor family is as tough as winning a game against a professional team when you got regular players.

It will never end, unless they got prepared for life YOUNG enough. They need to be taught while they are small kids. After it's too late. And kids who aren't well raised, won't raise well their children after.

Poverty in Ameicia is truly a choice. Ask all those "black" lost boys of Sudan who got to come to the US. They went litteraly from eating dirt to paying their own way through collage. With their backgrounds most American poor would just rool over and say "I'm dissadvantaged, take care of me" They didn't. They were given assistance for six months and then they were fully on their own. I have not heard of one who did not have a job and support himself a year later.

Pierce - I agree. That's why my three simple rules are:
Get an education.
Start working at an early age.
Don't have children you cannot afford.

The problem in the black community is that their "leaders" don't preach this to them. They blame every thing on racism and Slavery®. They think doing well in school is "acting white". Even the upper and middle class black children feel this way. Until that mindset is changed, there will always be black poverty. It is a crying shame and I don't know how Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton can look at themselves in the mirror.

Well instead of handing out cash or cards that can be used on anything. Hand out coupons that can only be used for specific items and at numerous chain stores. All coupons have to be signed by the recipient like travelers checks and ID must be shown for each transaction. This way the money is not spent on alcohol, video play stations and other non-essential nonsense.

Of course, the lefties would accuse the Bush admin of being in bed with some of the big retailers WalMart Kmart. Michael Mooron will make a movie, but never explain how he would do it better. Nancy Po lousy, Misspelled?, Who Fuck’en Cares (M?,WFC) will cry on TV for as long as the news video is rolling. FAT Teddy will call it a moral outrage and suck down another single malt scotch. Screwy Louiy Ferrrakan (M?,WFC) and his storm troupers would tell same old BS like the "Massa" hands out money that can only be spent at the "company" store. All the while the LSM would call it another national shame.

Ya get the feeling that common sense and cost effective logic is usurped by perceptions of discrimination.

I'm sure someone in the government probably predicted this would happen and figured it as being a wash, realizing that all government systems get abused one way or another. Maybe the Pres thought of it already and it was shot down when his advisor presented this aforementioned scenario to him. The tax payers will take it in the shorts again on this one. One way or another.

I guess it boils down to the integrity of the individual that will govern this or any other system the best. "Doing the right thing even when no one is looking" Having enough pride and self respect to take only what you absolutely need to survive and to rise above it all. It is called character.

My 2 cents