He shouldn't buy any lottery tickets for the next year or so. He used all his luck up. Those crevasses can go straight to the ground, 100s of feet below the surface.

Have to agree. Those ones are kinda "epic fails" from a Darwin Lottery and human gene pool perspective.

"Wait... you survived that and had KIDS?"

More from "MDB Communications" (the ad firm behind the D.C. Lottery commercials):




They won an "Addy" award for this btw. For whatever that's worth.

I gave this sift 2 votes up (in my mind) but also one vote down because it threw Tom Cruise under the bus for no reason. Joel Goodsen, Maverick, Ethan Hunt, Jerry Maguire, Les Grossman and Lestat de Lioncourt has nothing to do with this.

reminds me of my idea for a national 50/50. could limit drawing to once a month so funds are substantial, there's always a winner, and the more tickets you buy, the better your odds.

50 % of the winnings go to the winner. The other 50% goes toward paying down the national debt (and nothing else). Unlike state lottery or other gambling winnings, this would get a special untaxed IRS exemption (without which it would be more like a 25/75 rather than a 50/50).

I've always heard the lottery described as "a tax on stupid people".

The sad thing is, there's really no harm in it, if you can afford it.

Your video, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: The Lottery, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

@Chairman_woo

Well, I wouldn't link minimum pay to highest earners. I would perhaps add a tax penalty based on the income differential. Nor would I go to the extreme of outlawing all but co-operatives/shared ownership. Perhaps a very small tax break for them to encourage that form of business.

I have thought about tying politician pay to the poverty line. Want to be a Representative or Senator, congratulations, you get 2x to 3x the poverty line, and you can have up to 3 staff members at 1.5x the poverty line. No lifetime benefits and of course strict term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court (the President still gets lifetime protection, but no other lifetime benefits and perhaps 5x the poverty line while in office). Nor do they use the Capital building itself but once a year where a lottery decides who gets to go for the State of the Union. The primary idea is to make the number of Representatives we have based on the actual population, rather than shift the 435 that we've had since 1911 around based on state populations. With modern technology, they can stay in their home (computer drawn) districts. I wouldn't make them fully dependent on the state, this is just something somebody does to serve their community for a short time.

So yeah, basically the middle ground.

I was a Libertarian Anrcho-Capitalist after I left the Republican party because I couldn't stand how the Republicans want to legislate morality. Because at the time I was still convinced that sort of economics worked best... over time I realized, after actual vetting sources and looking things over, that the problem was more at the high end than I was led to believe... that and I got a heart just as my evangelical Christianity was about to collapse, mostly due to Republicans and eventually kept off by logic.

Almost put this in the comedy channel (although, it's more like a tragedy for the guy). It's more like a bureaucratic farce, regardless.. And, like all good comedies, a cautionary tale.

No big deal, of course. It's not like many taxpayers don't already pay for other people's kids... (and, likely, WAY more than $30K, because, y'know... "common good.")

In cases like these, they may just have well used a lottery of all registered voters and randomly select one of them to pay. Like a jury duty, but with child-support duty... Maybe even have a woman be the "deadbeat dad." And then the Great Fiction could be enjoyed as though it were a game.. like poker..

or roulette.

Sadly yes, that's where all the favourables live. If you win the genetic lottery in NK, you get to eat and be comfortable. The fact that it's so developed is the reason why the rest of the country is left to rot; it's the only part that gets any attention, the only part anyone would let you see.

If you don't plan then you wont have dick.
IF you plan of winning the lottery then shame on you.
Granted some plan, and save and now end up loosing due to policies, such as we have now with zero % interest rates and the dumping of 85 billion/month from the fed into the economy adding to the current inflation .

But waiting for some hand out to leveling the playing field will never happen. Don't wait on others do you own thing.

The lottery is a suckers game, people say it's really about paying a small amount to fantasize about winning. Well I can pay nothing and still dream about winning and in practical terms my chances are still about the same as someone who bought a ticket.

wow, you've been brainwashed. how's that "soon to have" mentality working out for you? How much in capital gains tax did you pay last year? Let me guess...none.

you are the poster child for voting against your own interests.

nice strawman. I don't see a lot of people sitting around, I see people trying to change things. and *gasp* making it part of the national conversation is part of that.

the right loves to rail against the European mentality of people being born into wealth, but that's exactly what we are creating. Romney - born into wealth. The Bush family - born into wealth. maybe a long time ago, someone in their family did work hard to get where they are, or in all likelyhood, they got lucky, they were in the right place, right time. From then on, it's just a game of maintaining that wealth. which buys you politicians to help you keep that wealth.

You probably can't hear me, probably still planning out what you're going to do with your lottery winnings.

I'm fine with promoting sunscreen use, though the video does trigger one of my statistical pet peeves when it says "80% increased chance". It's a scary figure, but also meaningless unless you know what your chances were before.

For example buying two lottery tickets instead of one increases your chance by 100%, but you're still not gonna win.

Homeless Lottery Winner has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals.

Homeless Man Gets A Home has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Homeless-Lottery-Winner

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Homeless-Man-Gets-A-Home