What would you do with $1.5 billion? That's what a lot of people across 44 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are pondering tonight. The grand prize jackpot in tonight's Powerball lottery is the highest in history, and had been climbing since no one claimed the prize this past Saturday. I'm not sure if I, nor anyone else for that matter, can fathom just how much money that is. A winner could opt for equal lump-sum payments of the prize over 29 years or settle for a lump sum payment of $930 million. Yowsah! Even after paying 39.6 percent in federal taxes (the government ALWAYS wins!), that's quite an earning, and even though the chances of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292 million, like the popular slogans say: "you gotta be in it to win it" and " all you need is a dollar (um, scratch that....two dollars) and a dream."
So what would you do with all that money? Even though most of us know that there's not a chance in heck that we're gonna hit all of the five numbers plus the Powerball number, it's still kinda fun to dream if for a couple of hours.
Oh, there are so many things I would do...help those I know who could use some extra moolah, pay off the mortgage, car and credit cards, fix up the house. Heck, that much cash would allow me to quit my job (I'd find something to do!). I'd travel, maybe buy a couple of vacation homes, ride lots of roller coasters, and, and...whew! That was nice to write it all out.
Of course, I'm not counting on anything...that'd be simply stupid, but it never hurts to daydream even for a little while. Actually I heard somewhere that if these winnings were divided up, every single American could get a million bucks. Wouldn't that be nice? I bet that's stir the economy to all time heights. But that would never happen. Once a lucky winner gets his or her (or their) hands on the prize, the rest of us can go back to keeping our heads above water and to keep on dreaming until that next big jackpot comes along.
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