Ok, this is what we do. National lottery, winner get's to pay no taxes

[Fuzz]

on their personal income for 20 years.

Idea needs work. ;)

[Donnachaidh]

1. it's a TERRIBLE idea -- the wealthy will buy up scads of tickets and the little guy will

get shat on, as usual.

I've watched people hit the major powerball lotteries, buying a thousand or two in tickets, just for the big win. :shrug:

[Boojatta]

2. "the wealthy will buy up scads of tickets"

:rofl:

[Donnachaidh]

13. obviously you don't live in a wealthy area and see this happening

:eyes:

[dems_rightnow]

3. The wealthy will continue to not buy tickets

They know it's a loser game.

[daylan b]

5. One problem with your hypothesis

You seem to assume wealthy means smart. It could just mean that somebody had a rich benefactor and thus stands the potential of being dumb enough to take part in a government run lottery.

[dems_rightnow]

7. Whatever the reason....

... most lottery tickets are purchased by poor people. They see it as their only shot. This will not change.

[Donnachaidh]

15. and if you connect a tax free term to it, the wealthy will move into the market

guaranteed to do it.

[Donnachaidh]

14. sure it's a loser game at one ticket at a time

but when you can buy thousands of tickets at a crack... :shrug:

[Jackpine Radical]

4. The payoff for a rich person would be much larger than for a

worker bee.

It would make sense for the rich to buy in and the poor to stay out. Actually, with a cap on exactly how much tax will be excused, it might work. Say each ticket cost $100, and the cap was a million per year in taxes (total=$20 mil in 20 years). You'd only have to sell 200,000 tickets to make it pay.

[jwirr]

6. If I were so lucky as to win the lottery I would gladly pay my taxes and

ask President Obama to use it for people programs not for the rich.

[AnArmyVeteran]

8. How about a contest on most creative way to tax the rich?

Give a million dollars to the top ten ideas and then put each idea to a national vote and let the people vote on the best of the ten. And then it becomes law.

[Fuzz]

9. Heh, good one. I was thinking more on the lines of a Tea Bagger lottery.

One where only Tea Baggers would purchase. ;)

[Synicus Maximus]

10. Lottery--A tax on those who are bad at math.

[underpants]

11. REad "Perfectly Legal" by David Cay Johnston- this is already done

Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else
David Cay Johnston (Author)

[Oregone]

12. Dispose of the winner. Distribute their assets to everyone else