12/15/2004

Disgusted Beyond Belief

While doing my usual visit to my 'sister' networks website- CNN, not cNN (cyn News Network, as I've been affectionately dubbed- I stumbled across yet another story worthy of mention here on my blog.

As I read the article headed "Wife wishes spouse never won lottery" or some such, after which I thought "What a load of crap! Must read!" I found myself with my ass on fire. Read: pissed off.

Was I pissed and, quite frankly disgusted not that his wife said she wishes he never won the money (Although that sounds like a load of malarkey. I'd LOVE to know what she bought herself with his windfall!)? No. Was I irritated that the dude has become a complete wastrel? Um. No.

What got me all bent out of shape was the cut the government took of his winnings, the 'poor' bastard. Prepare yourselves……. Of his $314.9 million dollars, the government taxed him………. $201.9 million. That is 64% (give or take a half a point) of his winnings and yes, as much as I hate math, I was agitated enough to do the math to figure it out. 64% of his lottery winnings went to the GOVERNMENT? That is just excessive in the extreme, dammit.

And while I realize that a take home of $113.million is nothing to sneeze at, and more than most of us will ever see in our lifetimes unfortunately, it sure as hell isn't $314.9 million, now is it?

Perhaps he is a drunk and a brawler, but hell, the dude gave 20 million to CHARITY y'all, so he isn't a complete asshat. To be honest, if I had been taxed that much, I'd probably look for solace in drink also!

I hope that he at least put most of his money in a Swiss bank account or in an offshore account in Bermuda so he doesn't have to pay so much annually to the tax man on top of the money they took from him initially.


Born free and taxed to death. Yeah, no kidding!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Yeah we sure take in the ass tax-wise here in the states. It sucks so much. And it's getting worse.
-Carrie Jo