The “American Stupid Tax” has already accomplished two monumental things in this young year of 2016. People are paying more money into another failed government program while the payouts decrease.

Okay, you think the Muckster has really lost it this time. You point out that the Powerball Payout is up to $1.3 billion – the highest in recorded history.

What’s not to like?

I’ve painted myself into the proverbial corner. Now I have to explain the unexplainable to my readers. The popular myth that the money goes to education is just that: a myth of evil proportions. Those who buy lottery tickets thinking they are just having fun while supporting the noble deed of helping education need to rethink this reckless act of charity.

Buying lottery tickets, such as the almighty Powerball, is simply paying another tax. This one is just enormously more stupid than the other one hundred some odd taxes we Americans pay every year.

Does anyone who has read ” 20/20: A Clear Vision for America” still believe the government and politicians are all about doing good for “We the People?” No.

Low income earners/families spend the majority of money on lottery ticket sales. Lotteries are clearly a regressive tax on the poor. Check it out. Sales of lottery tickets are highest in low income areas. Period. A recent study reports that the poorest third of households purchase more than one-half the sold tickets. The profits go to government treasuries for the politicians to do as they please. It’s like giving wads of cash to teenagers on Saturday night.

The share of lottery profits paid out to purchasers vary by state. For example: West Virginia pays out a meager 15 percent while Massachusetts pays out 76 percent. In 2009, lotteries in 11 states brought in more revenue than the corporate income tax. The bottom line: the lottery is an unspoken 38 percent tax on the poorest people and typically the least educated people.

The odds of winning a lotto jackpot are particularly squat. People spend a lot of money and get little, if anything, back. Players lose an average of 47 cents on the dollar each time they buy a ticket.

Last year, the syndicate of states that swindle Americans by providing the Powerball approved a series of rule changes which made it more difficult to win the jackpot. You select five of 69 numbers under the new rules, up from five out of 59 numbers prior to last October. This reduces the choices for the Powerball from 35 to 26. This changes the odds of winning the jackpot from 1 in 175 million to 1 in 292 million. They are really looking out for us, aren’t they?

Why did our wonderful government benefactors make this change? The Muckster figured it out. Decrease the chances of having no grand prize winner for any given drawing. When this happens, the prize pool rolls over creating giant jackpots. It is estimated that the chances of a $1 billion prize pool increased from 8.5 percent to 63.4 percent.

Low income earners/families spend the majority of money on lottery ticket sales. Lotteries are clearly a regressive tax on the poor. Check it out. Sales of lottery tickets are highest in low income areas. Period. A recent study reports that the poorest third of households purchase more than one-half the sold tickets. The profits go to government treasuries for the politicians to do as they please. It’s like giving wads of cash to teenagers on Saturday night.

“The rules change is intended to increase the odds of winning any prize, while making it more difficult to win the jackpot prize,” the New York State Gaming Commission wrote in a memo supporting the change. The purpose of creating massive jackpots is to induce more people to play/pay. The prospect of big payouts triggers a flood of free media attention, encouraging people to speculate on how a windfall would impact their life.

While some call the lottery an “obscene swindle,” others are looking for the “big payday.” The magic potion that never appears. Americans spent more than $70 billion on lottery tickets in 2014. That’s more than $630.00 for every household and the majority of them from the lowest income bracket. The 2015 figures will be much higher. How do I know? It Muckster’s Theorem. They always are.

Compare this spending to items that provide a better entertainment return: in 2014, Americans spent a total of $63 billion on sports tickets, movie box office, video games, music and books combined. The Muckster says this is a better return because people have more fun going to sporting events, movies and reading books, playing music and video games than they have tearing up losing tickets.

The lottery hoax is that this extra government revenue will go to essential things like education funding, to make people feel better about paying their stupid tax. However, that promise rings hollow. States increase per capita spending on education right after they enact a lottery, but they end up decreasing overall spending later on.

Nonetheless, the six states without lotteries end up spending 10 percent more of their budgets over time, on average, on education compared to lottery states. Part of the problem is that lottery revenue tends to be unstable and hard to predict over the long term, while it can only rise so much given that residents can only buy so many tickets. This enable politicians to practice their art of deception.

It is very easy for lawmakers to move the money away from priorities like education to other boondoggles. Lotteries promise low-income people, who make up the biggest portion of ticket buyers, that they’ll win either through a payout or increased services. Neither is true. As one study put it, “lotteries set off a vicious cycle that not only exploits low-income individuals’ desires to escape poverty but also directly prevents them from improving upon their financial situations.”

If lotteries helped education in America, then why wouldn’t all of this obscene spending over the past 30 plus years make the education system better. As more stupid tax is paid, test scores decline proportionally. The Muckster rests his case.

Powerball ticket sales will increase in 2016. We will flock to pay our stupid tax. So, if I win the Powerball this week, you’ll know why I stopped writing these stupid articles. Thanks for reading.

Finally, an author who brings you solutions, instead of problems.

Americans have lost faith in their overreaching federal government. “We the People” don’t need to be overregulated or have their taxes misspent. Americans are victims of a crumbling economy, high prices and stagnant wages. They view government as bloated and politicians as corrupt. They do not trust the leadership at any level. They see politicians of both parties as self-centered narcissists whose only objective is re-election. The author is like you, with one principal difference and 20 reasons for optimism. His “Vision” of America is “clear.” It is a vision of the Constitution and America the way it could be, the way it should be. The author’s eyesight is twenty-twenty.