Splendid Isolation

The story of the film so far:  woman puts money into a lottery machine, gets bumped by rude asshole, accidentally pushes the wrong button on the machine and gets a single (and expensive) card, different from the cheap ones she normally plays.  Okay, that kinda sucks.

Then she does the scratchy thing and discovers that her “accidental” card has just given her a $10 million payout.

Hooray, hoorah and all that.

But here’s where the story takes a nasty turn:

Edwards said she is going to use her winnings to buy a house and start a nonprofit organization.

Oh FFS.

Let’s start at the top.

1. That $10 million turns to $5 million immediately, as the FedGov and the Golden Shower State take their respective pounds of flesh off the top;
2. Being a Los Angeles County prisoner resident, she’s going to have to drop about $2 million if she wants to get anything more than a two-bed / one-bath bungalow;
3. If she doesn’t invest the remaining millions properly, she won’t have enough income to afford the property taxes on that big new house, unless she wants to keep working at (rough guess) the DMV for the rest of her life;
4. And all that’s after the res’ of da fambly — some of whom she never knowed was fambly — comes calling with their hands out (her first name is LaQuedra:  connect the dots);
5. So much for the non-profit.

She could always start a non-profit and pay herself a decent salary as the president thereof;  but the salaries for the rest of the staff (all fambly) will drain her coffers dry within at most two years — and the IRS takes a dim view of that kind of thing, anyway.

None of this is important to me — it’s not my money and well done to her, I say — but it’s a good example of stupid people pissing away their good fortune.