Poverty ended by splitting the Powerball $1.3 billion?

Rumours are spreading online, primarily through an image, that claims if the Powerball in the United States was shared equally across its approximate population of 300 million, each citizen would get $4.3 million, thus ending poverty.

The Powerball over in the United States have been receiving plenty of attention lately after a series of rollovers has the grand jackpot souring over 1 billion dollars. With the next draw on Wednesday, we imagine there will be plenty of people getting tickets and vying for that life-changing amount of money.

However all that attention has bought this bizarre rumour to the forefront of the social media world – apparently, if we divided the jackpot of $1.3 billion amongst the 300 million people living in the United States, each citizen would get $4.3 million.

Powerball 1.3 Billion
÷ U.S. Pop 300 Million
Everyone receives 4.33 Mil
Poverty Solved!!!

Despite the many economic consequences that would occur is every single person in a particular country suddenly became $4.3 million richer, the maths doesn’t hold up. At all. $1.3 billion divided by 300 million is $4.3. So each citizen would get $4.3 dollars. The maths in the rumour isn’t even close.

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We’re not entirely sure where the author of this hoax and the people who shared it thought all that extra money was coming from. Even if you couldn’t do the maths, the jackpot of the Powerball lottery is primarily funded by the money used to buy the tickets. So spending a few dollars on tickets and then giving everyone in the country millions of dollars in return is literally making money from nothing.

In the complex world of economics, you really cannot have made a bigger blunder.