There are a few Powerball memes making the rounds that have us questioning the entire U.S. educational system.
The memes, which are similar in design, claim poverty can be “solved” by simply dividing the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot equally among 300,000,000 Americans, giving everyone $4.33 million each. Of course, the actual amount would be $4.33, but that seems lost on many of the folks sharing the images:
May I suggest "Philipe" take his 4.33 MILLION and invest in a few math classes. pic.twitter.com/TpLsRfm0BE
— Tim Martin Gleason (@TimMartinGleasn) January 12, 2016
The above photo has been shared a staggering 1.3 million times and counting over on just one Facebook account. BuzzFeed tracked down the meme’s creator, Steve Esteyban Bastien, who made fun of his error in a different Instagram post:
Others look to have copied the bad math in an effort to trick more people into sharing the computational error:
$1.3 billion / 300 million people is $4.33 not $4.3 million…just throwing that out there. pic.twitter.com/hc4GSDrafM
— Michael Fusselman⚾ (@Fusselbomber) January 11, 2016
And they’re making it into a commentary on Bernie Sanders and how his share-the-wealth socialism doesn’t add up:
People keep tweeting to me what the actual math is in that meme. The fact that the math is wrong is the entire reason I tweeted it.
— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) January 11, 2016
Check that math again, yo. 1.3 billion divided by 300 million is 4 dollars and 33 cents. pic.twitter.com/3vxCacRb77
— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) January 12, 2016
For those of you sharing this, might want to check your math. 1.3 billion divided by 300 million is $4.33. pic.twitter.com/sAffmT57js
— Jake⚾ (@wake_jasmundt) January 11, 2016
The people who are sharing/retweeting that we could give everyone 4.33 million with the Powerball jackpot are a special kind of dumb
— James Torgerson (@Torgy_77) January 11, 2016
The next drawing is tomorrow night with the jackpot climbing yet again to $1.5 billion:
BREAKING: Scratch that, the #Powerball jackpot is now $1.5 billion ($930M cash value) Next drawing tomorrow night! pic.twitter.com/kx6K9jOYcS
— Fox5NY (@fox5ny) January 12, 2016
Poverty will be solved, at least for a few lucky winners.
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