E(?)IC Alternative

Okay, so if you advocate the elimination of the Earned (?) Income Credit [see previous Tax Rant], you will of course be branded as mean-spirited, uncompassionate, greedy, etc, etc, etc. So how about some alternatives? A valid alternative would allow someone to receive the same dollar amount for which they are eligible under current EIC rules, but have that dollar amount granted in such a way as to make it 99.9% impossible to treat like a lottery windfall.

Here's one possibility: Educational Savings Accounts. ESAs already exist in the tax code, and allow you tax advantages when you spend hard-earned dough on the intellectual improvement of yourself and/or your dependents. So how about creating a special ESA into which your EIC money is deposited? You can withdraw at any time in the form of a check payable to an educational institution, but you cannot otherwise touch the money for five years, or maybe even ten. And if you do make a withdrawal that is not a check to a financial institution, the bank hosting the ESA has to report that withdrawal, and it gets charged to you as regular income. Yeah, regular income; you know, the stuff that reasonably successful people pay confiscatory taxes on.