Consider the following:
Follwing (I suspect that they intended to use the word "following", but apparently either an offer of $995,000 per problem wouldn't be enough to motivate mathematicians, or seven times $5000 isn't enough to cover the cost of proofreading) the decision of the Scientific Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of CMI designated a $7 million prize fund for the solution to these problems, with $1 million allocated to the solution of each problem.
http://www.claymath.org/millennium/Before consideration, a proposed solution must be published in a refereed mathematics publication of worldwide repute (or such other form as the SAB shall determine qualifies), and it must also have general acceptance in the mathematics community two years after. Following this two-year waiting period, the SAB will decide whether a solution merits detailed consideration.
http://www.claymath.org/millennium/Rules_etc/In other words, after all the dust has settled, they will pony up some money. Notice that they require the publication to be "refereed." It's not good enough that the publication be of worldwide repute and that the proposed solution have general acceptance in the mathematics community two years after publication.
Once the dust has settled, the winner will have a million dollars, and that money can be wisely invested so that the winner can retire from mathematics. They encourage the seven problems to be solved, but aren’t doing anything to promote the solving of any other problems. Nor are they providing an incentive to do anything other than provide a complete solution to one of those seven problems.
Now, here's my admittedly half-baked idea. I invite you to help me with the baking of it.
There are dozens of unresolved conjectures in number theory alone, and number theory is just one branch of mathematics. Thus, it would be possible to increase the number of mathematical problems for which there is a prize. What kind of prize do I have in mind? The prize could be an opportunity to do mathematical research at a relatively low hourly wage. After all, somebody who resolves a conjecture might be able to solve other mathematical problems that have not yet been solved.
Perhaps you ask: what about all the people who have concluded that they are unlikely to win the lottery, and who are hoping to win a million dollars by solving one of the seven problems? Well, I don’t expect any significant mathematical creativity from them, because the prospect of getting paid to do mathematical research doesn’t appeal to them.
