What could you do with a trillion dollars that you could NOT do with a billion dollars?

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

I don't know how, exactly to fix situations like Atawapiskat, but a trillion dollars would help.

I am Canadian, middle class, with a decent education and a career. I don't forget who lived here first. Maybe its middle class guilt or white man's burden but it is disgusting to have citizens of my own country living in impoverished hovels in this day and age.

So I would help rebuild the North.

4 prongs: Health Care, Education, Housing and Employment/Industry.

(HEHE)

Health Care:More scholarships/bursaries for Northern Ontario School of Medicine with northern practice commitments. Better clinics staffed with Nurse Practioners. Massive Diabetes education campaigns. Better food, with increased emphasis on traditional diets for first nations people.

Education: More and better schools, a change in school year to allow the kids who go to high school more frequent visits to their home communities. Trade schools available closer to home, or better access.

Housing; Needs to be durable with proper materials designed for the north. People need a warm place to live. Trades people to maintain them. Air lifting in a few pre fabs a year isn't going to solve this. Technically only the federal government can build houses on first nations reserves, but I am sure some arrangement can be reached.

Employment/Industry. Sustainable industry... I would loan money to groups who wanted to develop the fishery in James Bay and other areas, allow the dairy farmers in the northern claybelt areas like Kapuskasing to be able to distribute milk to the high north, for an example. I would put a huge emphasis on industry that related to fresh food, heating, or other necessities.

I have a lot to do!

[Agent Foxtrot]

I'd bail out Greece. I'm already a huge Grecophile, and wouldn't mind being listed amongst their national heroes.

Yeah, I guess preventing the collapse of the Eurozone would be a good thing, too.

[Tristan]

Similar to Mona Lisa Simpson, I have been doing a lot of rethinking on this over the weekend. A Trillion dollars allows me to do things that are insanely ambitious. I could probably do the ethanol powered car thing for around 100 Billion, which leaves me 900 Billion left.

Some large ambitious projects....

1- Purchase as much contiguous land as possible in the middle plains states. Burn them out, and reseed with native longgrasses. Leave them alone for a few decades and see if we can re-establish the classic American prairie.

As a corollary to the first item up there...
2- Dump a couple hundred mill into genetic "cleansing" of the American Buffalo, removing the Cow genes that have been introduced over the last 150 years. Treat the lungworm issue, and generally do whatever I can to improve the diversity and health, and increase the size, of the American Buffalo. Long term goal... free roaming massive herd, as existed in the pre-Colonial era.

3- Work with Federal and Tribal authorities to build infrastructure and community buildings in the Lakota, Blackfoot and Crow reservations. Those are the native communities I am most familiar with (Blackfoot in particular) and they all really need something. The native community is ripe for a rebirth and revitalization, but the capital and infrastructure is just not there. I could fix that.

4- Work with 3rd party Candidates. I may not agree with the Libertarian party on some things, but I think a cool 500 mil to their candidate may help get them some press and some inertia. Same with the Modern Whigs, the Greens, Reform, and anyone else I can think of. That all being said, being the Koch Bros of the Modern Whigs would be interesting... really mold a party to be my ideal, and then fund them? Fun game!

[Annie-Xmas]

I would buy a few Broadway theatres and put on professional productions of every obscure musical that I would like to see, starting with ABBACADABRA and Blondel.

[Engineer Dude]

Build the Bering Strait Crossing.

[lost4life]

I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man. Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I were a trillionaire I could hook that up, too, 'cause chicks dig dudes with money.

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

Re reading my earlier post, I hope it doesn't sound pompous, like "I know what's is best for First Nations people and the north" I just lived in Northern ON most of my life, and I have seen first hand how southern solutions don't always work for northern problems.

Of course I would have a lot of input from stakeholders, Aborignal, Status and Non Status, northern residents, forestry and mining companies etc. The rule is though, that the committees can't talk forever without doing something. Every single committe has to produce action items every meeting.

[iiandyiiii]

Mars, bitches.

[drachillix]

Originally Posted by lost4life

I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man. Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I were a trillionaire I could hook that up, too, 'cause chicks dig dudes with money.

Craislist ad follows

****Trillionaire seeks travelling companions/tag team sex slave team******


Must enjoy world travel, frequent sexual encounters when and how I ask, and prefer to wear very little clothing.

Compensation commensurate with the experience you give me.

[Hari Seldon]

Fund the superconducting supercollider. It would probably cost about $20 billion but with a trillion, I wouldn't worry. Then maybe buy and operate the US public school system. Teach science the right way (it starts with skepticism, anathema to the religious).