FWIW, John D. Rockefeller was a billionaire in 1916 dollars!!
The new standard for truly filthy rich is 100 billion, or a “centibillionaire” (although that prefix should probably be “hecto-”). With inflation and creative accounting Musk is trying to break the trillion mark.
According to Wiki the world’s billion+ aires own a total of about 17 trillion dollars in wealth, which really isn’t that much measured against global GDP. So while the giga-rich are well compensated and get to play in the high realms of finance, they aren’t really “dictate the global economy” rich.
I’d buy like a 1000 acres somewhere near a rail line and lay some track and make a “model railroad” with actual full size equipment. With bridges and tunnels and whatnot. Drive them myself, yes, but maybe make them remote controlled and I can watch them run around.
What are some weird things you could do with a billion dollars?
Why, you could have an entire designer wardrobe created consisting entirely of ‘cat’ clothes. By that I mean they would be shirts and trousers made using fuzzy fabric reminiscent of tuxedo cat or tabby patterns. And hoods. With pointed ears. You’d pretty much have to have a long cat tail sewn onto all your trousers. Oh, because you wouldn’t want that tail to drag on the ground and get soiled you could pay someone to carry your tail on a silk covered pillow. Maybe have a special cat ‘meow-meow-speak’ voice synthesizer surgically installed. People could understand what you’re saying but your voice would have a distinclty feline sound. But apart from that, be very normal.
Funding a research program on very ancient foods and drinks including those made with extinct plants, recreating the plants, and then a chef to recreate the dishes for me, just because I am curious what they tasted like and can! I won’t go so far as to recreate extinct animals though.
Everyone restores old 50s era Chevies, and 60s Mustangs, and muscle cars, etc. Those cars aren’t that uncommon. What I’d do is restore a bunch of old, unloved cars like say a 1970s era Toyota Corolla, a Chevy Vega, an AMC Pacer, etc. I’d be like the Jay Leno of random old cars no one cared about.
Ja, I know of and deeply admire Jansen’s amazing machines. Anyone with an interest in weird kinetic art should have a look at his windpowered… uhm… vehicles
Oh. And to steal an idea from a post someone made in one of the threads linked above, have a bunch of my favourite books (Heinlein, Anderson, Norton, Stirling, Chandler, Burroughs, &c) printed in Fraktur.
I’d buy a small but functional ski area and offer low priced (or free) ski opportunities to families and folks priced out of the major ski passes. With climate change going the way it’s going, snowmaking would soak up the money quickly.
That amusingly terrible website doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in a potentially dangerous vessel. It consists entirely of “concept” illustrations with not one actual photograph, undoubtedly because it doesn’t exist. Also not a word about technical specifications, probably for the same reason. Just a lot of gushing about all its (non-existent) ultra-luxury features.
U-Boat Worx is actually a real company that makes a variety of small craft, some of which look like glorified jet-skis, and including a 3-person submarine, but I doubt that this monstrosity will ever be built. I’ve found some other info about it, all of which refers to it as a “concept” (i.e.- a wacky idea, not a product).
Here you go …
That’s the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, which has 9 acres of gardens and walkways entirely indoors, surrounded on four sides by the hotel itself and covered in a greenhouse roof. I stayed their once for a few days and it’s a great hotel.
I have this surprisingly inexpensive miniature plastic Strandbeest. Much cheaper than a billion dollars. It walks quite well if you point a hair dryer at it.
