Geez, people. Why are you wasting your money on all these charities? Damn hippies didn’t earn my trillion dollars, they ain’t seeing squat!
OK, I might make a nominal contribution to Monkeys Without Instruments, but that’s it!
Another vote for a privately funded space program: something that needs to be done, and might actually require a trillion dollars to do right. If it seemed possible that “only” a few hundred billion would give us a space elevator, I’d fund that project. Otherwise I would invest in a truly cost-effective rocket based launch system. Then if the price of getting into orbit was low enough, then I’d see what I could do if I had some billions left over.
Alternatively, I would take a look at buying Russia. Imagine a Russia Inc. with it’s infrastructure rebuilt and placed on a for-profit basis. It could be at least as rich as the European Union and maybe as rich as the US. And I’d own it all.
[sub] Like Thurston Howell III, who when asked if he wanted to rule the world replied that he’d always envisioned owning the world and hiring someone to run it for him.[/sub]
I would of course like to spend some money fullfilling my fantasies, but really I can’t imagine needing or wanting anything that a mere billion or two couldn’t buy.