# What would you do if you won 10 billion dollars? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 22, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581 "2017-06-22T02:19:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lurking\_Quahog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lurking_quahog/32/21274_2.png) [@Lurking\_Quahog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lurking_Quahog)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/61 "2017-06-23T17:46:18Z")
Two words. Lottery tickets! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/62 "2017-06-24T03:11:01Z")
There’s a subway line I’d like to give to Toronto. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/63 "2017-06-24T08:58:17Z")
I’d buy the California Angels baseball team with a plan to sell them after one year. Spring training that year would see my pitching staff taking a lot of batting practice, because I would not have any Designated Hitters on my roster. I’d also change the official name of the team back to _The California Angels_, and notify my fellow owners of my intention to give the entire team the day off on any day in the regular season when the schedule had them facing a National League team (if I’m going to own a Major League Baseball team, they are by God gonna play BASEBALL). I’d also buy the SDMB, endow it with $100M, and start paying the mods and admins. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/64 "2017-06-24T09:39:04Z")
New house, new car, obvs. I’d buy a giant aquarium and people to take care of it for me. I’d spoil the shit out of my friends and relatives. I’d launch one hell of a nonprofit foundation. No way I’d ever be able to spend that much money. It’s too much. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/65 "2017-06-24T09:45:27Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > I’m with you. I’d give most of it away. My dream, such as it is, is to open several businesses that act substantially as nonprofits that I can fund until they become self-sustaining, that hire only people who are “down on their luck”. The jobs might not necessarily be jobs that people dream of, but since a profit wouldn’t be required and I would realize none of them anyway I could make those jobs much more lucrative for the people who take them, and hopefully that would be the rising tide that raises other wages, at least locally. > > I don’t think I would have the heart to spend the annualized simple interest on a billion dollars, so the rest can go to this endeavor. Truly a laudable goal. I just wondered… You do realize that non-profits require profit in order to function? That is, it’s basically a business where the profit goes into expansion of programming. I haven’t slept so maybe I’m misunderstanding your post, but I’m a nonprofit development professional so I can’t help but point this out. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/66 "2017-06-24T09:58:21Z")
Sorry I think I’m incoherent now. I’m just saying I’d love to discuss this further as a practical matter because the idea is intriguing but I’m not sure to what extent you’ve got the details ironed out. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/67 "2017-06-24T10:50:04Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > Hang on, I’m doing the math… > > 20,000 chicks at once. That’s what I’d do if I had 10 billion dollars. Fuckin’ A, man. I know you CLAIMED to have done the math, but if it’s not too much trouble, please show your work. See, the math I did has 20K women each getting one second of your time and arttention over a five and a half hour span. Take another second to transfer between women, and you’re eleven hours into the WORST speed dating experience EVAR. Logistically, where are you going to hold your little tete-a-tete-a-tete-a-tetc? You gonna have food, drink, bathroom facilities, showers, wet-wipes? Frankly, even with $10BB, I’m skeptical that you’ll find 20,000 willing participants. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/68 "2017-06-24T18:26:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I’d buy the California Angels baseball team with a plan to sell them after one year. Spring training that year would see my pitching staff taking a lot of batting practice, because I would not have any Designated Hitters on my roster. > > I’d also change the official name of the team back to _The California Angels_, and notify my fellow owners of my intention to give the entire team the day off on any day in the regular season when the schedule had them facing a National League team (if I’m going to own a Major League Baseball team, they are by God gonna play BASEBALL). > > I’d also buy the SDMB, endow it with $100M, and start paying the mods and admins. I’m a little confused are you for the DH or against it? You want pitchers to hit but you won’t play NL teams because you want to play real baseball? > [@silenus](#): > > 1. Buy the SF Giants. > 2. Fire everybody. > 3. Tear down the stadium. > 4. Salt the earth where it stood. I love you and it’s not just for your 10 billion. If I had the money I’d build a sustainable company/community on Coeur D’Alene. IT would be completely off the grid and able to grow 100% of its own food and biomass for power as well as have a recycling plant so that once the start up metal base was in place it could be reused. I’ll need about 2M acres and about 40K adults with probably a total population of about 100K. Just the land will probably run $8B so I’ll have to grow the business that I start with the initial 2B which will probably be a farm/ranch/alcohol business. That’ll start off as a 10K acre farm, 75,000 acres of ranch, 333 acres of orchard, 333 acres of barley/corn/wheat/rye and 333 acres of vineyard. I’d also start working on the 1.8M acre woodlot. That will end up leaving a 12.5 mile by 12.5 mile city site to start doing the planning on but I think that is way too much work for only $2 billion. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/69 "2017-06-24T19:00:14Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I know you CLAIMED to have done the math, but if it’s not too much trouble, please show your work. > > See, the math I did has 20K women each getting one second of your time and arttention over a five and a half hour span. Take another second to transfer between women, and you’re eleven hours into the WORST speed dating experience EVAR. > > Logistically, where are you going to hold your little tete-a-tete-a-tete-a-tetc? You gonna have food, drink, bathroom facilities, showers, wet-wipes? > > Frankly, even with $10BB, I’m skeptical that you’ll find 20,000 willing participants. If he spent 1 hour having sex with each woman, and had eight hours of such sex a day, it would still take him almost 7 years to be done. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/70 "2017-06-24T19:00:52Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I know you CLAIMED to have done the math, but if it’s not too much trouble, please show your work. > > See, the math I did has 20K women each getting one second of your time and arttention over a five and a half hour span. Take another second to transfer between women, and you’re eleven hours into the WORST speed dating experience EVAR. > > Logistically, where are you going to hold your little tete-a-tete-a-tete-a-tetc? You gonna have food, drink, bathroom facilities, showers, wet-wipes? > > Frankly, even with $10BB, I’m skeptical that you’ll find 20,000 willing participants. [The math](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiuZIno6KPA). You might as well hire someone to work out the logistics. Throwing money at a problem isn’t usually the best solution, but sometimes it’s good enough. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/71 "2017-06-24T19:52:36Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > If he spent 1 hour having sex with each woman, and had eight hours of such sex a day, it would still take him almost 7 years to be done. If he was spending $10,000/hour on hookers he could have a threesome 40 hours a week for 130 years before he ran out of money, assuming he was paying employment taxes. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/72 "2017-06-24T23:37:08Z")
I’d rescue my favourite TV shows from cancellation. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/73 "2017-06-25T00:47:49Z")
Never ever touch the capital. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/74 "2017-06-25T03:24:19Z")
buy Detroit and turn the abandoned bits into teaching farms and gardens. Establish some sort of greenhouse sanctuary where I’d try to preserve endangered/rare plants such as the American chestnut or any endangered plant really, if possible. I imagine that would burn through $10 billion pretty quickly ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/75 "2017-06-25T04:43:17Z")
Redux time. I’d have to build [this in the States.](https://imgur.com/gallery/dKK88) ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/76 "2017-06-25T05:19:24Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > 1. Buy the SF Giants. > 2. Fire everybody. > 3. Tear down the stadium. > 4. Salt the earth where it stood. Ya gotta admire a man with principles…even if they are wrong in absolutely every conceivable way 🙂 Short of buying my own professional sports franchise, I can’t imagine a way I could possibly spend one billion dollars, much less ten. I think I’d pay off all my bills, all my family’s bills, some friends’ bills, buy all of those people everything they’ve all ever wanted, then start giving stupidly large amounts of money away to whatever strikes me as a worthy cause that day. I figure that would leave probably $8.72 billion for my son once I’m gone. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/77 "2017-06-25T07:09:21Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > I’m a little confused are you for the DH or against it? You want pitchers to hit but you won’t play NL teams because you want to play real baseball? I’m AGAINST both the DH AND regular season interleague play. Playing a team from the other league is something your team EARNS by winning your own league’s championship. And a game that allows the same player multiple at-bats without playing defense (not to mention allowing a player to return to the playing field after declining to take his own at-bat) may be _something_, but it isn’t baseball. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/78 "2017-06-25T07:19:02Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > If he spent 1 hour having sex with each woman, and had eight hours of such sex a day, it would still take him almost 7 years to be done. > [@Oredigger77](#): > > If he was spending $10,000/hour on hookers he could have a threesome 40 hours a week for 130 years before he ran out of money, assuming he was paying employment taxes. He said 20,000 _at once_. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/79 "2017-06-25T07:25:48Z")
I’d build three or four homes in picturesque parts of the US. Small comfy homes with stunning views. Maybe buy some restored vintage cars from the 1960’s. A 1966 Ford Fairlane would be nice. [![](https://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://assets.hemmings.com/story_image/351141-1000-0.jpg?rev%3D2&imgrefurl=https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hcc/2012/03/The-Aspiration-and-the-Original---1966-Ford-Fairlane-500-and-GTA/3709431.html&docid=RnPtweV9sDj_9M&tbnid=JqxR3uDLVhvAoM:&vet=1&w=1000&h=517&source=sh/x/im) ](https://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://assets.hemmings.com/story_image/351141-1000-0.jpg?rev%3D2&imgrefurl=https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hcc/2012/03/The-Aspiration-and-the-Original---1966-Ford-Fairlane-500-and-GTA/3709431.html&docid=RnPtweV9sDj_9M&tbnid=JqxR3uDLVhvAoM:&vet=1&w=1000&h=517&source=sh/x/im) Perhaps a 1964 Mercury Comet in the garage of my other house. [https://goo.gl/images/ScszeP](https://goo.gl/images/ScszeP) Definitely buy some land and get a sound proof recording studio built. Top grade equipment. Then hire an engineer and studio musicians to assist me in recording my music. Each year I’d make a large donation to Make A Wish. ---
**Author:** ![ThisIsTheEnd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisistheend/32/4713_2.png) [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581/80 "2017-06-25T09:10:24Z")
Buy Twitter, shut it off, and destroy the code. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-10-billion-dollars/789581.md?page=5)