You have 102 billion dollars and have to give 100 billion away, what do you do with it

Rich uncle sucker gives you 102 billion dollars on his death bed with the intention that you keep 2 billion for yourself and to build a trust to take care of extended family (2 billion invested conservatively should provide 80 million a year w/o touching principal, more than enough to support extended family in an upper class lifestyle) the other 100 billion you have to either give to charity, start your own charity, or invest in business ventures that promote concepts you believe in.

Its been asked before, but what do you do with the 100 billion dollars?

I could see myself investing in progressive politics, global poverty, renewable energy. But also artificial intelligence, anti-aging technology, neuroscience. Some I’d give to established charities, some I’d fund business ventures started by others and some I’d start my own business. With fields like neuroscience I wonder if its better to do what Paul Allen did and start your own institute, or just write small/medium sized checks to thousands of academics and researchers so they can fund their own research goals. I’m not sure which has the best long term impacts on a scientific field (I’d assume the latter).

I know Jeff Bezos wanted to be involved in space travel since he was a kid, and news of his company getting a NASA contract made me rethink this idea.

Combination of starting my own charity and donating to various other charities. One thing I would love to do is figure out some way to employ returning vets in a manner that would be supportive mentally as well as physically [transitioning from military to civilian can be tricky when combat is not involved, combat vets have issues with even mild PTSD, and lack of job skills - how many cops and security guards do we really need …] I also have a large circle of Facebook and online game and offline Fennish friends and many artists and authors that had worked hard in their ‘civilian/mundane’ life and have hit retirement and they are having issues with their retirement incomes and their artistic incomes [many of them depend on sales from going to conventions and running vendor tables] covering basic living expenses. [One lovely lady author in particular and her husband are over 65 and have health issues, and they have a moderately large sized house <4 bedroom, from when they were raising a family> and they are having to give it up because they simply can not afford to hire a housekeeper to clean, and they had absolutely no luck finding a young college age person willing to trade housework and help with errands for living space] I would love to run several apartment complexes across the country as sort of a private Section 8 housing [rent controlled to what they can afford by income] with basic once a week maid service with a possibility of an in house ‘meals on wheels’ though these housing and employment situations could also be a sort of tax writeoff if organized properly.

I also like some of the international options - loans to women and such to form small businesses like clothing making, goat farming, and what not. I think bringing water to dry areas is also a good possible investment for the money, small farm aid or other small business aid.

And I would love to spend a few million a year on various kickstarters and patreons =)

Buy two rounds of drinks at the East Peak Lodge. Might have enough for a small tip, too.

I create a trust and put it towards improving education here in the US. And a healthy chunk of that would be spent on propaganda.

$100B? I’d seriously start messing with a number of people’s religion. Head to the South and offer to pay an entire high school’s budget for 3 years if they abandon their football program. The way to kill the NFL is to cut it off at the ankles. Then offer to buy all of a years ads at 125% the going rate on Fox News. Then demand that everybody be fired and the spin change.

Then I’d probably buy a pony.

Piglets* lots and lots of piglets, for the poorest families living in developing countries. A single pig can literally lift people out of the direst of economic situations.

To be administered by small and local NGOs so as to avoid money skimming by rich CEOs lining their own pockets.

*Or cows if local customs prohibit pig raising.

Fifty billion to the environment. No sense fixing any other problems if most people are dead.

Ten billion to primary education in the United States.

Ten billion to primary education in third world countries.

Ten billion to universities.

Ten billion to promoting a universal health care system in the United States.

Ten billion to miscellaneous projects.

Can I just bribe politicians and judges to do the right thing? They’re pretty cheap in the US.

In 2001, there were about 5-million households in Iraq. About $20,000 each, American cash, would have won a lot of hearts and minds. A hundred billion. Instead, we spent about 20 times that much, and gained what?

Put bounties on the heads of 100 people I don’t like. Or five people that I really don’t like.

Educated women have fewer children, and we do have a bit of a population problem world wide, so I think I’d spend a lot of money on women’s education.

I’m a little bit of a sucker for techno-woo, so I’d drop some money on hyperloop and high-speed rail development. Well, there is the problem that some of these ‘investments’ could accidentally turn out to be profitable - and thus run counter to the original premise - so they might need to be handled with some care.

Wouldn’t it be kewl to have a hand in working out the kinks of nanotechnology miracle materials, or maybe some kind of workable fusion?

100 billion dollars to Planned Parenthood.

Thats not really counter though. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk invest in space travel because they believe in it, but they may turn a profit at it eventually. However I get the impression that they approach the field with the mentality that the end goal is to advance the technology and therefore advance humanity as well. Making a profit isn’t bad for the thought experiment, its just more of a secondary concern. If your business runs a profit, thats great. If it loses 400 million a year, no big deal since you’ve got 100 billion to work with. Whats important is the cause is furthered.

See if I can mine an asteroid. Or the moon.

Since I’m the evil one, I would donate it to my only heir, my good twin, who may soon meet an untimely death.

Medical research. STIs.

Wow. The entire $100 billion? Must have been one hell of a weekend.

You are overpaying.

Combat global warming. Every cent of it. Despite all the thousands of good causes, this is truly the only one without which all others are vain.

I’d start by giving every single blood bank in the world a state of the art bloodmobile. Since most blood banks (at least in the US) are not for profit, they’re lucky to get a “refurbished” bloodmobile.

Then, with what’s left over, probably use it to overtip the servers at my local restaurant.