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

[RioRico]

Heinlein’s TIME FOR THE STARS posited The Long Range Foundation which funded expensive research with no promise of returns. I’d setup a LRF financing loony-tunes Mad Scientists discovering and developing whatever seems impossible. Sure, 99.9% will fail. But it’s like randomly soliciting sex. Ask hundreds of people a day if they want to fuck. Maybe the vast majority will refuse. But a few YESes daily make the exercise rewarding.

Just so, if only a few science projects discover new insights and technologies, they could mold the human experience. Time travel? Here’s a million. Teleportation? A million. Room-temp fusion? Do it for a million. Repeat 200,000 times.

[silenus]

@pool

I feel like from your posts that I’ve read that you are a big gun enthusiast, is that not true or is it ok for you, but not for the commoners?

Nope. I’d turn all my Mausers in first. I think 99% of the people who own firearms shouldn’t. Since I can’t do anything about that in the here and now, I’d devote multiple billions of dollars getting them off the streets and out of the hands of morons. Maybe spend another billion buying off enough congress-critters that the next tax bill includes something like a 3X tax credit for every gun turned in.

[Wesley_Clark]

@Bijou_Drains

This is similar to the movie Brewster’s Millions. Brewster had to spend ~$20 mil or so and not get anything in return. He could not gamble and could only give 5% to charity. If he did that he would inherit even more money. It was a comedy with Richard Pryor.

Yeah I thought it was good. Why didn’t he just buy lunch for all the homeless people in town.

[Balthisar]

You have 100 billion dollars and have to give 98 billion away, what do you do with it.

[RickJay]

@Wesley_Clark

Yeah I thought it was good. Why didn’t he just buy lunch for all the homeless people in town.

Because that’s charity, which violates one of the rules.

[Little_Nemo]

@Bijou_Drains

This is similar to the movie Brewster’s Millions. Brewster had to spend ~$20 mil or so and not get anything in return. He could not gamble and could only give 5% to charity. If he did that he would inherit even more money. It was a comedy with Richard Pryor.

There’s also a boardgame on this theme: The Prodigals Club.

[mbh]

@Bijou_Drains

This is similar to the movie Brewster’s Millions. Brewster had to spend ~$20 mil or so and not get anything in return. He could not gamble and could only give 5% to charity. If he did that he would inherit even more money. It was a comedy with Richard Pryor.

Brewster's Millions

Brewster’s Millions is a comedic novel written by George Barr McCutcheon in 1902, originally under the pseudonym of Richard Greaves. It was adapted into a play in 1906, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway,[1] and the novel or play has been adapted into films thirteen times, four of which were produced in India.

[RTFirefly]

@RickJay

Of course he comes up with quite a clever scheme - he runs for mayor, wasting his money on authentic campaign expenses. (However, he had to losee the election, because the job carries a salary.)

Now, you could pull a Bloomberg, spend a shitload of money in a very short time on your quixotic campaign for Presidential nominee of one of the major parties. If you didn’t know how to blow through $75M (today’s rough equivalent to $30M in 1985) in a month, you could surely find political consultants who’d be delighted to help you.

[Loach]

@RickJay

You could do it now and I suspect you could have done it in 1985, but you’d have to know how (private jets and luxury destinations would have gone a long way) and the idea was that Brewster had never had any money so he didn’t know how to blow it at that level. Of course he comes up with quite a clever scheme - he runs for mayor, wasting his money on authentic campaign expenses. (However, he had to losee the election, because the job carries a salary.)

If I remember correctly he didn’t run for mayor. He ran a campaign to get people to write in “none of the above” because both of the candidates were crooks. And like you said he couldn’t have a salary at the end so he couldn’t risk winning for himself.
He was also an aged minor league pitcher so he hired the Yankees to play an exhibition game against him.

[Wesley_Clark]

@RickJay

Because that’s charity, which violates one of the rules.

Didn’t he buy food for other people several times during the month?

[Caldazar]

ARPA-style sustainable energy research for the next 20-25 years.

[DrDeth]

I’d start by making sure we got a Dem President and Senate this election, and also boost the various covid vaccines going on out there.

Long term- back some science projects, try to get the plastic out of the oceans and global warming slowed.

[RickJay]

@Wesley_Clark

Didn’t he buy food for other people several times during the month?

As I recall it was okay for him to host parties, but it had to be something he’d be a part of. Giving meals to the homeless is rather clearly an act of charity. You could invite them to a party, though.

[FlikTheBlue]

I’d buy as much of the Amazon as possible to preserve the rain forest and use the remainder to hire and arm the locals to protect the areas I had purchased.