[dba-Tech] OT: What would you do with $100B?

What you CAN'T do is spend it.  Remember, if you buy a private island with a
mansion for 100 mil, you haven't spent the money - merely traded one asset
for another.  Someday it will be sold and the money will come back to you -
maybe more than you paid.  Same as the yacht you bought to get to your
island.  Same as the Manhattan apartment you bought for when you're not on
your island.

You simply CANNOT consume that much money in goods and services.  So,
there's only three things you can do with the money - invest it in ventures
that makes even more money, do nothing with it (put it into a big bond
ladder and let it roll, accruing interest along the way), or give it away -
a la foundation.  

People think that it would be great to have tens or hundreds of millions in
the bank.  But after you've satisfied every creature comfort and whim, the
balance is a burden - an ethical obligation.

You learn in basic econ that money is stored value - that is the product of
someone's labor that has not yet been traded for good and services.  So when
you're handed a chunk of dough like that, or inherit it, in my book you have
an obligation to take care of it just as if you were taking care of the
person or people whose lives are represented by that money.  

Just as you are obligated to use your thousands for the benefit of your
family, you are obligated to use your billions to the betterment of your
society.

R




-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 12:46 PM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: [dba-Tech] OT: What would you do with $100B?

Just finished reading the articles at Wired and NYT about Egon's latest
adventures, and also the Shimizu plan to create an 11K solar strip on the
moon and broadcase said power back to Earth.

Which raises the question... Suppose your app went viral and suddenly you
had a million users, with attendant revenues. What would you do with the
money?

As an initial guess, I would factor in Number of Spouses (did you know that
the plural of Spouse is Spice?), number of college-ready children,
outstanding mortgage, car leases/loans, etc.

But let us suppose that all these exigencies could be handled by the first B
of your $100B, denominated in US $.

What would you do with the rest? Would you join Bill Gates's foundation and
donate 51% toward curing malaria and similar infectious diseases? Would you
put some loot into breast-cancer research? Send medicine + education to
Third World countries (e.g. this concerns some African beliefs that if you
sleep with a very young girl, you stave off HIV/AIDS)? Or, radically
alternative to the aforementioned proposals, would you choose to keep it all
and let the lawyers figure it out upon your demise?

I know that it's an imaginary question, but nonetheless I shall be
interested in your responses. Even if we divide the amount by 100, it's
still more money than you could possibly spend in the rest of your life, no
matter how serious your habits; so what would you do with $1B? For
starters... and then what would you do with $100B?

As for me, I would join the group of billionaires that the Gates's have
formed, that includes Warren Buffet and Sir Richard Branson and 120 others,
all of whom have decided to give a minimum of 51% away, towards such causes
as curing malaria and polio. As for me, I would go a lot further, and give
away about 90% not 51%, leaving me enough to go vacation in Mallorca and
Shanghai and Havana every year pending my demise.

And you? What would you do?

Arthur

--
Arthur
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