r/hypotheticalsituation • u/Isekai_litrpg • 1d ago
You have $1 Trillion USD, what is your legacy project?
Pretty much you've got too much money to have to worry about anything, what is the big thing you do with the excess money and your life.
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u/TT_________ 1d ago
I think it would be interesting to develop a poor country.
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u/Golarion 23h ago
We've already got plenty of poor countries- why would you work on making another?
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u/RealHornblower 23h ago
Buy newspapers and broadcasters. Create blind trusts to ensure they are fully funded in perpetuity. No paywalls. Mission statements include commitment to investigative reporting, with plenty of lawyers on retainer to handle legal issues and protect reporters. No one, including me, can prevent them from choosing to cover or investigate something.
We gotta go back to the days when, if there was a scandal, a journalist would go undercover and obtain the documents that were being hidden, instead of just reporting "this politician has been accused of a crime, but they deny it, so I guess we'll just have 5 minutes of 2 guys yelling at each other instead of bothering to find out which side is correct."
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u/Vast-Mission-9220 23h ago
Reforestation of North America
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u/mysticalchurro 21h ago
I was going to say reforestation of the Amazon, but this also works! So many trees taken down in my neighborhood over the last few years
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u/Puzzleheaded-Win2656 1d ago
put it all on red
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u/SoftBoiledEgg_irl 1d ago
Massive swathes of extremely affordable apartments in every city across the USA and Canada. Nobody should have to pay half or more of their income for a roof over their heads.
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u/Powriepj 23h ago
It sounds good in theory, but you know it would just be a slum.
People don't take care of things they don't pay for.
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u/JustLookingForMayhem 23h ago
I suggest taking a closer look at the various housing projects in New York. Most didn't become slums due to people not paying rent of intentionally damaging the properties, but because maintenance was delayed to save money, eventually becoming a downward spiral as people started to move out or try and pay less and conditions deteriorated.
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u/alldressed_chip 17h ago
exactly—i’ve lived in LA for 12y, and i’ve been lucky enough to afford my rent through the insane price hikes over that time. but virtually every single time my rent increased, it was preceded by months of habitability issues as far as maintenance was concerned, and occasionally, outright hostility from my landlords for asking anything from them at all. and with like, two exceptions, the rent increases were always the maximum amount they could legally be increased, and after tenants left, the rents on individual units would go up 25-30%, minimum.
it’s like that enshittification concept in tech. hook tenants with low costs or nice amenities into signing a lease, make it impossible to live unless they upgrade to a new lease, reap rewards for shareholders.
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u/Middle-Accountant-49 23h ago
You could build really nice co ops and make the share prices cheaper than market by a lot.
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u/graceyperkins 21h ago
Look into the Pruit-Igoe housing development in St. Louis. It’s easy to just blame the tenants, but it’s usually poor management, inferior building quality, and political meddling that plays an outsized role in the failure.
It’s not so simple that it’s just the tenants who destroy things, there are so many sociological factors. It would be great with that money to address the issue in earnest with positive intentions.
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u/circ-u-la-ted 23h ago
People don't take care of things they rent in general. That's your job as the person with 1 trillion dollars.
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u/ahoy_shitliner 21h ago
I’m a landlord who deals with low income housing. Thus blanket statement is pretty far from the truth
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u/Express_Donut9696 23h ago
I will create the Express Donuts Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and wanna learn to do other stuff good too.
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u/Icy_Hold_5291 22h ago
New pyramids built in the middle of nowhere. All stone and many times bigger than any that exist currently. All stone with little secret chambers.
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u/NegotiationLow2783 1d ago
Attempt to develop fusion reactor to solve the world's energy issues and warming.
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u/OhOkayFairEnough 1d ago
Permanent established soup kitchens all across the United States with attached free housing. Build them in conjunction with small-scale renewable energy power plants. All of the mentally or physically able housing residents work in the soup kitchens or power plant as "rent" and are also given a savings account to eventually be able to move, and everyone has a two-year residency. This allows them to gain skills or knowledge and to be able to save up money to eventually get their own place and have a solid career.
The excess power sold off to nearby neighborhoods allows this project to self-sustain and eventually expand to invest itself into other markets, allowing to expand its reach of skillsets and eventually establish free or low-cost universities within the confines of this program.
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u/whiskeynise 21h ago
You realize cities already do this right? And most of the time they remain empty, because the mentally unstable and drug addicted don’t care about the jobs and housing you’re offering them if they can’t be constantly high
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u/smlwng 23h ago
Resurrect 'Bum Fights'.
Also, yknow all these hypotheticalsituations where random people are asked silly things like, "would you suck a dick for (x) dollars"? I'd host a tv show where we make these dreams come true! "Sir, you said you would take a kick to the balls from Jon Jones for $50k a kick. Well today is your lucky day!".
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u/Wise_Classic6569 22h ago
If this money ever magically appears I hope it's you who gets it. This is the first non lame answer here.
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u/RememberHonor 23h ago
A massive campaign to expose every single corrupt and illegal thing that every current sitting politician in the US has done and make sure that there are safeguards put in place afterwards so none of that garbage can happen again.
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u/FATICEMAN 23h ago
In a political divided nation I think both sides would be better in the long run.
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u/chrisdejalisco 22h ago
This should be top! If only they worked for people all this other shit probably wouldn't be needed.
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u/Thorus_Andoria 1d ago
Buy a small city. Turn it into a medical research facility. Focus on 3d printing organs, body parts and gene editing. Needing a new organ, or having to amputate a body part will no longer be seen as a life changing event. It will be "im sorry you stepped on a mine, we will get you a new leg by Monday". When I have mastered it, i will pour money into the project to make it cheaper. So cheap it can be used outside of Europe.
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u/graccha 21h ago
TB, malaria, and HIV vaccines for everyone. Starting in sub Saharan Africa and working from the lowest income countries up. With the few hundred billion left over, rural medicine programs based on China's barefoot doctor program of the 60s and 70s. Then supporting local clean water initiatives and funding education for infrastructure maintenance.
Then keep a billion or so on hand so I'll be apparently immune to laws and I can annoy the shit out of other billionaires until someone from the billionaire class arranges my accidental death, at which point my executor will donate all of it to different bail funds.
I wouldn't see the results in my lifetime but TBH good luck with your extractive capitalism when people with valuable natural resources aren't bent double under the burden of preventable illness
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u/BabuBhattDreamCafe 1d ago
The Atlanta Braves
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u/CCool_CCCool 23h ago
And then with the other 990B?
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u/BabuBhattDreamCafe 23h ago
I would kick the tires on one of those maps that shows what Atlanta would look like with a perfect train system.
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u/Efficient_Field4700 23h ago
I want to build my own car. Not to sell or anything. I just want one tailor made to my tastes.
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u/Payup_sucker 23h ago
Universal free school breakfast and lunches for all kids even on off days.
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u/TheRisen073 22h ago
I buy all the resorts in Montana and shut them down, I buy all the land for sale in Montana and I buy as many parts of Missoula as possible for redevelopment into something that actually fits the city instead of more suburbs.
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u/Pirrus05 23h ago
I’ve always thought about going into scientific publishing if I won the lottery, this would just make it bigger. Start with “The Journal of Null Results” for each discipline, basically if you submit a paper, it passes pier review, it gets added. After that start some other journals shooting for top journal in the field. Have paid reviewers and regular review-reviews to make sure that we aren’t letting slop through. All of these journals are free to the public, research libraries, or anyone else that wants them. Eventually just burn every other academic publisher to the ground.
The goal is just a gigantic FUCK YOU to Robert Maxwell.
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u/yasdnil1 23h ago
Buying land in our county so it can stay wild, we're in a very rural area and the data centers and solar farms are coming in and tearing down natural habitats.
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u/chickenandbisket 22h ago
Trash island, I'd start excavation of it recycle as much of it as possible, try to get other countries involved, I'd only ask our government to barrow the use Gerald R. Ford to help tow the island closer to the coast, whatever is left that can't be recycled bring it to power stations instead of Fossil fuels for awhile let's burn the island off
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u/Late_Increase950 22h ago
Buy out Puerto Rico's debts, build artificial coastal reefs around the island to minimize storm surge during hurricane, improve self-sustainability by building farms, build offshore wind farms and solar farms for energy.
Send a team of Japanese civil engineers and architects to Haiti to build seismic resistant dwellings, rebuild agriculture and economic system, hire mercenaries to wipe out resistance from anyone who tried to intervene to keep the profit to themselves.
Pay mercenaries to wipes out the warlords in Africa and rebuild infrastructures.
Buy land around Native American's reserves and give it to them as gift.
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u/JonSnowsLoinCloth 20h ago
End world hunger. Then buy the Dallas Cowboys and change the name to Cowgirls.
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u/CodeToManagement 19h ago
There’s a huge patch of garbage floating around in the ocean like the size of a small country.
I want to buy some of those super huge cargo carriers, refit them into recycling plants. Buy some support ships, then go out there and just clean it up.
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u/Old-fashionedTaxed 19h ago
Make a bigger Grand Canyon next to the original Grand Canyon and call it the Grander Canyon
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u/coderedmountaindewd 21h ago
Start a company that buys up all the lead mines around the country and the world, trying to get as close to a monopoly as possible. Then restrict sales to gun and ammunition manufacturers.
Then secretly fund an anti-monopoly campaign with my lead company as a primary target for better regulation.
Either the sale and manufacturing of guns and ammunition will be dramatically reduced or major anti- monopoly legislation will be passed. I probably couldn’t effectively change either problem on their own but I think by playing public opinion against both of them, I could cause one to crack
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u/mayhem14 23h ago
Purchase/retire medical and education debt.
Depress the economy of overpriced post-high school education.
Figure out housing and mental health treatment of the homeless without keeping them penned in one section of a city (lot of lobbying necessary there).
Lots of science grants.
Buy the Knicks.
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u/Dependent-Analyst907 22h ago
I would buy up all the dead malls, and shopping centers, across the US and restore the land to its natural state... Be that forest, prairie, or whatever.
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u/Natural-Stomach 21h ago
a few things:
free-use monorail systems across the US
fusion technology
abolishment of cyber currencies and generative AI
establishment of free (and free of adverts) social media
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u/4thAveRR 20h ago
For a decade, I'd use it to take controlling interests in US and European major oil producing companies. (They would still be able to compete against each other, minimizing anti-trust risk).
Then, I would stop pro-oil lobbying, so the US and hopefully other governments would stop making pro-oil laws.
Finally, I would funnel profits into the green energy space. Realistically, this could be 50 or 100 billion dollars of subsidies to renewables annually.
The green energy business would be structured as a non-profit public utility. The profits would not enrich billionaires but benefit humanity by growing this industry.
The hope is that by removing impediments (big oil lobby) and fostering investment, the green energy industry would become self sufficient and thriving.
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u/Sudden_Age_1175 20h ago
Or for a fraction of that money, buy politicians to vote for green energy and hire a hitsquad for the big oil stuff. And hire another squad to protect you from big oil. Or wait. Maybe your plan is better
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u/magicfalcon68 17h ago
Open up rehab facility across the world that partners with company's for job placement and have a more rigged structure to keep people off the streets and off of drugs for longer period of time then what is out there now. It be a life commitment to be clean provide housing and further tools to make people successful as they live the rest of there life beyond just 30 60 90 days. Make it a life choice with no judgment and far more help. Making society far better with helping people who are struggling. Making the work force better and stronger teaching people skilled labor jobs..... just help people actually have a chance.
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u/QuestGalaxy 15h ago
I know it's nothing big or anything, but that money is going straight to helping Ukraine kick the russian fascists out.
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u/DontCryYourExIsUgly 11h ago
Everyone in my country is getting clean, safe water. Then I start working on other countries and getting them the same, with sanitation/sewage systems.
The other thing I'd like to do is invest in indigenous businesses on indigenous reservations. In a lot of places, the casinos don't make that much, because they're not in desirable places for people to travel. I'd like to have people bring me business proposals for me to fund to massively boost the employment rate on reservations and let the tribes become self-sufficient and prosperous. I feel Americans owe opportunity and success to the people whose land we live on.
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u/snltoonces12 7h ago
Voyager 3. I'd have a ton of money left over to do things that won't matter because our lives are short, and there is no guarantee anything you build or do will last much past your death. My own gold record could last a billion years once it's on its way out of here, which would be pretty cool. I'd use the rest of the money to live comfortably and feed as many people as I could in impoverished nations.
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u/Ok_Historian4587 6h ago
I would build my dream city, one that would make New York or LA seem like third world cities, all while being really cheap. And the whole thing would be labeled as "private property", so I'd be able to have my own laws and such. If anything, I can always give politicians incentives so that I can make this happen. And once I prove to the world that it works, I run for president, and if I win, I transform America into my dream country.
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u/YeaahProlly 19h ago edited 19h ago
I just talked about this the with a friend the other day and I did some math. My answer of what I would do if I woke up with Bezo’s money was to open a grocery store in the poorest part of the 30 largest American cities that both operates at a massive loss AND gives its employees from the local community insane salaries. The results REALLY put into perspective just how abhorrent the richest of the rich are. Check this out:
You woke up tomorrow with bezos money. Maybe that wouldn’t be sustainable even with bezos money? Let’s do the math.
-300,000,000. That’s 100 million set aside for 3 children’s inheritance.
-500,000,000. That’s 100 million each to retire my siblings and parents.
-2.15 billion. That’s 50 million for me to live on per year for the rest of my life (44 years to the average life expectancy).
Started with 241 billion. After accounting for those, you are still left 238 billion dollars.
Let’s assume these grocery stores each operate at 100 million in loses a year. I don’t think that’s a realistic number, but just to be generous. That’s 3 billion in losses a year.
You could run 30 of these grocery stores for 80 years before you are out of money. And that’s after securing an extremely wealthy life for myself, my entire family, and a generational inheritance for 3 children.
But that 100 million was exaggerated to be generous. Let’s look at real numbers. The average supermarket does 14 million in revenue with 2% profits. I don’t have a break down of expenditures, but let’s say 55 employees making an average of 55,000 a year. That’s 3,025,000 million in salary, leaving about 11 million in expenditures.
Let’s be generous again and double those salaries. Every single one of those 55 employees now makes $110,000 a year. That’s $6,050,000 in salaries per store per year. Add in $11 million in operating costs and we’re looking at roughly $17 million per store per year to keep the lights on and shelves stocked while paying everyone outrageously well.
Multiply that by 30 stores andthat’s $510 million per year. That means with Jeff Bezos’ net worth, you could run those 30 for almost 470 years.
But let’s go even further. Why just let those loses eat away at your worth? Let’s invest 200 billion of the 238 and see how many stores and for how long you could operate at a 4% return. This is a conservative estimate for someone with that kind of capital.
4% of $200 billion is $8 billion every single year.
That means you could scale up the project 15 times to 450 stores. You are paying everyone six-figure salaries, providing FREE groceries to the poorest communities in America if you operate at a 17 billion dollar loss. And you could do this forever. Literally no end.
So yeah. That’s what I would do. Billionaires are legit evil.
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u/CCool_CCCool 23h ago
I would start my own “Disney” empire that doesn’t cater exclusively to the wealthiest 5%. Being back Walt’s vision as opposed to the mess of exclusivity it is now.
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u/Downtown-Falcon-3264 1d ago edited 23h ago
Trying to make sure people have all their basic needs met like food water, a roof over their head.
Set up clinics that help people with their medical care as well as mental.
Not sure how far that would go but I would take it as far as I could
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u/Prof_Fuzzy_Wuzzy 23h ago
Universal healthcare. It works in the rest of the developed countries, no reason it wouldn't work in the US.
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u/sodapop_curtiss 23h ago
Housing and Super PACs aimed at unseating every Republican and fake Democrat I possibly could with politicians who would support universal health care, more restrictive gun control, and protecting a woman’s right to choose in purple districts nationwide. I’d support more moderate Democrats in areas where the progressive stuff is DOA, regardless of how much is spent on a race.
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u/InterestingTank5345 23h ago
I will tactically create companies to even out the world, some will help Africa, some Europe, some Asia, they will serve to ensure America no more hold monopoly and that a few companies doesn't get too much power. I will also turn Greenland into a paradise state, as a sorry for what my people did to them and in the hope of continued close relations. And I'll heavily invest in Nuclear science to ensure a perfect green electric source, for the entire world, while also begging the government to let me create powerplants here in Denmark.
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u/Inevitable_Sun8691 23h ago
Habitat restoration and conservation work. Protect wild places for people to hunt, fish, camp, boat. Like national forests and BLM, but actually funded appropriately. I’d devote some of the money towards species of concern that the USFWS is already trying to work on, fund research, get the ball rolling where lack of funds are an issue. Work with wildlife and fisheries biologists to implement real solutions and plans, instead of letting ballot box biology take over like it has in so many places.
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u/ToughPickle7553 23h ago
Universal free school lunches year-round.
Also, broad funding for vaccine research and distribution worldwide in perpetuity.
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u/KrisClem77 23h ago
Legacy? I have a trillion dollars. The last thing I’m worrying about is out is what’s gonna happen when I’m gone. I’m enjoying the hell out of myself and doing and buying whatever I want.
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u/Ice_taco76 23h ago
Building am now building 800 2000MW nuclear power plants and selling my power for cheap as DIRT to anyone with a just cause. National or private.
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u/Middle-Scarcity6247 23h ago
Missions to Moon and Mars with the goals of resource extraction, water harvesting, helium-3 mining, colonization initiatives.
Try to get humanity out of technological stagnation/slow crawl and only caring about the economy and focus on real progress.
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u/JustLookingForMayhem 23h ago
Space elevator. Technically, we probably have the technology to make one today, but the expenses would be ludicrous initially. A trillion is not enough to build one, but it might be enough to get one started. If a space elevator was built, material scarcity would be a thing of the past because there are so many resources in space. The problem is just getting them.
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u/Middle-Accountant-49 23h ago
I'd like to own the colorado rockies and see if its possible to win consistently at that altitude. Like what's the ideal strategy.
I'd also buy a ton of commercial real estate (high street) in one city, and try to spur innovation by renting it out cheaply. Do a similar thing with housing, and other industry. Make the goal to make minimal profit and pay everyone a good wage.
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u/TheLizardKing89 23h ago
A massive increase of public transportation in Los Angeles.
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u/Fabulous_Permit5276 23h ago
Land trust. I would buy as much vacant land as possible and rewild it. Large farms for sale and the like….
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u/Thebaronofbrewskis 22h ago
I would buy premium farm land outside of major cities, establish a trust to maintain the land and employees for it. With the goal of building food forests that sell at cost or donate to schools. I would do this untill I had about 10 million in the bank and then walk away and watch them run.
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u/Shoddy-Coconut8741 22h ago
Use 5% (5billion) every year to build and maintain solar farms world wide.
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u/eljordin 22h ago
Decentralized living grids. Affordable, tiny home style living arrangements with renewable power on site. Hydroponic farming on rooftops to localize food.
Remove dependence on massive trade and give people the ability to live self sufficiently in their own regions, lowering the need for cash.
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u/hapkidoox 22h ago
High quality affordable insulin that at the very most costs twenty bucks a month.
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u/Lady-Kat1969 22h ago
Buy an old farm, minimum 100 acres. Use one of the fields as an orchard full of heirloom apples— Grey Pearmain, Winesap, Sweet Sixteen, Black Oxford, Brock, Egremont Russet, Wolf River, Tolman Sweet, and Ginger Gold, which isn’t heirloom but I don’t care because it’s tasty. Plant gardens full of basic vegetables: potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, beans, onions, etc. Herb garden, only what grows in that climate. Dedicate one outbuilding to plants that are best brought inside in the winter. Barns are for endangered breeds of livestock (except pigs; not dealing with that). Make sure there’s a working forge on the property.
Host classes and workshops for varying levels of skill for gardening, preserving, smithing, knitting, weaving, dying, woodcraft, and other things, including how to grow fruits/vegetables/herbs in an apartment. Set up a sliding pay scale so that it’s not just for rich hobbyists. Arrange a shuttle bus for people without transportation.
Set up a fund so that it’s funded for as long as possible and hire lawyers to tie it up in paperwork so that it stays a working farm using eco-friendly methods.
Split the harvest so that half goes to market and half goes to food banks and homeless shelters.
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u/algorithm_issues 22h ago
I would build my ideal city. Small 2 bedroom apartments on top of shops to reduce the car dependency. The shops would be designed to just break even on income and not worry about increasing profits each year. Surrounding this area would be small, single family starter homes. Around that would be solar energy to help power it. The location would be chosen to be in an area not facing water shortages or flooding in the near future.
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u/Itzie4 22h ago
A comprehensive transit network connecting all of Michigan. It would include bullet trains through all four quadrants of Michigan, train and bus lines in every county, trolleys and shuttles in small towns, EV bike and scooter rentals in most cities, high speed military grade ferries across the Great Lakes to Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee, and bullet trains to nearby states.
The Vision would be someone could live in Detroit, have lunch in Traverse City, enjoy Lake Michigan beaches, and return to Detroit for dinner all in one day.
Or
Funding various open-source technology and software like Mozilla/FireFox, Pine64, 7-Zips, Keypass XC, LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, TOR, Shortcut, Kdenlive, qBittorrent, uBlock, Mozilla/FireFox, Pine64, 7-Zips, Keypass XC, LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, TOR, QGIS, GIMP, Shortcut, Kdenlive, python, meshtastic, various Linux operating systems, various desktop environments, various package managers, Internet Archive, Archive.Today, and ethical open-source AI. I want them to play on the same level as big tech.
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u/Wise_Classic6569 22h ago
Hire a team of homeless people to shit on the lawn of every politician in the US consistently for years. Then I'd buy all that land Akon was gonna build a city on and actually do it, cause fuck Akon. He can watch my vision come to life and sing like a chipmunk while I get all the glory
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u/HumanMycologist5795 22h ago
I'll create a foundation named after myself. I would do several things.
- College Tuition
- Self-Image
- Philanthropy
*** College Tuition ***
Give up to $5 million annually in full college scholarships to kids who meet certain criteria. With a focus on those who wouldn't be able to go to college otherwise and who want to make a difference for the better, especially scientifically and medically.
*** Self-image ***
Create a mechanism by which women and girls know their self-worth and get the help they need in abusive relationships with no way out. We'd give them protection and a way out. Not limited to women and girls.
*** Philanthropy ***
Donations and grants to other foundations with focus on mental health, job placements, and disseminating medical services to those who otherwise wouldn't be getting any.
Also, we would look to employ veterans, amongst others.
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u/Roid_Assassin 22h ago
Would definitely split my legacy between three things
1) Charitable work. Would donate a lot but beyond that i would definitely want to run my own charity because i wont deny I have a bit of an ego. Possibly I’d start a school or several schools.
2) Creative work. Pay whatever I have to pay to get my favorite books adapted into movies or series, and work on my own books, too. Buy out small bookstores, publishers, film companies that are at risk of failing. Maybe start my own small publishing company and bookstore.
3) Personal work. I’d continue my education and get in shape. Eventually I would pursue a PHD.
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u/Huge-Ad-8425 22h ago
I’m about to play Minecraft like you’ve never seen before
I’ll probably get bored from just appreciating how amazing it looks for about 3 hours, and move onto something else.
Otherwise, I’m buying a bunch of lightsabers, inviting my mates over, and just going crazy.
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u/Scared-Expression444 22h ago
Idk probably get two Big Macs and eat them in my Honda civic in a Walmart parking lot 🤷🏻♂️
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u/usernamerandomness 21h ago
Private libraries. Free to everyone who wants a membership and doesn't get banned for bad behavior.
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u/Proteolitic 21h ago
Use a bit to lobby for laws that allow me to land grab protected and abandoned areas (agricultural, industrial).
Invest aggressively to increase the cash and use part of it to fund research on rehabilitation of exhausted soil and reforestation first across North America and UE, then Amazonia and Africa, finally Asia.
Fund aggressively research on alternative energies.
Launch a massive cyber counteroffensive (hiring the most skilled and dangerous black hats) against disinformation and starting a widespread propaganda (also, I am Machiavellian, a huge extortion and blackmailing campaign against politicians, influencers, corporations, that try to fight back).
Again invest to maintain the cash, and start aggressive and hostile acquisition of mercenary corporations to have fire power to be used to eliminate illegal logging and mining (and protect myself against assassination attempts).
Also hostile acquisition of some major tech company to gain control of at least one major social media.
Use the lobbying power of the wealth to grab as much as possible of the real state that is left unoccupied and rebuilt it as affordable environmentally savvy houses.
Push for stronger regulations, regulatory agencies, improved public schools ridded of religious and corporate influences.
I would be ruthless and Machiavellian.
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u/C130IN 21h ago
Effective mass transit in every major city and linking them using underground railways. Ideally powered by a non-polluting energy source.
Imagine if we could stop our use of fossil fueled cars and have the clean skies Covid forced upon us in 2020. But without destroying the economy or our ability to work, play and interact with each other.
That or build a starship.
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u/LaundryMan2008 21h ago edited 21h ago
Do whatever is needed to reverse the damage done by politicians, even if I have to go for office in the UK and since it’s way smaller then the US it’s going to be quite “cheap” to get everyone on the same page and reverse some laws and repair our failing transport and police infrastructure.
£2 billion can go towards my retro datacenter after I have gone to rest ensuring that the next person is going to be good and that there are iron clad rules in place to ensure the they can’t do something stupid like they can only put out one new law every 3 months so they can’t change stuff too quickly and if something really needs to change and they have used up their law of the 3 months then they can do a full country vote for it after deeming it useful to see if they need it.
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u/Serafim91 21h ago
A stem focused research university whose only purpose is to be the top research university.
A visual books studio that just does 1-1 book to visual style shows of however many episodes are needed. Scenery is shown otherwise everything is kept the same.
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u/in4mant 21h ago
Focus on health research and providing free care to those who have diseases so that no additional burden is on themselves and their families.
Such as free and covered surgeries and chemo and radiation for cancer patients. The same goes for other diseases.
Also, 100% coverage for hospice care that doesn’t rely on Medicare or Medicaid.
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u/Electronic_Sample440 21h ago
These are USA based as I am a US citizen
Idk what I would choose if I only had to pick one but these are my ideas to choose from
Actual high speed transport in the USA - along with new subways/transportation systems in the biggest city in each state (more than just the biggest preferably but as a starter it’ll do).
Ending world hunger - it only takes like $40 billion I believe to end it and then a few billion each year on top of it to keep that going so it’s an easy system to start (financially at least).
free child care for kids under 5
retirement starts at 55 (china has a decent retirement system I hear)
affordable housing across the nation (someone else already mentioned this tho)
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u/Reinvented-Daily 21h ago
I'd open a college that's absolutely free, accredited and boost as much higher education as possible to help pull people out of poverty. Actual sex education, art/ music and financial classes would be mandatory in the first year then there would be bachelor's only focused courses so there's no other bs classes to take. Streamline it to actual focus needs and intensive programs so you're not left reeling in the real world once you graduate, and have actionable, paid programs that allow you to gain job experience without starving for it.
I'd buy out all the BLM mustang herds, buy the lands they need and let them be what they're supposed to be. Id being in actual professionals and geneticists to manage the herds appropriately.
Same for the wild burro populations.
I'd fund massive wildlife bridge programs.
I'd open a shelter for people coming out of DV situations that allow them to keep their kids, learn life and job skills and send them out into the world with a much better standing and confidence than they're ever had before.
I'd open a massive public library with the effort of taking in every book imaginable - the good and the bad, fiction and non fiction - in order to create not only a record or what human creativity could be, but also a learning area so we do not forget the lessons of the past (hence the bad).
I'd get an actual paid, fully funded team to widescale address the plastics problem.
This is just a start really. I'm sure i found think up another bunch of things too.
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u/QP873 21h ago
I’m kickstarting an orbital ring. 30° north of the equator allows a LOT of population centers to be passed over and it will change space travel forever by deleting earth-launched rockets.
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u/Brave_Bus966 21h ago
Create communities for people to live in. Housing and healthcare are free. Everybody knows each other and everyone has a role. Energy is sourced via solar, air or water. The work week is only 3-4 days. No one works more than 10hrs/day. Disabled folks and elderly work with an extremely kind specialist to determine their role and work week. People are given two hours for lunch. Gym is free. Dental is free. Everyone is encouraged to seek education because it is free ✨
To live in the community, you have to participate in supporting the community. If you have special skills, then that is your other job. Majority of jobs would involve growing and harvesting food. Personally, I’d love to see the community grow marijuana but that is up to everyone living in the community.
Pedophiles, rapists and racists are not allowed. We hang anyone found guilty of being a pedophile, rapist or racist.
That’d be the dream but I feel like it’d be hard to do if the infrastructure isn’t set up right because it could easily turn into a cult.
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u/IntheOlympicMTs 21h ago
End hunger buy up huge swaths of land for nature preserves give teachers and school employees a huge raise. Pay for a shit ton of medical research. Then I’d buy a bunch of real nice 1st Toyota 4Runners cause I’m greedy.
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u/Clawdius_Talonious 21h ago edited 21h ago
I'd be willing to grant indie developers 40k/year to work on their game at negligible interest rates with basically "give me the IP that made you absolutely no money to resolve the debt, and if you want to work on that IP in the future we've got the last right of refusal on the project." something to those effects, I wouldn't want to be stifling creativity but if someone ate it on their last project mandatory consultancy seems appropriate.
I'd aim to make a nonprofit that works with indies and ideally Valve/Steam to kinda make no money and just give indie developers the QA and marketing resources they need to succeed. They would really aim not to profit, to reinvest in more projects.
Games are a little like scratch off tickets, if you gave everyone the chance to prototype stuff on your teams, many of them won't be winners but those that are ... we've separated the chance to profit the way indies can from the AAA developers and I really think if I had this setup a lot of them would quit working for the man and take a crack at controlling their own destinies. And hey if the developer work doesn't go as well as they'd like we'll have a bunch of consultancy positions and stuff and need people whose job is basically just person to person networking. In these bleak times, a real person trying to communicate instead of an AI is almost charming. And we could afford to do that, because we wouldn't be selling crap or whatever, we'd just be looking to break even from a profitable industry by supplying loans at extremely sane rates and terms.
Also as a US entity Steam kinda screws some international developers AFAIK? 30% Steam costs and then a 30% cost to turn their money local? I'd try to set up international presence that could defray that or something? I'd be a trillionaire I could make it happen.
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u/LemonComprehensive5 21h ago
Shading public parks, playgrounds, schools, sidewalks.Shade everywhere, shade for all.
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u/MeatToken 21h ago
I would create an alternative to FIFA. Not to govern world football, but to give more opportunities for people in developing countries to produce talents and develop. Training pitches, academies, investing in youth development, and infrastructure to allow more professionalism.
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u/Lovefool1 21h ago
Giant granite monolith. I’m talkin 600ft tall pyramid. I’m talkin 1000ft obelisk. I’m talkin some real wonder of the ancient world, will be around long after our society is dead and forgotten shit.
Obscenely rich/powerful people used to give a shit about that kinda thing, and I don’t know why they stopped.
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u/Last_Cicada_1315 21h ago
My mission would be that not a single child in my country (or the world if the money would take it that far) would have grow up in poverty or in unsuitable households.
Every single child deserves a good childhood.
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u/Turbulent-Laugh- 21h ago
I'm politicking to fuck. Fuck all these right wing shitheads. We're going to have a good time.
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u/alloutofchewingum 21h ago
Rewilding. Buy up as much land as I could, put it in an irrevocable trust with a bit of money left to fund a scientific advisor committee in perpetuity
Fuck people tbh
90% of charity goes to humans and 90% of non-human charity goes to pets. Fuck that noise
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u/DepartmentGuilty7853 21h ago
Good suggestion below from someone who says they'll buy up social media companies etc. But I think we are beyond the point of no return. Maybe someone smarter than me could help me offer free online education to everyone on earth. Mandatory for three generations. Curriculum of my choosing. Arts, humanities, science and fitness. After three generations maybe we'd have enough smart people to reset all the trivial shit we are obsessed with.
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u/__Salvarius__ 20h ago
So this just for the US? We leave out all other countries?
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u/ahoy_shitliner 20h ago
I’d probably pay to get the Epstein files released first.
Citizens United would be next. Should be easy to pay the Supreme Court enough to get that one reversed.
Third would be banning of AIPAC.
I would finish it off by pushing legislation to make it illegal to own a single family home/land that you do not directly reside in full time. If you travel a lot or whatever, rent. Doing this would fix the housing market overnight and make home ownership accessible to everyone.
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u/D-Rich-88 20h ago
I’d create wildlife sanctuaries around the world and try to restore the Great Barrier Reef in Australia
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u/Identity_Unaware 20h ago
I would buy twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram and any conceivable clones of them....and turn them all off.
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u/Mystery_Briefcase 20h ago
I would gut renovate some derelict old hospital and school buildings in St. Louis and turn them into homeless shelters with full time nurses, chaplains, and social workers on staff. There would be social workers for case management as well as for psychotherapy.
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u/geo_dude89 20h ago
Putting it all into a convertible and launching it straight towards the back of the solar system.
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u/FakedMoonLanding 20h ago
Two things: 1.) House the homeless. Micro units 3D printed, three story standardized builds. Dignity. 2.) Bring new parks with grand non-theistic temples to America. Lush parks inspired by Rome, Paris, and Amsterdam. Bold marble features, fountains, bloom interest. The type of architectural and landscaping intrigue that lasts centuries.
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u/SouthernAT 20h ago
Build a research institute dedicated to bridging the gap between biological and psychological sciences.
I want doctoral researchers to aggregate data from millions of CT or MRI brain scans with psychological diagnosis. Then, once we find links, we can match people with therapists that directly relate to their mental health struggles as suggested by their brains scans. It would take out some of the guesswork with mental health therapy. Then, once the science gets better, we could even see if treatment modalities are directly helpful for specific brain types, such as certain formed pathways responding better to some treatments rather than others. That way we could specifically target treatments, rather than trying some treatments that might not work best.
On top of that, I’d set up grants for fully funded MD (psychiatrist), PhD, and mental health therapy programs to get more professionals and experts onboard with the project.
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u/ElrohirFindican 20h ago
I'd put $999 billion into a nonprofit organization (that I'd create) with the express purpose of buying properties/houses in areas where there are lots of rentals and renting them out for 5% of the average rents (and giving the renters the opportunity to enter a reasonable rent to own agreement after the first year if they want (making sure they're aware that the values of homes in the area will be decreasing drastically in the future, but if they reached the point that they had paid down more of the loan principal than the house was currently worth, their loan would be considered paid in full). If they opt to buy the house, they have to live there as their primary home for a number of years and can't rent it at any point in time. If they sell the house, the organization gets first right of refusal to buy it.
I'll probably still be assassinated by anyone with deep pockets and lots of real estate investments, but it'll be hard to get rid of what I've already done.
Actually, it'd probably be a bunch of nonprofit organizations that operate in different areas... I'd leave all that for the lawyers and accountants to figure out.
The organizations might also have the latitude to make tiny home communities in areas that would benefit from an influx of small, inexpensive housing.
Essentially, the organization is targeting housing accessibility issues across the country and making it not profitable to exploit people's need for housing.
Honestly, with that much money they might also provide education and seed money for nonprofit startups after they get well-established.
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u/Cloud_King_15 20h ago
Id get all the trillion in cash and then burn it on national television, getting that money out of circulation and improving the power of YOUR dollar. You're welcome.
No I dont understand how money and economics work, why are you asking?
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u/Late_Resource_1653 20h ago
Mental health.
No question about it.
I worked in residential mental health in the US for over a decade. It is so massively underfunded. I always swore if I ever won the lottery I would buy up a neighborhood, fund my county's mental health fund, and make a real difference.
People who take care of the mentally ill rarely make a living wage. They can only do it so long no matter how much they care if they want to have a home, savings, a family.
With 1 trillion? Now I can build housing for the homeless. Pay social workers and counselors what they are worth. Fund all of the projects that have worked. That would change the entire landscape.
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u/Dapper_Interest_8914 20h ago
I'm a simple man. I'm giving Mike Flanagan an unlimited budget to get his Dark Tower series made. After that? Who cares? I'll be able to die happy.
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u/Forsaken_IceCream 20h ago
I would go to the poorest parts of the world and hire the people there to help each other. I would make sure their houses were top-notch. Their schools were up to code. I would rent a moving truck and have it bring in food and supplies.
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u/river-running 20h ago
Adopting the worst neighborhood in my town and seeing how outcomes could be improved with free daycare, healthcare, college/trade school, job training, affordable home ownership, substance abuse treatment, & mental health treatment.
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u/Special_Ring_3281 20h ago
All the good stuff,feed people,build homes,all the he's a great honorable man,very giving...But personally ,a blowjob from a different girl for the rest of my life and BBQ on speed dial
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u/2Autistic4DaJoke 20h ago
I’m not picking 1, here’s what I want:
Sole funding for high speed rail. Build a town designed to work taking all the knowledge that we know of successful towns like how to build pedestrian friendliness, make it green, efficient, etc.
I’ve had a crazy idea of building a mega tower. Something build and designed to never have to leave. Fund actual space travel and not use it as a disguise to do other shit.
After that’s it’s donating, reshaping and fixing stuff. Like creating environments where homeless people in mass can get sustainable solutions.
Fund school lunches, supplies, and infrastructure for like… ever.
Bring back and fix old ideas like boarding houses, with out all the crime.
Buy all the media companies and redistribute them to people motivated by integrity over profits.
Buy everything Elon musk owns and destroy it. Just for fun.
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u/Reverend_Bull 20h ago
Residential solar, wind, and geothermal for every homesteader who wants 'em, with the portfolio mix based on location. You own your roof or the land for a solar farm? We install and hook it up. You want a patch of land with a legal shelter and electric? We do the deed and construction work. Got a run down house? We work with extant charities to renovate and provide green energy solutions on top! Energize the world, make petrochemicals obsolete, and pull the plug on ol King Coal.
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u/2Autistic4DaJoke 20h ago
Create 3 more political parties in the US and keep recruiting candidates into it and fully fund them
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u/prettylittlepastry 20h ago
Public high speed rail transportation starting with paid training, unions, safety commitees across the US. Must be affordable.
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u/coolboi19280213 20h ago
pour half of it into nuclear fusion research, the other half into nuclear fusion infrastructure
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u/dyslexic-alien 20h ago
Ending global hunger.
Ending global wars even if I have to bribe politicians
Push for global universal healthcare (by global I mean that each country build something like in Europe)
Change the education system in poor countries to have them focus more on critical thinking, history and math.
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u/Jguy2698 19h ago
Build out an alternative economic model with my home state as a pilot. Some type of trust account that distributes investment returns to pay for worker cooperative funding, union organizing, cooperative models of housing, community food sovereignty, lobbying city councils to end single family zoning and get right of first refusal for workers, etc
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u/Disastrous-Screen337 19h ago
I'd buy obscene yachts, many vanity projects meant only to increase my wealth, multiple unused houses, not pay my fair share of taxes, influence government, tell you pours to pull yourselves up by the bootstraps and special K. I wouldn't have to spend a bit of principal.
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u/gside876 19h ago
- Figuring out how to clean saltwater / desalinate it.
- Cheap Nuclear power
- Buying starlink and finding ways to grant free / low cost internet to all
- find ways to improve food quality or preserve freshness to reduce food instability WITHOUT killing off bees / nature
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u/Longjumping-Cause-23 19h ago
For the u.s I would try to change and expose the bad people in the government. Change it in the way where the tax payers voter for the laws not old ass greedy politicians that live in there little safe bubbles.
For the world, i would try to just provide food and water to poor towns.
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u/indigovogo 19h ago
Establishing diplomacy with the animal world (beyond humanity). We’re putting our best researchers towards developing a basis for understanding animal languages as humans, and investing in the technology for more efficient animal communication and support devices. We’re talking stuff as basic as prosthetics, and as complicated as translation machines. In the process of the translators being developed and researched, the rest goes towards conservation and activism work focusing on the reestablishment of indigenous practices and multicultural preservation. All the other good stuff like mental health, housing support for marginalized communities, cohorts, funded community spaces, etc. happening too. Inventing more green energy technologies too. By the time the money is spent, i’ll die happy if i’ve made at least 1% of progress towards connecting and possibly liberating the world. In a scenario where everything delusionally goes my way, my legacy will have been ushering in a new age of symbiosis with the natural world, establishing more humane ways of interacting with animal life, and teaching humans to empathize with the past/present for a healthier future.
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u/AlwaysBeTextin 1d ago
I'd buy up media companies, social media stock, and politicians to try and reverse the proliferation of fake news and the angry biased echo chambers. So many of our problems stem from how divided we are about everything, how two sides can't agree that the sky is blue, and it's only getting worse.