Let’s say that you have an opportunity to gain billions to fix the society from the top. Do you think that you would keep your integrity and use your money for the greater good, or that you would be corrupted by your power?
If so, would you still accept the offer knowing that you would just make the situation worse?
And if you believe in yourself, how would you try to convince an hypotetical entity to give you this wealth?
To avoid regrets let’s say that if you decline the offer your memory about the deal gets erased.
i think super rich people do fucked up shit because:
- that’s the only way you become mega-rich, and
- they want more
if i already have ‘infinite’ money, why would i want more, and since i’m getting this via magic or something, there’s no incentive to be evil in order to become or remain mega-rich. in short, yeah, i reckon i’d be alright, and we’d all be better off in the long run.
- that’s the only way you become mega-rich
People have become billionaires by literal lottery. They’re not evil geniuses; don’t flatter them by suggesting so.
You don’t become a billionaire by pure luck though, you need to seek out situations that could make you rich and then you need to get incredibly lucky (unless you are born into money of course).
Being the type of person that seeks out becoming that rich is going to have to do it at the expense of others.
It’s true, if you don’t play you can’t win. That being said, if you go through these people’s life stories they come across as very similar to the legions of entrepreneurs that didn’t strike it big.
Maybe what you’re saying is that everyone who’s tried to make big money is a bastard. I guess you could do that, but that’s not really the impression I’ve gotten of the startup dorks I’ve met.
according to this list, nobody has gotten a billion from a lottery, yet. but sure, i guess that is the way to get rich, without having to exploit others. i also feel like i ought to point out that i never accused anyone of being evil geniuses, just evil.
edit: fixed link
Ah, just $997.6m. My bad, I guess.
Yeah, but there’s plenty of nasty mean poor people, too. If you put that incomprehensible wealth on a lack of morals you’re basically painting them as a Lex Luthor figure who can just choose to outmaneuver everyone else. Meanwhile, there’s pretty strong statistical evidence the ones that didn’t win literal lotteries just won figurative ones.
that doesn’t typically end well for most of them either
Soo it’s nowhere near the same- but in FFXIV I once spent weeks after an expansion crafting/gathering to make money to buy a housing plot. By the end of it I had around ~600million (an absurd amount). Unfortunately my luck just wasn’t here and I lost every lottery I entered. Now- I probably have like 5 million. Where did it all go? To other players. I’d just buy people things. Someone in chat said they really wanted this or that- I’d buy it. People wanted a small/medium plot and didn’t have the money? I’d give them the gil. I found literally no reason to have so much gil just for the sake of having it, and I love seeing people get excited. I’d put together little welcome packages with expensive mounts, minions, clothes, etc and gift them to new players. I kind of started doing this in real life to, just to a lesser degree as a stranger handing you a gift can be a bit weird. I’d like to imagine, with infinite wealth, I’d do the same thing to a larger scale- really find ways to improve and bring joy to the lives of others. I’d obviously spoil myself with things, but I imagine I’d spend most of it on other people.
Billionaires should not exist.
But I’m a infinitaire
- Build lots of free housing everywhere
- Lowers rent significantly
- Create a new healthcare provider that everyone is automatically included in with fees of $0
- Healthcare providers will have to lower their fees to even try to compete
- Lobby government for fairness doctrine to he reinstated
- Right-wing media gets neutered
- Create plentiful public food gardens
- Retailers have to lower their prices
- Create a 500km tall gold statue of myself
- Satellites now have to clear larger orbits.
- Shining dong to inspire the masses
- Build lots of free housing everywhere
I would trust myself, but I know that I would be the villain in some people’s lives.
Maybe the worst of us should live in fear.
If I had infinite money, everyone would have infinite money.
Except Steve. Fuck you, Steve
Screw it. If I had limitless wealth time to see if ending homelessness is possible with every bit of it I can.
What I want for me is a stable living situation, fun times on a motorcycle, and time to do hobbies without killing myself at work and to travel. My secondaries are those things for the people I care about. Other than the killing myself at work, that sort of thing is obtainable without being a millionaire.
So after that, throwing billions into building affordable housing seems like the plan, combat these scalpers that overdo rent and see if I could beat the countries, then the worlds goal of “stable living situation”. After that… figure out what’s next.
While the idea of the class traitor is one typically applied to the proletariat, it can also be used to describe members of the upper-class who believe in and espouse socialist ideals. For example, Peter Kropotkin, an anarcho-communist who wrote The Conquest of Bread, was born into a noble family. Additionally, Friedrich Engels, partner and lifelong friend of Karl Marx, the revolutionary socialist, was himself a son of a wealthy factory owner. Such people sacrifice their ability to be part of the capitalist upper-class for the sake of who they see as the oppressed, even if it hurts their status in the process.
I will hire people much smarter than me to fix those problems. Climate change? 100 billion to the scientist with the green coat. Poverty? 80 billion to the guy who gave away his only scrap of food. I will become the master delegator. Heck I’ll even have a guy who will do the delegating. Literally have the money do the work for you.
i would become so evil so quickly
Yes, because I didn’t sell my soul bit by bit stepping on the hands of others over an extended period of time to get it, my mind is still that of a worker with a rage for injustice.
Yep, I’ll use it to combat climate change however I can. Propaganda, lobbying (aka: legal bribery), funding green energy, and use profits from said green energy to continue funding my anti big oil propaganda.
Hijack the platforms of a major political party, purge fossil fuel supporters from the party. Try to get a progressive president elected, use my influence to get them to use executive orders to suspend any pipeline projects, any pro-oil projects, etc.
Try to get fossil fuel vehicles banned ASAP. Like stoping any further productions of fossil fuel vehicles immediately, ban all sales of new vehicles in like 3 years (or less if possible). Begin carbon recapture projects.
etc… etc…
And get a lot of security. I’m sure big oil will try to assassinate me for this.
Honestly, same.
On the propaganda campaign(in addition to other things) I’d directly target oil lobbiests and corporate executives. I’d drag them kicking and screaming into the light. Put a face on the ever-faceless corporate interests that fuck our planet up.
If its just a money printer then you are basically just a federal reserve/ central bank. I would make myself rich and then buy up a bunch of property to convert into coops and a bunch of wild land to turn to reserves, also some big donations to hospitals. Anything more and I wouldn’t trust my ability to predict the economic effects.
I’d get YouTube premium
Yes. I would end homelessness by building housing for everyone that wanted it. Then I would donate almost all the rest to orgs that share my values while keeping a portion large enough to do whatever I want until I die and fuck off into obscurity. I would not buy media companies and try to get lots of attention.
I don’t understand people who need to constantly accumulate more. Once I can live comfortably doing whatever I want until death, that’s enough. Put the rest towards making the world a better place.
Homelessness doesn’t exist because of a lack of housing.
It exists because of a lack of affordable housing. If I’m gonna have infinite wealth it won’t matter.