Thursday, May 14, 2009
"If I had ten thousand dollars"
The original question was "If I had a million dollars", but that's a bit of a stretch for most people. Sounds to me like Tom has a good plan for what to do with $10k. If you had $10,000 and no pressing needs, what would you do?
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3 comments:
10,000? I know far too many people who need that money to hold onto it for more than a few minutes. Just long enough to transfer it to them.
And if I had a million, it would go the same way.
A billion - good question. The list of people in the 3rd world who could do with that is so long, and how to keep it out of the hands of the kleptocrats?
A trilion - start up a space program. And splurge a bit on myself. Maybe a manicure.
If I were spending it just on me and what I want, I'd gather a few friends, get a large RV or two and tour the country. See Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Anasazi ruins, redwoods, Grand Canyon. No rush, no timetables, just go as far as you want to go, then stop and look around, leave when you're ready.
If the rules don't include "just on me", then yeah, I'd give it away. Some to people who know they need it--we have a friend who needs dentistry done and doesn't have the money, so we'll probably cover some of it. Some of it to people who don't know they need it--see my post about Making a Girl Cry.
The original million dollars in my post was in reference to a Barenaked Ladies song, a piece of whimsy that included some pretty off-beat suggestions. It wasn't meant as a serious exploration of what I'd do with a bunch of money, more as a reflection that money is of less value to me than time and people.
I could spend a million dollars easily (try to buy a house in an urban market in Canada these days). I could give it away. I could start a charitable foundation. A million isn't much in some standards, but by others it is a darn lot of money.
If I had a billion, wow... then I'd probably do some big things - work on setting up some interfaith dialogue that included the non-believers, put up some sort of X-Prizes to encourage private space development, conserve some of the world's antiquities and historic books, buy and give to the third world food and advanced medicines, etc.
Of course, maybe if I had that kind of money, I'd have to beat the women off with a stick and that would occupy part of my time. I might actually have to buy a stick.
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