Asklemmy

Let’s say that you have an opportunity to gain billions to fix the society from the top.

Society can not, and never will be, fixed from the top.

Nor is money the solution to our problems, if anything, it is a huge part of the cause (and why communism aspires to a moneyless society, among other things).

So even if I say I'd only accept the money if I could instantly redistribute it, as long as other billionaires, and the systems that create and uphold them, exist, my personal actions would probably make little difference in the long run, and any money I shared would end up right back in their pockets (by virtue of how capitalism works).

I’d get YouTube premium

Yeah, I’m awesome!

Elon? That you? Start with overturning "citizens united"

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.

• 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

If I had infinite money, everyone would have infinite money.

Except Steve. Fuck you, Steve

No, not because I'd necessarily be corrupted, but because I'm a dipshit who doesn't know shit about fuck, I'd probably, crash the world economy completely on accident and then have an emotional breakdown about the fact that I'd ruined billions of lives without knowing how to fix it.

yeah I would just hire a really smart people And ask them what they think

i would become so evil so quickly

i think super rich people do fucked up shit because:

1. that's the only way you become mega-rich, and
2. 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.

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.

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.

I would take it but it would be quite a job to manage that. If literally infinite, and not an amount, it would break the idea of money, right?

I'm not sure society can be fixed from the top but would be interested to see what happens if grants are directed in ways that grow the bottom part of the economy, could it be made vibrant, can the value be circulated around not exploited? Can the land be restored? The oceans? How do you audit to prevent fraud, to keep it from making things worse?

I would be very happy to not have to worry about my personal budget but to have the responsibility to try to fix the world with money seems like an impossible task. Money could fix my personal situation, but can it fix everything? Probably not.

I do think I would try though, yeah.

Yes.

Gimme.

Definetly not.

Played enough video games, and when i get upper hand on anything it going to be bad for everyone else.

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 large 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.

I would trust myself, but I know that I would be the villain in some people's lives.

I was listening to Behind the Bastards and the guest asked him why it seems like there’s a pattern of crazy wealthy people doing sex pest things. He said there was a study that related a certain level of wealth to having a brain injury. Basically, when you have a certain amount of crazy obscene wealth, the concept of value loses all meaning to you, and that loss affects other types of value as well - like personal value. Wish I could find more about that. Seems like it would be an interesting read.

That said, I would take my unlimited money and build an underwater Bond villain lair. From there I would do what I could to make the world better, but leave me alone.

Yes. I’m so disinterested in money to the point it’s probably unwise.

Wealth psychologically changes the way you think and feel, so no.

Bourgeois class traitors

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.

Infinite? I would give infinite money away. Making the fiat currency worthless, and people would have to find a new way to exploit and fuck everyone over.

Believe me, humans will always find a way. Even if you took their imaginary money away. For now...

Maybe some day we will grow up past crying "mine mine mine!" Over literally every single thing. Doubtful i will even come close to living in those times.

I'm not saying I'm "forward thinking" or smarter or calling everyone dumb. I'm dumb as fuck 24/7. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how fucked up things are in our current way of life. I bet a huge majority of people would say it's fucked up to.

We just disagree on what to do next.