Asklemmy

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

I think I would be fine. I already have limited wealth and I'm directing a significant portion of it to the betterment of the world around me. If my wealth/income increased tenfold (as an example) I don't think I'd be able to find a use for more than, idk, 15-20% of the additional money? So I'd just heavily ramp up the funds going to charities and local causes.

Extending this out to the infinite wealth scenario, I'd be able to help more causes so I'd need to find out which charities are actually putting money to use for what they say they are, extend my mindset beyond local causes and to the whole globe. Almost certainly drop some fat stacks into buying out basically every fossil fuel corp and start the process of getting that shit phased out. Sure I make some terrible people rich(er) in the short term with the buyouts but fuck it, the environment needs to be prioritized.

How I'd convince this hypothetical entity? Idk, probably just explain all of the above and I guess show some hard data on my track record for this. If the entity is determined to put the money in the hands of someone who is going to do good, either I'll be good enough or I won't.

If its not infinite and "just" billions then I'm probably going to funnel about half of it into local (national) causes and the other half into affecting what positive change I can worldwide. Process for convincing the entity remains the same.

I trust my will to do it. But I will fail for two reasons:

1. I don't fully understand humans. I will try a world that would be perfect if everyone would be like me. Problem? That's not the world we live in.

2. Even with all the money and a good plan I'm a bullet away from the ground. And I'm pretty sure anyone trying to fix things becomes a priority target right away.

No, but give it to me anyways because I'd do something incredibly funny with it (Devote the remainder of my life to gaining access to a bunch of influential people and politicians so I can tell them to eat shit to their face, resting assured that they can't levee any meaningful consequences against me)

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.

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?

I suppose it's a matter of perspective. Very few people in the world ever see themselves as actually evil. Every villain is the hero in their own story.

But if we recognize basic truths about people's preferences, I think a greater good can be achieved. Everyone wants a place to call home and good food on the table. Everyone wants good health and to have a sense of purpose or meaning to their lives.

This is universal, regardless of race, sex, gender, nationality, language (I can't include religion as some religions demand the oppression & extermination of others).

Infinite wealth?

No.

I would do petty things like buy Tesla, destroy all the factories and then dissolve it. That way there are no assets to recover.

I would start buying massive tracts of land to build a functional passenger priority rail system.

I would start removing lanes on highways. Electric cars are not the future.

I would destroy cities and remake them so that city roads only prioritize emergency services.

I would buy up all the crypto and do absolutely nothing with it in hopes that it would die.

I would upgrade Texas’ power grid so it could connect to other states. That way they won’t freeze to death every time it snows.

I would buy up buildings in desert regions and start demolishing them.

I would buy up all the insurance companies and shut them down.

I would build a big dome over the state of Ohio so nobody comes in or out.

I am very petty.

If this is a magical entity, then I would just tell it to give me $100 for every $1,000,000 I use for charitable work that doesn't directly benefit me.

If I give away $1,000,000 100,000 times, that's 100 billion dollars of charitable work. And my net worth would "only" be 10 million dollars, certainly wealthy, but not idiotically wealthy. Plenty for me to invest and have doctor money levels of passive income, but only by giving away the vast vast majority of the money I get.

Or I guess I could just ask the entity to cap my net worth at 10 million dollars, and only give me that money when I have given away some arbitrary amount of money it gives me, like 500 billion dollars or something, Idk.

Yeah, I'd give it a shot. I'd hire a bunch of experts instead of just shooting from the hip though.

Climate change is a big priority.

I’d like to think so because I’m generally ethical and don’t really care about money (except in the sense that we all have to). I certainly don’t think rich people are smarter or more capable than poor people.

That being said, based on all the billionaires in the world, it seems that once you hit a certain level of wealth, you become an insecure twat and start acting like a victim and posting rot on the internet. So, maybe I’d just become a bozo clown who thinks being an investor is the same as being an inventor.

Infinite? Nah. I'm sure I'd use the money for good but even well-intended I do think there is such a thing as too much intervention.

Yeah cuz unlike real billionaires im not a piece of literal shit. Theres only so much you could do from inside the system tho. Youd need to work outside it. Id probably arm and train a liberation army in every nation that needed one, and use my money to buy up patents on high technology and hand the information on how to reproduce it over to China.

I'd basically become Bill Gates without the monopoly.

People criticise the big philanthropists for skewing all the work their way, but that's more a product of not enough funding elsewhere than of the foundations being bad themselves.

I absolutely would not trust myself, but I also feel deeply that I should be allowed to test this hypothesis with lived experience.

I think I'd try it. Though I expect that I'd be corrupted easily if I tried to set up foundations and such as I understand that's very difficult. I think I would just hire an elite military trained unit. Use them to sabotage the wealthiest and convince them it was another ungodly rich person who did it. Maybe when they've killed enough of each other, we could fix society without their influence.

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

Yeah, I’m awesome!

I'd be good at first but then slowly get corrupted as I continue on feeling disconnected. The change will be so gradual thatI wouldn't realize until it's too late

Yeah. Knowing myself, I'm probably going to just forget i have the wealth and spend it on getting a nice house in a nice area and getting my wife pretty dresses to wear to work while I stay home and take care of the kids.

I think the only hypothetical entity willing to give me the money would have to be Satan himself; I'd be making a bet with him that I wouldn't be corrupted by the wealth, he takes my soul if I get greedy. Can't imagine convincing any other sort of entity to give me billions of dollars to do nearly nothing with it.

I remembered reading a long post on Reddit about what to do if you win big on the lottery.

Reddit History: /u/BlakeClass's comment on What to do if you win The Lottery (GitHub gist)

I'd maybe be better, but I'd still have a kickass life.

Nobody can be trusted with that much power. Not even yourself.

The foundations I would be donating to probably would

I would give it away by making college trust funds for poor kids in my area until I had the 4-5 million left that I would need to retire and never work again. Why anyone has more money than that is beyond me.

I mean, i might end up playing it a lil too much and it might get in the way of the tasks i should be doing. But eventually I'll either finish it or get bored so even if that does happen it won't be the world.

Yes, if you're offering I'll take it

As someone who is currently working at a company that has no problems of cash flow yet is still penny pinching, often on things that would actively save costs after an initial serious investment, yes, I would not change and most probably burn through that money to do positive things for people.

I also have a tendency to look as how things might happen down the road, so time is not really that much of a concern for me.

With so much money at my discretion, I can say with a fair degree of confidence I'd been putting money into projects amd initiatives I would most probably never benefit from their results.

But would I be popular or well liked in that endeavour? I seriously doubt.