A friend was bemoaning (justly) we haven't been dreaming and imagining for a while. I think we've all been kinda head down surviving the winter and *waves hand at everything*
But it's spring now, and time for hope to come back to life at least.
Thusly I present a new tag:
#ifIHadABillionDollars
What would you do with a billion dollars? What would you build, create, solve, cultivate...?
[social cue: this is not the place to rant politics, we've got the rest of the Internet for that]
How much does a baby tree cost? $10?
#ifIHadABillionDollars I would plant 100 million trees.
A lot of them around parking lots so they're not so gross n hot and barren in the summer.
...ooo and while we've got shady parking lots, how about cool-off meet ups where we gather in parking spots under trees with lawn chairs and a kiddie pool for our hot feetsies. Have a chill out and chat.
#thirdSpaces #community
Also filing this under:
#spoonieTown
@vlrny Yasssssss!!!!
Hmmmm, I used to have an actual list. I genuinely think about this quite a lot.
I already know a shitload of the money would go to charity, I would buy land for rewilding / preserving where-ever I could. I'd have to hire competent land stewards.
I'd also start a school or two, but they wouldn't look like mainstream. I'd find someone willing to supervise me for a PhD in maths education.
I would give out micro cash investments (NOT LOANS) to ppl.
@vlrny Universal basic income for a year (or more or less) for everyone (apart from billionaires probably). I believe a lot of good would come out of a society where people need not fight for their basic needs.
@vlrny My dream would be to use it for ME/CFS research (and some for Long Covid) because they are so underfunded compared to other chronic illnesess.
source = https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-026-01516-7
"Long COVID received 14% of its disability commensurate funding"
"ME/CFS is the most under-funded condition, receiving <1% of its YLD proportionate funding"
(YLD = years lived with disability)
Bonuck et al. quantified the disability burden of Long COVID in U.S. adults using years lived with disability and compared its NIH funding to that of 68 other conditions by sex predominance. Long COVID receives far less funding than warranted by its burden, with female predominant conditions consistently underfunded, implying that both disability impact and sex disparities should play a greater role in research funding decisions.
@vlrny You know, I don't need a billion dollars to get creative (poor artists know how to do that 😉 ) and most of my visions wouldn't be expensive. First a global #taxTheRich regulation and better #socialJustice. Mud fight theatres for political leaders who want to make war. Starting a war will be fined with livelong work in waste recycling. I would invest in NGOs for #democracy, #environment, #diversity, #humanRights, and conservation. And found the Federation Of Planets. 🤫
@moss @vlrny I remember a conversation I had many years ago at a meditation retreat. I commented to a volunteer that while I loved the retreat, it felt a bit exclusionary, that it was a shame only certain income levels could afford a week long retreat up on a mountain.
"But you can work a few hours instead of pay, if you need financial help!" was the response.
I said, yeah, but what about the various bills and kids at home, with no income rolling in? What about the job that doesn't allow you to take a whole week off? Only giving free access still keeps a lot of folks out, people who could really use the experience and rest.
I essentially got a bewildered, impatient shrug in response.
And on looking around after that, even in urban settings, I couldn't find anything that allows for those issues. It makes retreats in general financially elitist.
I would get my husband a box at the football team he supports, and take him on many good holidays to say thank you for caring for me.
I have several creative friends who I would give money to, so that they could spend time creating like they want to, rather than working a couple of jobs just to make rent.
I would pay off the mortgages of my family, and the friends who have supported me recently (and buy houses for those friends who are still renting)
I would have my own creative workshop space with different areas for different creative disciplines, where I could learn to do all rhe creative things I really want to be good at.
I would set up a fund that would give out micro grants to small local projects. I would look for charities that are helping the many addicts around here and see how I could help. I would invest in schools and clubs that engage kids and support them. I would fund local libraries to do more of what they do.
I would buy myself a flat in London.
I would properly fund mental health services in my area so that people could access help.
That's just the stuff off the top of my head!
first impulse: retire, obvs, then buy all the golf courses and convert them to artist colony cat sanctuaries
but then i remember that i'm not so wise as to remain uncorrupted by infiite wealth
and recognise i would very likely turn into an initially-benevolent tyrant before inevitably morphing into an unhinged modern-day Caligula
demanding that the whole world bow down and worship my pet iguana or something
tl/dr: it would not end well :)
@thingsofshane I love that even in your dreams you are aware of the evil villian lurking in yer soul. 😆
All hail The Iguana!
@vlrny #ifIHadABillionDollars I would have a slight panic attack and then ask for help brainstorming
All my friends would get all the disability supports they need for life! But I bet a billion dollars is bigger than that (but not big enough to solve *everyone's* disability support deficits).
- 🦀
@vlrny I would also make it my mission to get indoor air quality and legislation about it set up in as many countries as I could.
I would hire a crack legal team to force governments to protect children from repeated COVID infections through school. Because currently, children's right to protection and care is being ignored and they are being forced to spend years in high risk environments that *could* be made significantly safer using current scientific knowledge and readily available products
Similar. Clean indoor air advocacy and public education. "Sick building syndrome" was identified by WHO in the 80s. We've had two generations to get on this.
This coupled with a separate team to push for education of medical professionals on post-viral illness and controlling nosocomial infection. Usia was in midst of a coordinated national effort to eliminate sepsis in hospitals, only for 2020 to interrupt that program. Rebooting that could be a first step to re-figuring medical praxis.
With some reasonable amount set aside to live off of, make whole folk who kept me afloat in past decades, and fund academic scholarships for esoteric nonconventional concerns myself would want future scholars to have to room to explore.
1/2
If somehow the money didn't run out with those efforts (it would, but one can dream), advocacy and public education for modernized, regulated (if not nationalized) freight transport and public intercity rapid transit infrastructure serving the North American interior.
Folk like to point to the movie actor, but much of Usian economic bifurcation, including interior cities losing half their populations (and the civic investment that went with same), while coastal port cities entered permanent housing crisis, begins with deregulation of rail and trucking under his predecessor.
2/2
You perhaps underestimate cultural resistance to change. Or overestimate the power of large number.
My first thought was "How about redistribute it." Then realized that if one billion dollars were split evenly across the entire Usian population, it would amount to less than three dollars a person.
That's the mass that must be moved, against their own inertia, to make any significant alteration to the status quo.
Want to protect kids in schools? Every local community with a school district is gonna have reasons for why maybe someone else can make that happen, but that would just be an insurmountable shift in their own, local, way of doing things.
Of course, it can be done. It requires organizing within 12,500+ local independent school districts, and that doesn't include school districts that are part of a municipal government. Include those and the number is 19,000+. Which means we've got a little more than $50,000 per district to spend.
That will get spent.
@vlrny I'd buy about 10,000 hectares of (not ideal for agriculture) land and plant a load of trees, including about 5% edible perennials such as walnut and chestnut, so future generations would have a guaranteed food source in times of trouble but without totally dominating the budding ecosystem.
@vlrny I can’t lie. I’d buy horses! I’d retire, set my kids up with whatever schooling they want, and buy horses. I would give myself and my family a totally comfortable life, no money worries, lots of massages.
That wouldn’t take a billion dollars so when that was all set up I think I’d do like this lady and set up some citizen councils to distribute the rest.
Answer: If I had a billion dollars:
I would purchase a huge piece of land in a rural area, and build little residential units each with a large area for gardening.
In a main "house" would reside kind, thoughtful counsellors; excellent cooks and assistants who understand the importance of a balanced diet free of unnecessary additives; and a doctor and nurse.
On the land I would add a barn with goats, horses, cows,. geese and chickens, and other livestock plus assorted dogs and cats to roam on the property and interact with residents.
I would invite adults who were suffering because of childhood abuse, especially, those who lived under the "care" of a "child welfare" system.
It would be a safe refuge for people to learn to cope with childhood trauma, and experience hope again.
edit: and everything would be free of charge.
edited again typo
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