# If You Were A Billionaire...



## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

*...what would you do??*


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Apart from the stuff in the poll, I'd also commission composers to compose more music (I wonder if one could tempt or bribe Philip Glass into writing a guitar concerto?). And commission film composers to rework their scores into suites along the lines of the Peer Gynt suites, so that it works better as concert music. 

And I would fund robotic space exploration. Big time. Of course, such craft (or at least the ones destined to leave the solar system) would follow the example of the Voyager, and carry disks of earthly music. This time round, Brahms and Debussy will be included.


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

Create a foundation to promote music and science. You know, scholarships, founds, trusts, financial incentives and awards.


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## Garlic (May 3, 2013)

Try to do something to alleviate world hunger, I suppose, although the money would probably end up going to some despot. If I spend it on myself I'd probably end up like those lottery winners who spend it all on drugs and go bankrupt. I'm bad enough with money as it is, a billion would probably destroy me.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

First, I wouldn't tell anyone about it. Then I'd quietly contribute to causes which I felt needed help, and I'd like to die with nobody knowing what I did. Then nobody would spout embarrassing platitudes at my graveside or secretly hate me out of jealousy or judge me because I didn't give to what they considered to be a more worthy cause.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

Buy a big apartment and a grand piano


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

I imagine I'd either commit suicide somewhere along the line or give most of it away to avoid that fate.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

.......never fly commercial again.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I'd probably donate half of it to some cause or other. Or I wouldn't do anything with it. Just use it for my day to day proceedings (groceries and what not).


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## TresPicos (Mar 21, 2009)

I would fund an orchestra that only played atonal music.


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## Pantheon (Jun 9, 2013)

I would use it as a safety net in case I fail in my life to provide for myself or earn my own money by hard work.
I wouldn't mind getting a grand piano for wherever I end up living, start up a project like Barefoot College in countries that would need it and treat myself to the occasional CD on sale


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I voted ALL of them!

In addition to the great ideas of the options, my other would be to fund all young aspiring musicians with a major scholarship fund. Also, I'd go to Russia, have the time of my life there in the Music scene, become a Russian musicologist, speak Russia, etc., then return... wait... no, I might not go back to the US.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

I'm not going to lie, if I had a billion I would live a life of luxury and privilege. 

I'd certainly give to charity, but that would mainly be for tax purposes and to keep up appearances. 

Actually, I think billionaires should use their money to expand whatever industry created their wealth so that more jobs are created. Investing in job creation is at least as important as giving to charity.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

If I was a billionaire...

...........Well, I sure as heck wouldn't give _you_ any of it, that's for sure.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

If I were a rich man. 




I have thought about this a great deal and have come to the conclusion that being a billionaire would not be rich enough to do what I really want. I think this would be a good amount: $777, 777,777,777,777,777,777,777,777.77 Note the impressive symmetry of the sevens. Right down to 77 cents.

I would not buy a huge house for myself, I don't need one. But I would take my music to Hollywood and have it recorded by the studio musicians. They are actually the best in the world. Although high priced.

I would have my 1977 Corvette professionally restored. All black high gloss exterior black interior.

I would buy a 1953 Rolls Royce.

I would by my wife a mortuary. No joke, she would like it.

I would make sure that arts organizations are funded. For the Utah Symphony, I would underwrite a Shostakovich symphony series. A concert version of Lady Macbeth of Mtszensk. A Mozart wind concerto series.

In downtown Salt Lake, I would restore one of the old Beuax-Arts theaters and use it for a summer light opera/musical company for G&S, Offenbach, Gershwin, Suppe etc. productions.

Again in downtown Salt Lake (I have my imaginary eye on a 10 acre parking lot at 4th south and Main street) I would build a two theatre complex with both an opera hall and a concert hall. This would be in the Art Deco style. In this complex I would create an annual July music festival alternating between opera and concerts. This would be well funded enough to attract the best artists. One of the requirements would be that the artists engage in master classes with select students from the collages along the Wasatch Front.

I would buy up "huge tracts of land" for the purpose of creating parks arboreta and nature preserves. This would include experiments at reintroducing the modern forms of the extinct megafauna, elephants, camels, lions, Siberian tigers etc. to see what impact they have/had on the American landscape. Maybe if we release big enough lions, they could kill of the feral hogs plaguing the south. (semi joke)

I would build a full scale replica of Caerphilly Castle on the shores of Utah Lake with a large park-like demesnes. I would not likely live there, but use it for social and business gatherings, medieval dinners, weddings etc.

I would fund a car company building hydrogen vehicles with carbon fiber bodies.

I would fund an advanced science research facility.

I would fund an advanced botany research facility (OH NO! FRANKENFOOD!.)

I would fund full scale recreations of the Seven Wonders and other ancient sites. For example the Pyramids on the Giza plateau rebuilt on the LLano Estacado in west Texas, or the Pharos of Alexandria at the Port of Los Angeles. Definitely the temples of Karnak and Luxor on the Colorado river in Arizona. I think the Hanging Gardens of Babylon would make an interesting addition to the Vegas Strip. Maybe the Acropolis in Akron. Along with that I would fund ongoing preservation and conservation at the original sites and promote history and archaeology in general.

I would fund research into propulsion systems ranging from car engines to rocket and space motors.

I would fund space research, including more orbital telescopes and a set of deep space probes. These probes would go in a direct line of solar North and South, Earth apogee and perigee and the two points between. A total of 6 probes. These would be built to be the fastest things built by humans. The point being just to see what's out there. Every planet (including poor Pluto) should have a permanent orbiting observer and, where possible, landers and rovers.

I would fund efforts to maintain and promote Irish, Welsh and Bretton language use. It is probably too late for Scots Gaelic. This would include high quality, big budget movies that would be popular not just in Ireland and Wales but globally. I'm tired of seeing Ioan Gruffudd pretending to be English or American.

I would fund a movie company to produce films that I would like to see. For example:
A complete Ring Cycle as Wagner would have envisioned it. That actually may require total CGI along the lines of Lord of the Rings. 
A movie about the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs using both Spanish and Nahuatl. 
A GOOD film version or TV mini series of The Time Machine.
A GOOD film version or TV mini series of Frankenstein
A GOOD film version of the H.P. Lovecraft stories.
A mini series chronicling the Irish Potato Famine. Using English and Irish languages. 
A full length version of King Lear using black actors like:
Lear, James Earl Jones
Glouster, Morgan Freeman
Kent, Andre Braugher 
Goneril, Oprah Winfree 
Regan, Whoopie Goldberg
Coredlia, Halle Barry
Albany, Denzel Washington
Cornwall, Not sure, Danny Glover maybe (probably not)
Fool, Will Smith
Edgar, Lawrence Fishburn
Edmund, Samuel L. Jackson
A film of each of the Shakespear Wars of the Roses plays from Richard II to Richard III done as a series under the same hand using the same actors in their roles through the entire series. [Kenneth Branagh, are you listening?]

This would, of necessity employ a large number of people, which is good, but "the poor ye have with you always". All charitable efforts would be non governmental, person to person. This to avoid corruption. Beyond the emergency, life saving provision of necessities, charitable efforts would be directed toward education and helping people to help themselves. There would be no roads to nowhere as in the Irish Famine.

None of these publicly visible actions would have my name attached. The point is doing good not self aggrandizement

That's just a start. The real problem with having that much money would be in using it enough to create the desired benefit but not crashing the world economy by dumping it all out at once.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

I ramble some times.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> I imagine I'd either commit suicide somewhere along the line or give most of it away to avoid that fate.


Yup, I sort of assumed in this thread that it would be money I somehow earned. I have a superstitious dread about having money that I didn't earn, so if I somehow won such a huge amount, I may well give all or most of it away.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I'd probably become a patron of the arts and a human rights activist and fund those sorts of organisations, spend a lot of money helping out asylum seekers especially. Asylum seeker rights are something I'm particularly interested in.


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## Ryan (Dec 29, 2012)

I'd use it to make even more money, so I could be a trillionairre. Then I'd spend it all on a weekend at Disney land with the cast of Glee and buy Cliff Richards an NSYNC live tour DVD.


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## Crystal (Aug 8, 2017)

I will buy a Steinway model D (concert grand) first.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I'd run for President of the USA.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I would pay off Katharina Wagner so she could resign from running the Bayreuth Festival - and then I would run it myself, hiring the best singers and stage directors who actually know what they are doing.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Would buy an old English Stately Home, have an open fire and walls with wooden panels and have my favourite musicians and orchestras perform for me!! Oh well, I can dream!!!!


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

If I were a billionaire I probably find some property and set up a club, akin to Brooks's or White's (or perhaps Drones),where the focus would be classical music. Then I would PM members of TC to join the club. I envisage one of those old Coade stone faced buildings. Then, I would hire musicians to play in it. Every chamber would be dedicated to a certain aspect of classical music, or music in general. In essence, it would be a physical incarnation of TC, where discussions, battles, polls, ect. would occur. There would be a music library room, where copies of every piece of music could be found, and a dining room where debate could occur over meals, and a small theatre where anyone could watch the the latest opera. There would be rooms available for overnight stay, and best of all, (since I would be a billionaire ) everything would be free, no dues, ect. It would be a proper Gentleman's Club (no, not *that* type of club) that would be a haven for like minded individuals. So yes, it would be completely insane.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

You don't want to know :lol:

It would be the most indulgent, x-rated stuff imaginable


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Great question. 

I'd buy a big, old Victorian home, within an hour of Manhattan. I'd use the top floor (the traditional servants quarters) to have private space, an apartment as it were, within my own home. 

Then I'd arrange to get a year round room (suit) at my favorite hotel on 57th st. in Manhattan. It's directly across the street from Carnegie Hall. 

I'd then, annually, become a "Friend" of both Carnegie Hall and the NY Philharmonic at the top donor level. 


Oh, and yeah, some family I'd set up in business. The one's that have proved to be responsible.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Set up two theatrical festivals. One would be devoted to staging opera, recreating the sets, costumes and stage effects of the original productions. The festival would, at first, emphasise the operas of Halévy and Meyerbeer.

The other would stage Greek tragedy and comedy, Shakespeare, Jacobean and Restoration theatre, Schiller, Lessing, Hugo and Dumas. Romantic realism, no Regie.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Crystal said:


> I will buy a Steinway model D (concert grand) first.


You can always get a used one in good condition.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I would open my own classical music website....of course there would be rules....and each post will cost a dollar....


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> I'd run for President of the USA.


Money can buy you everything, except _love_, that's not for sale.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Money can buy you everything, except _love_, that's not for sale.


Are you sure about that, you romantic, you :lol:

$2,000 90 Carrot diamond ring
$4,500 Wedding
$1,300 Honeymoon
$9,000 House
$600 Funeral


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I'd have an extensive collection of harpsichords, clavichords, and pianos. I'd also have a massive saltwater aquarium with seastars, coral, jellyfish, the works.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

If I were a billionaire ...


pay off my home mortgage, 
buy an all electric car, 
donate millions to my church, 
assure permanent funding for TC & MIMF, 
invest the rest into annuities for retirement.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

If I were a billionaire ... 


buy a small Island and live tax free listening to Jimi Hendrix 23/7 amd Zappa 1/7, I call that balance,
buy an all petrol gas guzzler v16 cadillac to power the Island on fermented coconut milk,
set up my own church as a further tax dodge,
and promote my own bad taste music,
invest the rest into more Island tax havens.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

brianvds said:


> I have a superstitious dread about having money that I didn't earn


You realize that we all have a different perspective on what we "earn."

From birthright to lottery, earned is how we perceive it.

Seems to me, you may be being self limiting.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

If I was a billionaire, I would buy TC, keep myself and a few friends as the only posters, re-open STI, start posting there again and make our sides split with laughter, the way we did before they closed it and deprived the entire TC posting body of its most popular thread, ever.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

eljr said:


> You realize that we all have a different perspective on what we "earn."
> 
> From birthright to lottery, earned is how we perceive it.
> 
> Seems to me, you may be being self limiting.


Nobody "earns" a billion dollars. Anything more than community standard comfortable, that is, basic needs and wants met, including indulgences (within reason), is based on theft. Private ownership of a billion dollars is predicated on a highly distorted maldistribution of wealth, such as tolerated in most capitalist societies.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

ST4 said:


> Are you sure about that, you romantic, you :lol:
> 
> $2,000 90 Carrot diamond ring
> $4,500 Wedding
> ...


Too bad! Obamacare woulda paid for the entire funeral under the "premature death due to marriage" clause.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I would employ a bunch of brilliant, fairly young people, who live for their area of expertise and have a futuristic vision of saving the planet from all our wrongs. It'll be great. Free beer for everybody too


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

I'm incapable of being a billionaire, but for fun and to play by the rules, I would give it to my oldest son, and he would give it all away. In this I trust.


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

Or maybe I would walk to Lakota territory and bury it at Wounded Knee. Or burn it at Wounded Knee. Or give it to the Lakota people and let them destroy themselves further with it, or empower themselves. If even one Lakota Man were willing to Bury it at Wounded Knee, I would accomplish my mission. If I am unable, and my son were to read this, he would Bury it and Bury Me at Wounded Knee.

Edit: To this very day, the 7th Cav have a framed newspaper article glorifying Massacre, hanging in their (not my) "room of honor".


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> I would employ a bunch of brilliant, fairly young people, who live for their area of expertise and have a futuristic vision of saving the planet from all our wrongs. It'll be great. Free beer for everybody too


Just as long as there is free beer you;ll get my vote


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Just as long as there is free beer you;ll get my vote


I stay away from that stuff. I'm on Ballentine Ale instead.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Seriously, unless you give most of the money to worthwhile charities, you will not feel any happier having all that money.

When you spend, spend, spend on tangible luxury goods, the "elation" effect lasts for a day or two and you are emotionally Bach where you started.

My brother-in law is a multi-millionaire and a more miserable, unhappy person, I do not know. He's on anti-depressant medication.

If I was so fortunate, I would give much of it away. That would make me long-term happy.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

^ Don't be a spoil sport the fun is the thinking, not the doing 

Look at Trump he is never happy :lol:


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Send a resignation letter to my employer.
Go to the island of Bora Bora and make a postcard of me in a hammock between palm trees, with hawaii shirt, cocktail, cigar and surrounded by exotic beauties waving leaves so I can send it to my former colleagues.
Then I will finally make an account on Linkedin, just to annoy the working people and wish them best of luck with their ****** office jobs.
Then I'll get bored.
I'm terrible I know.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ Don't be a spoil sport the fun is the thinking, not the doing
> 
> Look at Trump he is never happy :lol:


That's a good point. His daughter always looks miserable and she almost has a billion dollars from her own businesses.

Trump never smiles. When he does, it's obviously phony.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

Well, if Hugh were a billionaire, I definitely would want to hang out with him more than I do now. I mean, he could afford to pick up the tab at lunch, always pay for gas, and would probably give really good presents at the holidays. Hopefully he wouldn't be the intolerable tight wade he's been in the past. A billion should loosen up the old purse strings. And you never know, he might even want to pay off the rest of my mortgage. 

"What?".......it's "If you were a billionaire"........."Never Mind!"


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Spend the rest of my life having fun.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

I'd convert all my money into Zimbabwean Dollars, and make my wealth look even more impressive.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

I'd never do any bl**dy washing up again, that's for sure.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

After setting aside a couple million for myself, I would use the rest--many billions, I hope--to fund a wide range of causes devoted to expanding dramatically all opportunities for woman and girls--to receive education, gain control over their reproductive functions, become financially literate and powerful, and to otherwise strive to gain as complete an equality with men as possible. This effort would likely lead to the most direct path forward in reducing many of the horrors of the world today and many of the crises that exploding populations and environmental degradation make likely tomorrow. I get irritated by billionaires like Branson, Paul Allen, Elon Musk frittering away their billions on space travel pipe dreams, rather than dealing with real problems here and now. But I'm just an Old Curmudgeon; pay no attention!


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

I'd splurge on a nice car, get my conducting degrees like I plan to do anyway, and spend the rest of it improving the classical music scene in my area, like I also plan to do anyway. I want to see my local orchestra become top-notch and my local university have better arts facilities. But it would make it a heck of a lot easier to have a billion dollars in my back pocket already.

Plus I'd go to Atlanta Braves games whenever I feel like it.


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## laurie (Jan 12, 2017)

Strange Magic said:


> After setting aside a couple million for myself, I would use the rest--many billions, I hope--to fund a wide range of causes devoted to expanding dramatically all opportunities for woman and girls--to receive education, gain control over their reproductive functions, become financially literate and powerful, and to otherwise strive to gain as complete an equality with men as possible. This effort would likely lead to the most direct path forward in reducing many of the horrors of the world today and many of the crises that exploding populations and environmental degradation make likely tomorrow. I get irritated by billionaires like Branson, Paul Allen, Elon Musk frittering away their billions on space travel pipe dreams, rather than dealing with real problems here and now. But I'm just an Old Curmudgeon; pay no attention!


You're the best, Strange Magic! :kiss:


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Prolly become a PATRON for popularisation of classical music in my country, building opera houses and installing speakers on the streets for playing soothing tunes...


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I am going to fund the production of a touring opera company to spread Flotow's Martha all over the USA. This opera, popular in Germany, is rarely done in the USA. We will also produce a video for free distribution.

Now if anyone wants to donate to me to become a billionaire, I'll get started.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

A billion dollars is a life-ruining amount of money. You can say goodbye to having real relationships with anybody ever again.

That said, I would buy the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, then fire and replace the management of the festival.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)




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## MichelleW (Nov 30, 2018)

*Things Not to Do*

Here's something _not_ to do as a billionaire.

Definitely don't open your own strip club like Floyd Mayweather. He's currently the laughing stock of Las Vegas. But he does have the money to cover it.


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## StrangeHocusPocus (Mar 8, 2019)

Play Ionisation at extreme levels thru a giant stack of Marshalls


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

I'd want to be an English billionaire rather than an American billionaire.

A billion in American English is a thousand million.
A billion in British English is/was a million million.


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## AeolianStrains (Apr 4, 2018)

geralmar said:


> I'd want to be an English billionaire rather than an American billionaire.
> 
> A billion in American English is a thousand million.
> A billion in British English is/was a million million.


That used to be true, but isn't really anymore.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

I would make all post 1900 music free to everyone and heavily tax all other music


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I would fund music education in the US for the next 20 years and use the rest to clean up religion and politics once and for all, perhaps by starting with a new prison for our current elected officials in Washington DC. LOL.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

DeepR said:


> Send a resignation letter to my employer.
> Go to the island of Bora Bora and make a postcard of me in a hammock between palm trees, with hawaii shirt, cocktail, cigar and surrounded by exotic beauties waving leaves so I can send it to my former colleagues.
> Then I will finally make an account on Linkedin, just to annoy the working people and wish them best of luck with their ****** office jobs.
> Then I'll get bored.
> I'm terrible I know.


 
Well, these are still my plans. Just waiting on the lottery jackpot.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Pugg said:


> Money can buy you everything, except _love_, that's not for sale.


If only that were true.



znapschatz said:


> Nobody "earns" a billion dollars. Anything more than community standard comfortable, that is, basic needs and wants met, including indulgences (within reason), is based on theft. Private ownership of a billion dollars is predicated on a highly distorted maldistribution of wealth, such as tolerated in most capitalist societies.


It's not necessarily based on theft. There are plenty of billionaires who have EARNED their money. I shudder in fear of anyone who thinks they know how wealth should be distributed, because they obviously have never thought through just HOW that wealth could be distributed "fairly." There is only ONE way, and it's not good.

Now to the OP:

- I would buy a truck, buy a bunch of woodworking equipment and generator(s) for the truck, and travel around my country helping build and augment homes for Wounded Warriors and Homes for Heroes (That would take care of the "productive" aspect of being).
- Donate and even travel to and with "Doctors Without Borders."
- Help Set up accredited Universities (mostly online) that would actually teach our young HOW to think instead of WHAT to think.
- Build my own custom house with my Custom Woodshop (Barn) in the back.
- Take my wife traveling around the world because she has seen very little of it so far.
- Have someone massage my wife's and my feet at least 3 days a week as we lie in bed about to go to sleep (are there really many things better than a foot massage??? I can only think of 1 or 2)

V


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