If you had a BILLION dollars..?

I would fill my gas tank...

reply to post by NewAgeMan


That's really simple. I would set up an organisation whose purpose was to eliminate all political figures world wide, and keep terminating them until the very idea of one person attempting to represent the wishes and needs of millions of others, seems much less appealing to the sort of psychopathic halfwits who usually end up filling that particular niche. By so doing, it would force nations to allow every individual within their borders to have EQUAL say in what happens in a nation, rather than these things being, in real terms, the responsibility of a few good liars, to administrate.

The organisation would pay fealty to no nation, nor government, nor political party. Its entire being would be solely about preventing vast power from accumulating around individuals or parties, about ensuring that the common man is always the one with the power to decide his fate, to prevent that power ever being put into the hands of a state or an agency of a state. It would also be responsible for assassinating the heads of intelligence networks and criminal fraternities, to prevent underground accumulations of power, rather than just those which occur above the surface. The organisation would be called The Bane of Icarus, and those members of that organisation who do the wet work would be called The Children of Sol, to signify that they act upon the powerful in the same way as the sun melted the wax which held the feathers to the wings of Icarus, and caused his terminal plummet (LOL!).

Its a damned good job I am not a rich man!

Heh - a million dollars would still make me set for life. Would never have to think about working again. If I had a billion, I'd make some serious changes increasing personal liberties and helping animals. Save a small nation or two.

A billion is such a ridiculously large amount to even conceive a corporation making, much less one person "owning". There is no way it should even be possible and it indicates a terribly failed system to me.

I'd feel guilty. where'd it come from? How many people died or lost everything to get this money to me? Why give it to me? Poof, heres a billion dollars.

Oh no you don't. I'd rather live poor and die hungry than accept that. Give it back.

I want to keep my soul.

The only time stuff like this happens is when people win the lottery

reply to post by NewAgeMan


no i know some good property where i can just shoot coffee cans all day, and if i'm baked i'll be even happier. idunno people take blood pressure pills, i like guns and plants, aspects of war and peace harmonizing through guidelines of personal safety. i could do the same thing on an island, but i would be spending time in a bubble during hurricane season. so i might as well live in the woods with a really big pond to grow fish in. crappie and largemouth bass for shtf situation. crawdads to cook for trade. i'd only shoot if target practicing or if shot at or if i see a drone

mikegrouchy

I would pay five thousand people
twenty thousand dollars a year
for ten years.

Awesome gif!

I would take that a step further, or put another spin on it, and make 1000 people millionaires, and another 10,000 well off or upper middle class.

And the whole lot of us, together and in groups, would celebrate together sometimes up to a 1000 at a time for major gala celebrations (and workshops, to continually forward the mutual endeavor and it can't be all play and no work, there has to be balance).

And make of the whole thing a self-perpetuating legacy who's primary motto is "pay it forward", and there would be nothing they could pay back with anyway, so with the mechanism and the idea in hand, that's what i would do, is make a game out of the whole thing by everyone else's participation, and create a whole series of feel-good, pat on the back feedback mechanisms culminating at every celebration whereby to he who has received even MORE will be given until he has nothing else to do BUT to pay it forward in some ingenious way.

Most would provide benefits to those they love, but i would invite them to get up to something BIG and launch something, something that thrills them to no end and evokes their life's passion.

So it wouldn't be like an employment situation, or a charity, but a participatory framework with OUR mutual benefit and glory at heart with the aim to PAY IT FORWARD.

It would change the world for the better and help get people out of the doldrum out of the malaise, as a shared pursuit and dream without limitation.

Mine would be just like one of those things that seems to be just too good to be true, but is true, so it would also involve a running joke among me and my friends (all 1000-10,000 of them) when we are ridiculed for no reason and then choose that person, if they wish to be the one that is paid forward to, like a reverse amends on their behalf!

something capable of really messing with the status quo and the way most people would play it - having a billion dollar + empire.

The opportunities are endless if you have THE IDEA and the will to carry it out. If not me, then you or you or whoever, but we're coming to power and it will TERRIFY the current PTB guard and before they know it in the twinkling of an eye we will have brought about a new world fit for a new age, and the 21st century will not be remembered looking back on it in hindsight as "the Century of the Self", like the 20th century, but The Century, of the Human Being.


So setting aside the billion dollars for the moment, that's what i'm calling, prophesying, and hey everything and every good idea has to start somewhere right?

That was the real aim of this thread - to inspire. It's not about the billion dollars for selfish gain (at the expense of everyone else), but about about a co-creative participatory framework by which we might reclaim our right and heritage to be and to become active historical participants of real historical transformation which is much needed.

Calling all present and future millionaires and billionaires - it's time to change the world for the better, and learn how to make use of money as a type of potential energy for all manner of progress in every arena of human endeavor.


Best Regards,

NAM aka Bob (it's not about me, but we)

Here are a couple of things that I would NOT do or buy if I had a billion dollars.

DeadSeraph

Exhibit B:

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud

Listed by forbes at #26 on the billionaires list, Prince Alwaleed has the bulk of his money invested in the hotel industry (to say nothing of the wealth he was born into). What does the good prince spend his money on?

a fleet of private jets with thrones.

Pictured above is the throne room in his personal 747, one of many jets the prince owns. One can only surmise that the bathrooms must be furnished with solid gold toilets. If you think the toilet linked above is simply a novelty item, think again. Celebrities, business magnates, and oligarchs are all known to furnish their houses with gold plated (or even solid gold) fixtures. These people think so highly of themselves, that they feel they must take a $*!# on gold plated toilets.

So where do these people live?

Exibit C:

Mukesh Ambani and his 1 billion dollar house.

No, that is not a business highrise renting out office space to various corporations. That is Mukesh Ambani's house.

The 570 foot tall monster of a “house” features a whopping 400,000 square feet of living space. It has 27 habitable floors, including six parking floors for capacity of up to 168 cars. Other features include numerous terraces, 9 elevators, a lobby, 50-seat home theater on the 8th floor, a ballroom with 80% of the ceiling covered in crystal chandeliers, ice room infused with artificial snow flurries, dance studio, three floors of hanging gardens, swimming pool, 3 helipads, air traffic control facility and the worlds largest collection of antique sewing machines. A staff of 600 maintain the home.

Why one person would need 400,000 square feet of living space and a personal staff of 600 people to maintain his home, is beyond me. One can only guess at what drives people who have so much money that they seem to have gone completely mad.

Still toying with some more ideas as to what I WOULD (will..?) do, but I don't want to outline it in the same post containing the above nonsense and absurdity. Disgusting!

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Nobody deserves a billion dollars.

I'd hand it out till I had a million left and live off that.

~Tenth

I figured someone here would have a BIG IDEA about how to impact and transform the world.

Looks like the billionaires are all just selfish and greedy hoarders and frivolous spenders, and the little guy doesn't have any ideas and thinks that big money is dirty or embarrassing.

Something's wrong with this picture, imho.

I would pay five thousand people
twenty thousand dollars a year
for ten years.

NewAgeMan
I figured someone here would have a BIG IDEA about how to impact and transform the world.

Looks like the billionaires are all just selfish and greedy hoarders and frivolous spenders, and the little guy doesn't have any ideas and thinks that big money is dirty or embarrassing.

Something's wrong with this picture, imho.

You didn't ask what the five thousand people
would be doing for those ten years, you only
asked what "I" would do.


NewAgeMan,
on the other hand,
saw the implications of the lightning.

reply to post by NewAgeMan

reply to post by mikegrouchy


So what would the five thousand people do for 10 years with a mere 20K/yr which would obviously represent only a part-time endeavor?

It sounded like charity to me and nothing more, but I'm sorry for assuming..

reply to post by NewAgeMan


i hear you on not benefitting mankind. i did say i wanted to sell crawdads when shtf though. and if i had a billion dollars after getting all of my rereation going on i would still have a large stack of cash to put into a crawdad restaurant, open a few bars next to it, and if that still isn't enough things to buy and do with a billion dollars, i will buy disneyland, empty it and destroy it with 18th century cannons and moltov cocktails dropped from hot air balloons by drunk midgets in cossack uniforms turning the flicker rate capital of the world into a prarie and turn in into a wildlife reserve

reply to post by rockoperawriter


Sounds good, but I'm glad you're not in charge of the whole world.. ; )

NewAgeMan
reply to post by rockoperawriter

 

Sounds good, but I'm glad you're not in charge of the whole world.. ; )

it might get a little crazy, it's not a judgement on you personally. Your intention is good. Like the guy who said first make somehow then BURN the whole thing in one pile that was funny.

I didn't want you to take my replies the wrong way or anything.. we're good. : D (I've decided to boycott the ATS smilies and just use the regular kind, in protest)

mikegrouchy

Mike,

If i do ever manage to create this billion dollar global internet empire, somehow (if there's a will there's always a way...), your gif that you've offered here, along with the motto "pay it forward!" will be at the very core of the entire business model, and there will be no employment and no real "charity" per se, just lightening striking down in the form first of an awesome product/service, worth by far more than the recipient will pay for it, then of money, for them, according to their own enthusiasm for the product/service, striking down into their life the life of average American (or Canadian, eh?) Joe/Jane, drawing in money and economic prosperity to us "westerners" from all over the world, in every language and every country without borders, but it's not a pyramid scheme since the sale itself is always point to point.

The lightening of course strikes BOTH ways, that's the thing about it. ; ) (i don't use ATS smilies any more)



PAY IT FORWARD!


And it makes me laugh out loud, but not in a typical billionaire evil way like Mr. Burns



But in a good way, for all the right reasons.

I think you'd need to have that first, you know like placing your heart first on the kingdom of heaven and only then getting this whole life adventure thing added on top of that - the intention has to be right and then everything else follows.

And if you can make people money out of thin air, then your going to be a very very rich person just from the overflow or in this case from the feedback lightening striking back up again! It is funny, and it makes perfect rational sense for a whole new business model based on a mutual, participatory framework, which really does seek to serve and not to be served by while sitting on the gold throne of your Boeing 757 or trying to cover all 400,000 square feet of your billion dollar home, your only friends 600 servants! LOL

See if I had an idea to become a billionaire, i'd want to both have a low profile and fly under the radar AND right out of the blue do what in Proverbs is called "heaping burning coals upon their heads" you know just for fun, and yes without getting killed for it because I'd rather raise a Silver Bullet in the form of a Coor's Light and toast us all than to take one in the head, and for all the wrong reasons. : D

reply to post by NewAgeMan


could that boat cross the atlantic ocean? I'd like to get a boat like that too

spartacus699
reply to post by NewAgeMan

 

could that boat cross the atlantic ocean? I'd like to get a boat like that too

From what I can tell it's THE fastest in it's class. Size wise, this class of high speed motor yacht goes from a 98' to 108' and even to a 115' all new models brand new starting in 2012.

Sadly, the range is about 300 nautical miles for the 98, the 108 is also 300 and..let me check, yep the 115 is also 300 miles

www.pershing-yacht.com...

which is actually an EXCELLENT and very long range, given the speed, where at a cruising speed of 38 knots (checked, all three models cruise at 38knots, you can cover any large REGION in a single DAY, but no you can't cross the ocean in it.

Therefore, you would want at least TWO of them, one parked in the Florida/Bahamas/Carribean region, and one over in the Mediterranean, and maybe if you don't care about the price, at about 10 mil each for the 98 (haven't yet checked out the price [this is all just for fun at this point btw] on the 108 and 115), another one on the West Coast of North America (for adventures along the coast of California and Mexico) but you'd have to transport it by train from Florida because I don't think there are any available on the West Coast, just Florida in north America but there are lots of them in Spain. Or alternatively, if you want to zip around in it on the West Coast I guess instead of wasting money on a THIRD one you could travel the Gulf of Mexico to the Panama Canal, where I think the price of gas to fill both tanks up is about 16-18-20K for every 300 nautical miles or it could be twice that I'm not entirely certain let's see..

Fuel Capacity (Liters): 16,500 Fuel Capacity (Gallons): 4,359 (you do the math)

Here's another vid, on the 115!!! LOL!

And it's almost more like a "ship" than a "boat"

98 feet is the size of a large Blue Whale, with the largest ever recorded topping out at about 110 feet.


that's the 98' Pershing.

Screw it - let's go with the 115' and we'll start out with just one! : D

why not just ride on the back of a blue whale, you could do that for free? and if you're nice to it it will take you anywhere in the world at no charge.

It's almost no wonder you mostly see the bigger boats like that just docked in the harbors not moving.

reply to post by spartacus699


ahem (ajusting my singing voice)

If I had a billion dollars - I'd buy you a Blue Whale.. but not a real blue whale that's cruel.. : D

NewAgeMan
reply to post by rockoperawriter

 

Sounds good, but I'm glad you're not in charge of the whole world.. ; )

believe me several countries would get wiped off the map and buffalo sent there to start from scratch just because of the human trafficing that happens there. i would not want the world, just a hundred acres to die old or die in wwIII