19 KiB
[BST] You have a billion dollars and 30 days to spend it. What do you do?
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Author: u/lumenwrites *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3q7k1o/bst_you_have_a_billion_dollars_and_30_days_to/
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Score: 5
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Created: 2015-10-25T23:24:54
Post:
Comments:
u/JackStargazer [+12] Primordial Apologist (15 minutes later)
Buy stocks with all the money. Then sell those stocks five minutes later at a 0.01% loss or gain.
Then go to a financial planner and put your 1.001 billion or 999.99 Million to work.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (18 hours later)
Why?
u/JackStargazer [+9] Primordial Apologist (18 hours later)
Because if there is a rule that you must 'spend' the money (magically or legally), you buy a legally separate piece of property, then transfer that property back into fungible cash for as small a penalty as possible. Your original contract is now complete -you spent a billion dollars within a month. You have a completely separate billion dollars free and clear now, with no requirement to make poor, rushed decisions as to the spending.
This works, because if it didn't, you couldn't buy anything with any resale value with the money, as all of them could still be flipped again for money after the time limit. If they magic/law doesn't like stock, buy gold/platinum/assorted other commodities. Just make it a large enough market that a billion sudden influx doesn't crash it.
... Can you tell I work in law?
u/OrzBrain [+1] Fingers to dance, hands to catch, arms to pull (2 days later)
What about if there's a rule that you can't benefit yourself directly or indirectly without also benefiting some other large group of people -- i.e. if you want to spend some of the money on yourself you can only give yourself $100 and 10,000,000 other people also have to get $100. Or if you use it to buy a piece of property you can't own it afterwards, it has to become a park or something similarly public. Or if you donated it to a company that company would be prohibited from giving you anything or favoring you in any way afterwards. Then what would one do?
u/JackStargazer [+1] Primordial Apologist (2 days later)
Well, that's a number of huge changes to the original scenario, but in that case, you do the same thing, only you immediately transfer the stocks to the care of a Trust Fund or similar legal body of which you are the director. In Case 1 (Ratio for Donation), you pay yourself the divided required to meet that standard, and organize it so other people also get similar value through work generated by the corporation.
Or, I mean, depending on how the rule specifies $100, you could give yourself $100 US and 10 million others $100 in Zombabewean dollars (Approx 0.0000001 cents US).
If you can use it to buy property that you can't own, again, the Trust owns the property, and you merely rent or use it at the trust's request (you also being director of the trust). This is actually what English nobles did in the 1500's to get out of paying land taxes, which required Henry VIII to create a law called the Statue of Uses to counter (interestingly, still law in some Commonwealth jurisdictions).
If you have to donate to the company, create two companies, one of which you do not control, one of which you do. Depending on the legal language of the rule itself, you either own all stock in Company B, which owns all stock in Company A, or you own B, and A is independent, but has in it's constating documents a clause which indicates a required payment to Company B or a trust fund set up on behalf of Company B on a regular bases. Said clause could not be removed without dissolving the company, in which case under most legal systems, you are allowed to recover money you invested in the Company at its inception.
Add in as many needed C-ZZ shell companies in between these two points to satisfy the requirements of the rule.
Any mechanical (legal) system can be gotten around in this way because of the independent legal status of corporations and legal liability law. Unless there is an omniscient conscious entity in charge of finding out whether you are following the spirit of the rule, you can get around any rule in this way.
The economy is simply too connected to rule otherwise. Do you break the rule if you end up giving the company money, and later you eat at a restaurant it owns? If you walk through the public park it bought? If you happen to qualify for a grant it offers? If your local road is fixed up by tax money it paid?
Everything is connected in the modern economy. Money doesn't actually exist as a tangible thing, that's the point of money, it's 100% fungible. One dollar is the same as another dollar for buying purposes, but 99% of that money only exists as numbers on a computer database.
u/Sagebrysh [+3] Rank 7 Pragmatist (a day later)
I'd probably get in touch with Elon Musk and be like "hey, so I've got a billion dollars burning a hole in my pocket, can I help you space?" With that much money to throw in, I might be able to get a seat on the SpaceX board and help oversee how the money gets spent. BFR and MCT get made even sooner, Mars colony gets built faster, humanity gets into space earlier making us that little bit more resistant to Death-by-asteroid. Or if I can help allocate some of those funds within SpaceX, help kickstart asteroid mining and orbital manufacturing. Nothing like sipping champagne on my spin gravity orbital shipyard while building the first large scale interplanetary transport ships.
u/eaglejarl [+4] (an hour later)
Endow a foundation dedicated to space development. There are other things that perhaps have higher value -- AI, cryonics, life extension -- but nothing that has as high a payoff and as much certainty of achieving the payoff. Asteroid mining, space colonies, solar power satellites...it's all either engineering or research, not basic science. The other things I mentioned are very much basic science.
u/krakonfour [+1] (15 hours later)
Inefficient.
Solve down to Earth problems problems first, such as hunger, using money under conditional spending, and the rest of the money self-sustaining itself through some sort of resource-busting investment.
It is more effiecient to put billions on the 'brain market' and have them perform research, than to fund research directly. It also avoids the problem of 'useless anachronistic technologies' which we think might be useful but turn out in the future to be a waste of money.
u/eaglejarl [+4] (18 hours later)
You know the US space program has something like a sevenfold return, right?
Anyway, let's cooperate: you fix hunger and brain trust, I'll fix the world's energy, living space, and physical resource needs. Between us, everything will be awesome.
u/whywhisperwhy [+1] (17 hours later)
Tell me more about this 'brain market,' please...
u/krakonfour [+1] (17 hours later)
Consider the poor and rural populations of India and China. How many geniuses and next generation tesearchers and scientists could arise from those populations if they didn't have to worry about food anymore?
How many bright minds have we lost to the basic health concerns that kill millions of children worldwide? How many teenagers would be able to remain in school instead of being pulled out to work the fields?
u/Predictablicious [+3] Only Mark Annuncio Saves (an hour later)
It seems like private enterprises are already solving the space race problem, so I would split in four parts:
- 10m to MIRI.
- 100m to SENS.
- 290m to GiveWell's top choice.
- 600m to XPrize to fund a bunch of prizes. Some governance is necessary to ensure the prizes don't become bad incentives (i.e. promote values misaligned with humanity's).
u/Rhamni [+2] Aspiring author (an hour later)
Assuming I cannot arrange to move the money in a circle back to me and must abide by the spirit of that:
I would spend weeks researching, brainstorming and outsourcing research into what causes would most appeal to myself. This is where it gets hard, because I don't exactly know where a billion would do the most good. Feeding Africa? No. Curing diseases? No. Give it all to MIRI? ...No. Probably. I'll do the research honestly, but I don't know programming, and I have no way of evaluating the expected return on giving a billion dollars to MIRI. I'm obviously not going to give a billion to the political party I'm active in, because they are so far from optimized it makes me sad. If I can set my family up with no debt and a few tens of thousands in travelling around the world, I'll do that, because that's pocket change and allows me to focus on Noble Stuff. Cryonics? Well, I have high hopes, but even assuming I can turn up on my favourite living people's doorstep and convince them to let me pay to have them frozen when they die, that's extremely expensive time wise, and I think when Cryonics finally pays off, if ever, having a few dozen people like Noam Chomsky revive will not be enough to make a very great political impact. I'm leaning toward anticipating a techno volatile future. I also cannot use my billion to assassinate 'bad guys', because I have no idea at all where to find reliable assassins, and looking for them would only risk getting me into a situation where I cannot spend the money. I'm not American, so I cannot easily spend money on bribing US politicians, although I will of course research this. I similarly cannot use the billion to buy Sanders the presidentship.
So the answer is, I would not spend much money until I had done research. I would buy an absolutely fabulous laptop, and I would lock myself in my room and spend most of the time on the Internet. What I would do at the end of the month I do not know.
u/None [+3] (2 hours later)
[removed]
u/gbear605 [+3] history’s greatest story (2 hours later)
Unfortunately a billion isn't enough, or else Trump wouldn't be running as a Republican.
u/Rhamni [+1] Aspiring author (2 hours later)
I dunno, he seems to be going for substantial tax cuts, which I with my European perspective cannot help but attribute to his wanting to just maximize his own personal short term gain.
u/itisike [+2] Dragon Army (6 hours later)
Nobody wants to be President just for money. It's not worth it.
And there's little question he's actually trying at this point: see https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/an-iowa-surprise-donald-trump-is-actually-trying-to-win/2015/08/13/564a9f50-4142-11e5-8e7d-9c033e6745d8_story.html and http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/1001-times-the-media-acted-shocked-that-trump-was-running-a-real-campaign/411361/
u/ArgentStonecutter [+1] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (8 minutes later)
This a "Brewster's Millions" situation, or a "You're gonna die in a month" situation, or what?
u/lumenwrites [+1] (9 minutes later)
No, you will not gonna die, you just have to spend it.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+1] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (12 minutes later)
What the other guy said, then. Launder it somehow so you can do something practical with it later. The stock market sounds like a good way to do that.
u/Rhamni [+2] Aspiring author (an hour later)
Only, magically you see, some dick is going to make sure you cannot personally benefit from the way this money is spent except by living on in the world in which it was spent. Is how I assume OP wants it. This questions always entails the no personal benefit clause. You can only ever benefit whole huge groups or invest in cool projects far removed from you.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+3] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (an hour later)
That's the Brewster's Millions situation, and 30 days isn't nearly long enough. Give me a year and I'll make some progress.
u/Jiro_T [+1] (2 hours later)
"This is being used to benefit me directly" and "this is used to benefit me only by improving the world that I live in" are not yes and no things, they are two points on a continuum. Does something that benefits 90% of the world, or 40%, or all Americans, or all people in the computer industry count as benefitting the world? What about something that benefits my family? If I try to make myself very rich with the sincere intent to use most of the money after the 30 days are up on helping the world, does that count as benefitting the world? (And if not, why should it count if I make any individual person rich with the intent that the wealth spreads to the world, such as giving the money to a businessman or politician?) What if I use the money to open a foundation that I run, for that matter?
u/MrSink [+1] (3 hours later)
Assuming I can't just purchase assets and resell them when I need the money, I would probably just distribute it among givewell's top charities
u/cae_jones [+1] (a day later)
Meh. Say I put the money in a fund for a specific use--sort of a grant/loan pool for certain types of projects. Would making myself eligible for drawing from the pool after the 30 days violate the spirit of the hypothetical? Assume these projects would generally require more than 30 days to complete.
I have no idea where a billion dollars could do the most good. That's a lot of money and I'd probably just ask a lot of the smartest people I can find (so ... probably here), and then they'd mostly point me toward Givewell, so I'd probably just start at Givewell.
But, again, a billion dollars is a lot of money. If I shave off 10% of that for things other than EA, that's still a huge impact, and I get more than enough change to accomplish things more personally relevant, like throwing money at Wicab until they are able to / agree to sell the Brain Port® at a reasonable price, or buy/build a ton of tactile displays so they can reach people at a reasonable price, or... you know, maybe a billion dollars is enough money to start a health insurance company that targets the rare and outlandishly expensive stuff? Seeing as I keep tripping over the outlandishly expensive stuff.
Buuut... there is something I kinda want / could really use that fits into the range of a few dozen thousand at most, but spread out over a few months. I wonder if I could pay it all up front and still get what I need?
Would that a billion dollars could significantly impact the incentive structures in medical research, but in the US, a billion dollars is one new treatment. So I doubt I'm getting any medical miracles out of it. I guess I could spread it out among existing research that is only a little underfunded, but then I'd have to spend most of that 30 days researching the research and figuring out how to donate to them. I don't think my attention span can handle that. (Also: buy a million dollar subscription to attention span-increasing medication. I don't care if it's Ritalin or Modafinil or Bupropion... I just care that it works.)
I mean, I'm spending as much as it takes on Executive Function interventions. But 30 days is nowhere near long enough to properly evaluate those. I might need to hire someone to do long-term treatment, and after a while, a contract system where I pay everything up front and they continue indefinitely seems a little shaky.
But yeah, a billion dollars can sorta-kinda approximate some of my "this genie does not take 'CEV' as a wish" genie wishes. I doubt it'd be enough for all of them, but it'd at least be enough for me to pay a few of the smartest people out there to brainstorm something better than I can come up with.
u/eaglejarl [+2] (a day later)
I mean, I'm spending as much as it takes on Executive Function interventions.
What are those?
u/cae_jones [+1] (2 days later)
I have no idea, but with that much money on the line, I can probably find someone who does within 30 days. Not to say that they could succeed within 30 days--I want something permanent, so long as the upkeep is something I can become capable of within the 30 days--but whatever's out there would have to actively avoid me if I have a billion dollars an no reason to hold on to it.
Mostly, it'd allow me to try things that are currently absurdly difficult or impossible, where cash balances out my lack of conscientiousness/charisma. (And by charisma, I suppose I mean courage+communication skills?)
u/eaglejarl [+1] (2 days later)
What sorts of things?
It sounds like your EIs are "pay a personal life coach to push me over my comfort zone / help me improve skills I'm weak in." If so, that's something you could probably do now, even without a billion dollars.
u/cae_jones [+1] (2 days later)
If so, that's something you could probably do now, even without a billion dollars.
I'm unemployed, receive SSI, and have a boat load of college debt. And can't drive. This gets in the way of lots of things, including the personal trainer option (and the Modafinil option, for that matter). While I don't think a billion dollars would get me a self-driving car and an insurance policy and a way around the legal tape, it'd expand my options from "sit around and whine about it" to "just about everything available to normal people and then some".
u/eaglejarl [+2] (2 days later)
I'm sorry you're having to deal with all that, and I apologize if my comment was difficult. I hope things improve for you.
u/memzak [+1] Imperial Commonwealth of Endeavour (5 days later)
Well the first thing to do is to figure out how best to spend it, like asking a large group of individuals to brainstorm answers to your dilemma...
In that case, you should donate said money to said individuals such that they can do the same thing but without the month time constraint. ^^hint ^^hint
u/mhd-hbd [+1] Writes 'The World is Your Oyster, The Universe is Your Namesake' (8 days later)
I'm going to buy ~27 billion Euros.
u/CarsonCity314 [+1] (9 days later)
I send it to the SENS foundation with a note: "Dibs."
The sooner we fix the problem of mortality, the better. I think most of the problems we face as a species are budgeting failures because " we can't take it with us" and "it'll be someone else's problem once we're dead."
Also, I'm going to go super edgy atheist here, but I think the belief in a just afterlife has been used to justify/excuse all sorts of suffering here on earth. Arbitrary life extension should go a long way to helping us abandon that crutch.
u/SecretAgentVampire [+1] (2 hours later)
I'd buy a billion dollars worth of gold.
u/None [+1] (8 hours later)
A month is enough time to hire some skilled lawyers and other skilled individuals and create a foundation dedicated to distributing the rest of the billion to deserving individuals and causes.
I would consider that 'spent' as I would no longer have access to or be directly involved with the money.
u/None [+0] (16 hours later)
These "stupid situation what-if" questions are starting to get really repetitive. Please come up with something new.