this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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Let's say that you have an opportunity to gain billions to fix the society from the top. 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?

If so, would you still accept the offer knowing that you would just make the situation worse?

And if you believe in yourself, how would you try to convince an hypotetical entity to give you this wealth?

To avoid regrets let's say that if you decline the offer your memory about the deal gets erased.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

I'd move to Cuba and bankroll the worldwide working class adventure.

Being in a place like Cuba will keep you grounded, you can't go ape shit with spending on nonsense and use it to aggrandize your power. I'd just chill on some Caribbean beaches and smoke cigars with some older Cubans until the bourgeoisie is overthrown.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago

No, not because I'd necessarily be corrupted, but because I'm a dipshit who doesn't know shit about fuck, I'd probably, crash the world economy completely on accident and then have an emotional breakdown about the fact that I'd ruined billions of lives without knowing how to fix it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

Screw it. If I had limitless wealth time to see if ending homelessness is possible with every bit of it I can.

What I want for me is a stable living situation, fun times on a motorcycle, and time to do hobbies without killing myself at work and to travel. My secondaries are those things for the people I care about. Other than the killing myself at work, that sort of thing is obtainable without being a millionaire.

So after that, throwing billions into building affordable housing seems like the plan, combat these scalpers that overdo rent and see if I could beat the countries, then the worlds goal of "stable living situation". After that... figure out what's next.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yep, I'll use it to combat climate change however I can. Propaganda, lobbying (aka: legal bribery), funding green energy, and use profits from said green energy to continue funding my anti big oil propaganda.

Hijack the platforms of a major political party, purge fossil fuel supporters from the party. Try to get a progressive president elected, use my influence to get them to use executive orders to suspend any pipeline projects, any pro-oil projects, etc.

Try to get fossil fuel vehicles banned ASAP. Like stoping any further productions of fossil fuel vehicles immediately, ban all sales of new vehicles in like 3 years (or less if possible). Begin carbon recapture projects.

etc... etc...

And get a lot of security. I'm sure big oil will try to assassinate me for this.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Yes, because I have fixed goals that are for what I consider the greater good of humanity, and an unlimited amount could be spent on them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Oh boy. Corruption for sure. Not like hush money or Epstein corruption. Like private party and excessive stunt corruption. Are you saying I could fund stupid shit? The zip line industry would boom. Adverts for spider cars would be everywhere. So much money would go into anti-fossil fuel propaganda.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

I was listening to Behind the Bastards and the guest asked him why it seems like there’s a pattern of crazy wealthy people doing sex pest things. He said there was a study that related a certain level of wealth to having a brain injury. Basically, when you have a certain amount of crazy obscene wealth, the concept of value loses all meaning to you, and that loss affects other types of value as well - like personal value. Wish I could find more about that. Seems like it would be an interesting read.

That said, I would take my unlimited money and build an underwater Bond villain lair. From there I would do what I could to make the world better, but leave me alone.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I would take it but it would be quite a job to manage that. If literally infinite, and not an amount, it would break the idea of money, right?

I'm not sure society can be fixed from the top but would be interested to see what happens if grants are directed in ways that grow the bottom part of the economy, could it be made vibrant, can the value be circulated around not exploited? Can the land be restored? The oceans? How do you audit to prevent fraud, to keep it from making things worse?

I would be very happy to not have to worry about my personal budget but to have the responsibility to try to fix the world with money seems like an impossible task. Money could fix my personal situation, but can it fix everything? Probably not.

I do think I would try though, yeah.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Buy all the debt. Then fuck off into the sunset. Humanity is better off for it.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

Yes.

Gimme.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I would just buy houses in fancy HOA neighborhoods and let homeless people live there.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

The foundations I would be donating to probably would

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I would trust myself, but I know that I would be the villain in some people's lives.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think both. I imagine I would do a lot of good on global level, but probably abuse it on personal level.

Although the specifics also matter, e.g. will there be a way to steal it from me, forcing me into paranoia?

And if you believe in yourself, how would you try to convince an hypotetical entity to give you this wealth?

It can't end worse than the direction we are going, and will very likely end much better overall.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

Yes, because I didn't sell my soul bit by bit stepping on the hands of others over an extended period of time to get it, my mind is still that of a worker with a rage for injustice.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Billionaires should not exist.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I would be assassinated long before I could deliver a world that deserves to exist.

Give me the money, it will be wild.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wealth psychologically changes the way you think and feel, so no.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think that depends on personality type. If you are an impulse person, then yeah its going to be spending spree and stupid shit. The narcissit type that amasses wealth and uses it to suit their agenda would already have accumulated the wealth. And then there are people like me that lead a simple life and money means nothing. A prime example is a friend, he owned a large company employing 100s of people, he was in the right market at the perfect time and made excellent decisions along the way for the company. When I met him he was probably multimillionaire but was driving a 90s Honda. His attire was general casual vibe. You would never realize he could literally do anything he wanted or live anywhere in the world by his appearance or personality.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Psychological science says otherwise. Sure, anecdotally, there may be aberrations. But, study after study shows wealth isolates a person and distances their ability to relate to other people.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Bourgeois class traitors

While the idea of the class traitor is one typically applied to the proletariat, it can also be used to describe members of the upper-class who believe in and espouse socialist ideals. For example, Peter Kropotkin, an anarcho-communist who wrote The Conquest of Bread, was born into a noble family. Additionally, Friedrich Engels, partner and lifelong friend of Karl Marx, the revolutionary socialist, was himself a son of a wealthy factory owner. Such people sacrifice their ability to be part of the capitalist upper-class for the sake of who they see as the oppressed, even if it hurts their status in the process.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Soo it's nowhere near the same- but in FFXIV I once spent weeks after an expansion crafting/gathering to make money to buy a large housing plot. By the end of it I had around ~600million (an absurd amount). Unfortunately my luck just wasn't here and I lost every lottery I entered. Now- I probably have like 5 million. Where did it all go? To other players. I'd just buy people things. Someone in chat said they really wanted this or that- I'd buy it. People wanted a small/medium plot and didn't have the money? I'd give them the gil. I found literally no reason to have so much gil just for the sake of having it, and I love seeing people get excited. I'd put together little welcome packages with expensive mounts, minions, clothes, etc and gift them to new players. I kind of started doing this in real life to, just to a lesser degree as a stranger handing you a gift can be a bit weird. I'd like to imagine, with infinite wealth, I'd do the same thing to a larger scale- really find ways to improve and bring joy to the lives of others. I'd obviously spoil myself with things, but I imagine I'd spend most of it on other people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I'm too lazy to be problematic, so yeah. Never doing laundry would be nice. Wear once. Recycle.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

No. I believe that adage about absolute power corrupting absolutely. I don't trust myself or any other single person with that kind of money.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i think super rich people do fucked up shit because:

  1. that's the only way you become mega-rich, and
  2. they want more

if i already have 'infinite' money, why would i want more, and since i'm getting this via magic or something, there's no incentive to be evil in order to become or remain mega-rich. in short, yeah, i reckon i'd be alright, and we'd all be better off in the long run.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

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.

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