amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
A billionaire buying a BBS to boot a few members is hardly drastic in comparison to anything that actually happens in real life.
What would you do with $1,000,000,000?
- Thread starter amadeus
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EgonSpengler
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If I had the money, I'd love to become a patron of the arts in some fashion. I could imagine a small record label with affiliated venues for live performances and art spaces and small, independent movie theaters. There are already a ton of these places around the area, so maybe I'd only need to put some funding into the ones that already exist and then connect them with something like an annual movie & music festival, like SXSW (or, rather, like SXSW was 25 years ago). The art & music communities around here have been humming along for decades, they might just need some funding, what with everything. A lot of these folks and venues are already here, they might just need a little juice to get through the rough patches or redo the roof or get a new sound system or whatever. Before everything went to Heck, around the holidays last year, there was this girl with a ukelele and a voice that knocked my socks off, just playing on the street downtown. When she started playing, I thought, "she's got her mic too close to her face, her voice is drowning out the ukelele" - and then I realized she wasn't using a mic at all, she was just singing that powerfully. Don't know her name, don't know what she was doing or where she was from, never saw her again, but that voice was stunning and maybe she could've used a little scratch to get into Berklee or an apartment that wasn't in a basement with no windows.
My own focus'd be on rock and jazz and film, just 'cause that's what I'm into these days, but I'd hire people to be on the lookout for anything interesting and creative. I certainly wouldn't do all the work myself, pshh, I'd just want to hang around and have fun. I could imagine a space for artists and musicians - practice spaces, art studios, real photography darkrooms, film & sound editing suites, with grants for students to help them attend the schools around here, subsidized housing & equipment. I'm thinking mostly college-aged people, but I would definitely want to reach out to teenagers. All-ages shows on the weekends; grants for high school students to attend programs at local colleges. Just this morning, I was reading an article about The Go-Go's and there was a quote from Kathleen Hanna about seeing them when she was 14, and I bet there are musicians out there who saw Bikini Kill when they were 14, and now they're playing to 14-year-olds who'll go on to start a band in a few years and maybe those wheels could use a little grease to keep on rolling.
My own focus'd be on rock and jazz and film, just 'cause that's what I'm into these days, but I'd hire people to be on the lookout for anything interesting and creative. I certainly wouldn't do all the work myself, pshh, I'd just want to hang around and have fun. I could imagine a space for artists and musicians - practice spaces, art studios, real photography darkrooms, film & sound editing suites, with grants for students to help them attend the schools around here, subsidized housing & equipment. I'm thinking mostly college-aged people, but I would definitely want to reach out to teenagers. All-ages shows on the weekends; grants for high school students to attend programs at local colleges. Just this morning, I was reading an article about The Go-Go's and there was a quote from Kathleen Hanna about seeing them when she was 14, and I bet there are musicians out there who saw Bikini Kill when they were 14, and now they're playing to 14-year-olds who'll go on to start a band in a few years and maybe those wheels could use a little grease to keep on rolling.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
I thought of a less childish one: I would buy the Johnnie Walker brand of whisky from the multinational who owns it, and move production back to my hometown.
See, Johnnie Walker was produced in my home town from back in the 1830s when it was actually a guy name John Walker blending it in the back room of his grocer's shop, and it was a strong point of local pride. It was a major local employer, long after most industry had tried up, and almost everyone had a relative who had worked there at some point. (My dad worked in the packaging plant as a teenager.) But in 2012, the faceless multinational which acquired the brand moved operations to their existing facility in Glasgow, and the town never recovered.
The only problem is, a billion dollars might not actually be enough to buy the world's best-selling brand of whisky. So, um, any investors?
See, Johnnie Walker was produced in my home town from back in the 1830s when it was actually a guy name John Walker blending it in the back room of his grocer's shop, and it was a strong point of local pride. It was a major local employer, long after most industry had tried up, and almost everyone had a relative who had worked there at some point. (My dad worked in the packaging plant as a teenager.) But in 2012, the faceless multinational which acquired the brand moved operations to their existing facility in Glasgow, and the town never recovered.
The only problem is, a billion dollars might not actually be enough to buy the world's best-selling brand of whisky. So, um, any investors?
Synobun
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I really do wish patronage would come back in some capacity. The uber-wealthy of the modern world seem deadened to the arts.
I'd love to buy a game studio's time for a half decade and just have them create a game to my specifications. At that amount of wealth, it'd be a drop in the ocean, and it would likely make its money back as well. Or at least not be a total loss.
Patreon.
Synobun
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Crowd-sourced patronage is nice but will never have the oomph of a wealthy suitor. Except Star Citizen, I guess. And we see how that's going.
I like the Patreon model better because it preserves the creative freedom of the artist. Back when the wealthy gave their patronage, they also expected some amount of control over what the artist produced and the artist couldn't really object lest they lose that patronage.
We've moved to sponsored science, I think. And the arts DO get massive donations. But as a person who likes boardgames, we've learned that Kickstarter has been an absolute glory for boardgames. And very, very beautiful ones.
Buy a palace.
I am serious. There is one here in the middle of the city, it is amazing, and includes a museum.
Although I'd be unhappy to close it for the public, so I might need to pick another one.
And I want some temples in my garden. Like the one in the garden of Schönbrunn castle or in the middle of Madrid. Or both.
Then I'll fly in all my friends, and will have an amazing party in there. Will need to decide about which famous DJ I want, but hey, 1% problems.
I'll also want to have a light show, like they do every year in Eindhoven for the GLOW festival.
I'll obviously also distribute some money among my friends and family, and will give some to the charities I'm already supporting, but they, that's the usual.
After just being to Nice, and seeing a nice waterfall there, I decided that one should go between my 2 temples, and that concert venue in the castle should go there too.
And I want an actual castle too, but have not decided which one yet.
Statista says 4.5 billion worth... if they ever go to the stock exchange, you'd be able to buy enough to pressure them, I guess.
Synobun
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I don't disagree. Actually, I flat-out agree. But in our society, artists inevitably chase the dollar anyways because, well... survival. Shareholders aren't inclined toward artistic expression at all beyond what it can do for their pockets. A wealthy patron, while having control, has a specific artistic interest.
It's not ideal, of course. I want artists free to pursue what they'd like without worrying about where their next meal is coming from. But in this society, and with that kind of wealth, I'd like to fund artistic pet projects, if only to finally see a game I want get made and to not have the studio cave to unethical demands from penny-pinchers.
Perfection
The Great Head.
I'd allocate $50,000,000 to helping out those I care about. I'd spend $2,000,000 on a house, $1,000,000 on personal improvements (personal trainer, health diagnostics, dietitian etc., along with some financial/business training), $1,000,000 on a personal R&D lab, blow a $1,000,000 on trivial things. The rest of the cash would go into a temporary investment account as I figure out what more I can do.
I'd probably invest in some startups I have as clients.
I'd probably invest in some startups I have as clients.
Zardnaar
Deity
I don't really want a supercar. I would kinda like a Lamborghini Contach from the 80s though.
Never drive it just have it in its own house.
Never drive it just have it in its own house.
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EgonSpengler
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Good thought.
In addition to the arts & music project above, I could sponsor a broader grant program, akin to the MacArthur Foundation's "Genius Grant." They award 15-20 people each year, across any and all disciplines - arts, sciences, humanitarian work - with a 5-year, $625,000 grant. Where the Genius Grant is substantial, maybe I could fund something smaller but more numerous: 100 grants of $30,000 a year for 5 years is $15,000,000 per year (plus the organization that would "scout for talent" and manage everything - no idea what that would cost).
amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
I still have my Green Acres dream.
I would also pay a visit to Toyohashi, Aichi. What’s there? The last surviving DeLorean dealership in Japan! I didn’t know about it the last time I was there, unfortunately.
Aichi is the heart of Japan’s auto industry with Toyota’s HQ being there in Toyota City (it’s a real city, named after the company!)
Toyohashi is about an hour’s drive from Toyota... if you drive like I do.
I would also pay a visit to Toyohashi, Aichi. What’s there? The last surviving DeLorean dealership in Japan! I didn’t know about it the last time I was there, unfortunately.
Aichi is the heart of Japan’s auto industry with Toyota’s HQ being there in Toyota City (it’s a real city, named after the company!)
Toyohashi is about an hour’s drive from Toyota... if you drive like I do.
Ferocitus
Deity
Yes, I'm absolutely sure!
I decided at 15 that I didn't want to work when I was young, and spent most of my life before 40 on unemployment benefits. I loved it! I hated university because of
the ridiculous structured courses where you had to attend at some ungodly hour, e.g. before midday! I didn't sober up until 2pm on most days.
Later I preferred to work on my own from home with my newborn son. My partner gave up Anthropology and Liguistics after Honours and got a Law degree. I was lucky
that a prof read my early publications and allowed me to work on anything I wanted to at uni for 15 years. Now, I'll happily keep working until I'm carted off to the Home
for the Mathematically Bewildered. The Australian pensions are enough for me, and I my ADHD meds are really cheap.
I certainly don't want to own machines, like cars, boats, or planes, even though most of my my published research work has been on ship waves and resistance, wind
turbines and wing aerodynamics. I hate boats and ships. Who in their right mind goes out into the ocean?! And I spent far too many hours under the cars I owned when
I was 16/17 fixing rusted and greasy failed parts. You wouldn't want to drive with someone who uses the windscreen as something to project mental images of fluid flows
would you?
I super-duper appreciate that you introduced the concept of 'multi-year grants'. I mean, it's obvious in retrospect, but I just hadn't considered it. I've been thinking in terms of annual budget this whole thread.
H4run
Deity
I used the money to stop going to work. That's the first and most important plan.
Buy an island off the coast of some African country, hire a mercenary force to secure its independence and then bring in immigrants to build my utopia (depending on the situation I might even skip step one).
Owning cell phones will be a capital crime.
That looks like a wonderful place to live, envious.
Owning cell phones will be a capital crime.
That looks like a wonderful place to live, envious.
amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
Owning cell phones will be a capital crime.
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