What if you were Warren Buffet?

[DarkWaters]

So there has been quite the lively discussions on the recent actions of Warren Buffet. I propose the following thought experiment:

Suppose that you have billions of dollars in liquid capital and you are of an advanced age. What would you do with your vast fortune?

I am curious to hear some more specific ventures as opposed to moral but general statements such as "giving it to those who are most deserving."

Furthermore, I think it would be interesting if those who choose to respond also provide their age and occupation just to see if there is a difference in responses across demographics.

In time I will post some of my own ideas, I am too tired to do so now.

[softwareNerd]

A significant portion would go to advocacy of Objectivism, via organizations like ARI. That would be my specific way to giving it to those who are most deserving, and doing so in a way that is not ephemeral.

[Vladimir Berkov]

So there has been quite the lively discussions on the recent actions of Warren Buffet. I propose the following thought experiment:

Suppose that you have billions of dollars in liquid capital and you are of an advanced age. What would you do with your vast fortune?

I am curious to hear some more specific ventures as opposed to moral but general statements such as "giving it to those who are most deserving."

Furthermore, I think it would be interesting if those who choose to respond also provide their age and occupation just to see if there is a difference in responses across demographics.

In time I will post some of my own ideas, I am too tired to do so now.

Assuming that my family is taken care of, I would try to search out for opportunities where my wealth would yeild the greatest long term results to shape the world. For instance, establish a political thinktank to help influence politicalians and spread the idea of individual liberty in American polical thought.

This would also extend to investment in long-long-term technologies and industries which need start-up capital. This could be anything from nano-technology andmedical research to space exploration.

In some ways the whole question is rather pointless, as if I am at advanced age I will never see the results of my efforts. However perhaps knowing they will have results after I am gone will have to do.

[LaszloWalrus]

I would:

Give a couple of billion to ARI. Give, say, a billion to the Vandamme Academy. Give about thirty billion to Founders College. It would be the best-endowned college in the world.

[DarkWaters]

In some ways the whole question is rather pointless, as if I am at advanced age I will never see the results of my efforts.

This was the unstated main point of my proposed thought experiment. I am curious to see how some of the individuals here would allocate their capital given that they would not be alive to see the outcomes of their benefactions.

So far this is interesting.

[aleph_0]

I have to say, the answers are fairly interesting. Personally, I wouldn't give one red cent. I'd invent and eat the tastiest ice cream the world ever knew, bomb France, read that book I always wanted to read, see the sunset I always wanted to see, kiss my wife in ever more meaningful ways, cry with her, and then hire people to find the funniest joke humanly possible so that I could die laughing. In my will, I would give all of my property to family, except my body, which I will request to have tossed in an ditch--because it's just a lump of spoiled meat, so don't crowd around it, throw it out.

I'm 23, a teacher and tutor, and soon-to-be grad student studying philosophy. In case other demographics are interesting, I'm white, low-class, my mother is an atheist my father a deist, and my extended family are Protestants.

[Felix]

Hm. This kind of makes me think of this joke (well, it's more like a funny story) I've heard once, I don't remember where.

It's about a wealthy man who has died and all his family, who had never cared about him, has gathered to know about what he put into his testament. So his lawyer pulls out a piece of paper in front of this big room full of people and reads: "Dear family, I leave you nothing, because I spent it all myself while I was alive."

[Olex]

I'd use the money to build a John Galt country.

[DavidOdden]

Presuming that there was no person who I personally wanted to will my wealth to, I would use it to create a number of endowed chairs in my area of specialization and interest.

[Groovenstein]

Suppose that you have billions of dollars in liquid capital and you are of an advanced age. What would you do with your vast fortune?

Take some time to make a list of everyone who was a value to me. Find out what they would do with what I gave them. If I approved, set up a bunch of trusts.

Furthermore, I think it would be interesting if those who choose to respond also provide their age and occupation just to see if there is a difference in responses across demographics.

24. Musician and soon-to-be lawyer.

[Capitalism Forever]

billions of dollars in liquid capital

Isn't that a bit of a contradiction in terms? (Sorry for splitting hairs, it just caught my eye...)

What would you do with your vast fortune?

I would have spent it by the time my age has "advanced." Here are some easy ways to spend billions of dollars:

• Donations to government for performing its legitimate functions
  
• Funding of philosophy
  
• Funding of intellectual activism
  
• Funding of medical research, so that my age doesn't advance that fast
  

I would will all my unspent money to my wife.

age and occupation

See my profile. (Again to split a hair, it doesn't really make sense to look at demographics with such a small sample size.)

[DarkWaters]

Isn't that a bit of a contradiction in terms? (Sorry for splitting hairs, it just caught my eye...)

How does "billions of dollars in liquid capital" pose a contradiction in terms?

Again to split a hair, it doesn't really make sense to look at demographics with such a small sample size.

I think it would be more accurate to say that it would be hasty to draw conclusions with such a small sample size. Basic demographic information on these matters is usually interesting. Besides, the responses are too open-ended for any meaningful statistical analysis anyway. We would need to map the responses to more general categories.

Now I am the one who is splitting hairs!

[ex_banana-eater]

If we're talking "public" things and not money to people I know or spending *directly* on myself:

I would donate some to ARI and request that they give priority to fixing up the area I call home, first. They rest would be up to them. I'm sure they would purchase some type of media outlet, print 200 million copies of Objectivist works, found colleges and schools, and other things.

I'd fund a billion dollar manned Mars mission prize, and possibly the same type of prize for an orbiting space station with a time and research requirement. I would fund longevity research, cancer research, and stem cell research. I would probably use the prize method for nanotechnology research as well.

Donations to universities on the condition they teach some things I request, like free-market economic theories. ARI would probably already be doing that with Objectivism, like the founder of BB&T tried to do.

I'd also give to battered women's shelters, The Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy, promote youth and adult Pankration leagues, sea cadets, and set up funds to help support struggling (good) artists (like romantic realism) and writers.

19 and a finance student.

[fatdogs12]

Oh that is simple, first I would hire a band of about 25 guys to go and smuggle some nuclear weapons out of Russia. Then pay them to go to all the Islamic countries and set the nukes to the "Gigantic Potato" setting and then: B :nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:M.

Okay sorry I couldn't help myself there. Well with all those billions I would first set up a huge advertising agency to constantly bombard the World citizens with Pro-Capitalist messages every chance they got. Second I would set up a strong lobby to constantly lobby Washington politicians to pass pro-capitalist laws. Third I would set up some sort of off shore organization to fund any groups worldwide that are fighting for freedom. Fourthly I would give Peikoff 20 million if he would write a "Objectivism for Dummies: That means YOU!" book. Then pay some else to dumb it down further.

Then I would spend a billion dollars having images made, pictures painted, statues carved and casts made of myself so that when 10-25% of the world's countries go capitalist they will be able to let all the kids see who helped put that food in thier mouths for the rest of thier life, rather than some one time feeding that would have cost me millions, would have probably gotten into some rebel socialist army's hands and helped to kill him some years before.

24, Stock Trader

Edited June 29, 2006 by fatdogs12

[Capitalism Forever]

How does "billions of dollars in liquid capital" pose a contradiction in terms?

If you have billions of dollars, it will presumably be in shares, won't it? A smaller number of publicly traded shares can be considered liquid, as you can easily sell them within minutes. But it's not so easy to find buyers for billions of dollars in shares, especially (as it is likely to be with the kind of tycoons we are talking about) if they're in the same company.

[paperbackfemme]

I would use it to benefit the New York City public school system, which is over-crowded and under-financed. I'd provide schools with up-to-date computer technology (knowledge of computer tech is essential for any kind of success these days - unfortunately, many schools are teaching kids how to use outdated machines that simply aren't relevant to the current marketplace), finance endangered art and music departments, and help the schools to build bigger, better libraries (for independent research and study - as a kid, most of the books I chose to read were from my school's library). I'd also fund renovations for the schools that are all but falling apart, and possibly construct more school buildings, to ensure a smaller average class size.

After that, if I had a sizable amount of money left over, I'd field grants from artists, writers, and musicians, and fund the projects that I found worthwhile.

24, writer and musician.

Edited July 2, 2006 by paperbackfemme

[softwareNerd]

I would use it to benefit the New York City public school system, which is over-crowded and under-financed.

That would be a good example of what Ed Cline refers to as a "boondoggle", in his article "Billions for boodoggles, not one cent for reason". The idea that the lack of money (and thus resources) is an important factor in low public school standards is completely false. All you have to do is go to India and ask the programmers there to take you on a tour of their schools and colleges.

It is true that kids in richer neighbourhoods do better than kids in poorer neighbourhoods, but to think that money makes humans is to reverse cause and effect. The kids in the richer districts come (on average) from families that value education more than the families of their poorly performing peers across town.

If I ever wanted to spend billions on US education, I would reimburse parents for some portion of the money they spend on sending their kids to private K-12 schools. In most instances, the reimbursement would not exceed the total amount that those parents pay in taxes -- i.e., those who do not work would not receive money. I guess you could call it my private "education tax credit"

Edited July 2, 2006 by softwareNerd

[Toolboxnj]

I would use it to create more wealth and more jobs in America and around the globe. I would also help finance an organization that spread Aristotelean philosophy in the Middle East.

Perhaps I'd commit money for a university program for "Capitalist Studies".

22, Grad Student

[DarkWaters]

It is about time that I participate in my own survey.

Thomas Jefferson believed that a democractic republic could only function if the populace was learned and well-informed. Granted, this requires a lot of responsibility from every individual. Nevertheless, I would use my wealth to create opportunities for those who wish to develop their intellect at various ages.

I would give money to the following organizations and/or initiatives:

Primary and Secondary Education:

* The Van Damme Academy and any other schools that encourages youths to develop abstract problem solving skills, the scientific method as well as instill a thirst for knowledge and the ability to question answers (in the productive sense, not the Kantian "How can we know anything?" sense.)

High School:

* Establishing magnet schools in New Jersey analogous to Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. Specifically, I would want to establish magnet schools to allow students to advance in subjects like mathematics, computer science, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, statistics, economics, government and philosophy.

* Free books to high school programs. Needless to say, I would limit the funding of this to books that I think are helpful for high schoolers to read. I would not limit this to books by Ayn Rand although I would want to model such a program after the current program that the Ayn Rand Institute has.

College and Graduate Level:

* Merit-based scholarships for outstanding students in need of financial aid.

* Mathematically rigorous undergraduate programs in Operations Research.

* Money for chaired professorships in Mathematical Optimization.

Non-Academic Benefactions:

* Smithsonian Institute, specifically for museums of natural history, air and space, and united states history.

* Some of my favorite zoos and aquariums for some of my favorite mammals.

* The Salvador Dali Museum in Tampa.

Funding ideas and initiatives:

* A political action committee for voting reform. Specifically: instant run-off voting and splitting electoral votes.

* Organizations to help intellectually combat religious fundamentalism domestically and abroad (especially in some areas in the Middle East.)

* Construction of Nuclear Power Plants and other cleaner and more economical sources of energy.

* Selected initiatives in global health. I particularly like some of the ones Bill Gates has put a bounty on such as ways to combats diseases spread by mosquitoes.

* Space exploration.

I am 24 and I am a doctoral student in Operations Research. I guess I am too financially idealistical for a Ph.D. student. But this is fun.