If I Had Ten Billion Dollars
What would you do if you won a $10 billion lottery tomorrow? What luxury items would you rush out and buy? The latest in sports cars, the latest in technology… I wonder how quickly we would tire of buying things and set our minds to saving the world.
Here’s a top ten list for your “Brewsters Millions” style shopping list:
Items #1-#8: The Millennium Development Goals
The MDG offer a perfect guide for the first few items on your list. If you take Canada’s National GDP of 1.274 trillion dollars and use the suggested 0.7% goal, we’ve got a price tag of a cool $9 billion dollars. If you ask me, at that price, these MDG are a steal.
With actual jackpots in the hundreds of millions of dollars these days, if we directed lottery winnings towards global aid, it is conceivable that we could make real progress. Bill and Melinda are making headway. Stephen continues his passionate plea for government support of the MDG. Perhaps it’s time to go get a ticket for the next 649!
If every developed country set and followed through on a timetable to reach 0.7% by 2015, the world could make dramatic progress in the fight against poverty and start on a path to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and end extreme poverty within a generation.
Item #9: The Morgan Life Car. A luxury sports car is top on the list for many new billionaires. If you’re going to go for this luxury item, why not go green? This concept car was recently launched at the Geneva motor show. As for price tag, you might burn up few million from your last billion here.
Item #10: You could become one of the first five humans to have your genome sequence done. Join James, Craig, and Dan… and talk in a whole new way about personalized medicine. For only $350K, you can have your own genetic map deciphered. For just a drop in the bucket, you will literally be able to walk around with your genome in your pocket!
