If you had Elon Musk's money, what would you do with it?

[milestogo]

I'd spend the rest of my life giving it away to good causes. And I would enjoy it.

First thing - everyone gets dental care fully paid for by me.

[sunflowerseed]

1. Make myself miserable like him!

[Walleye]

2. Instead of complaining about the problem of homelessness, I would try and buy people as many homes as possible, and find

Them nice places to live. I certainly wouldn’t hoard it and sit on it and use it to get to try to get to Mars. $300 billion would buy a lot of houses for people.

[LudwigPastorius]

66. After recently selling some shares of SpaceX stock, Musk is now worth $490 billion.

But yeah, that would be a lot of houses.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. I wouldn't give any of the money away.

I'd hire people to do that for me.

Then I'd go into "witness protection" so I could get some peace and quiet. I'd have to change my name, of course. How's JustABozoOnThatOtherBusOverThere?

[Ocelot II]

4. Same here. There are many charities I'd love to support -

especially those related to nature, animals, children and the arts. I'd keep enough for myself to live comfortably and not have to go into a nursing home when I'm old(er). As for the rest of it I'd set up a charitable foundation - maybe something like the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. I wouldn't buy a president.

[Attilatheblond]

5. Provide safe, warm, comfortable apartments for young people working their way thru college.

And if they keep up their grades, the rent (and the rent would be mind mindbogglingly low) would have been placed in savings accounts they would be given upon graduation. And if they did really well in areas that lead to professions that are actually beneficial to society, their student loans would get paid.

We need more good teachers, counselors, medical techs, etc so we can have healthier, better educated kids. The money would go to help young people going into areas where their work actually make America better. Wipe out loans, better yet, set up massive scholarship/grant programs.

[doc03]

6. I would give it all away except maybe 1 million, I am

happy with what I have. Don't even know what I
would do with the million.

[Maeve]

7. Start by funding the Carter Center's latest project

Affordable housing here would also be a priority. St Jude's would get a chunk to continue their work.
Help in the developing world, especially those threatened by climate change would need some study.

[Lunabell]

56. Bless Danny Thomas and his family.

St. Jude's is a very worthy cause. Childhood and cancer don't belong in the same world.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Buy CONGRESS

[LeftInTX]

13. Yep and a Democratic president and the Supreme Court! Problem solved!

[mahina]

9. Work to reduce climate change and poverty.

[spapeggy]

10. He could set up a foundation

That wipes out world hunger. Or gives everyone free healthcare. Or free education. But naaa

[Alice Kramden]

11. Buy Fox "News"

Fund programs for hungry and homeless people. Fund those working on climate science solutions

[LeftInTX]

14. Yes!

[DFW]

46. And then...............

Buy the White House and enough members of Congress so that no Fox, Junior can ever be allowed to broadcast.

I'd give the rest to cancer research, probably. My wife has had it twice. So has her mom. Her brother already died of it 15 years ago. Both my parents and all their siblings had it, and I already lost one cousin to it decades ago. I'm under no illusions of my chances to escape it.

[Alice Kramden]

62. Agree

We also have cancer survivors in our family - may your loved ones continue in good health

[Midnight Writer]

12. First, I would buy enough Republican politicians and enact universal healthcare in the USA.

Then, I would start at the bottom of the economic ladder and start helping people who are hungry, who are homeless, who have no hope and no prospects. Provide them with a basic income, a place to live, education, and jobs, even if the jobs are just busywork.

Buy up media properties and influencers and push a liberal, "woke" message. Saturate the country with simple, repeated messaging to change the mindset. Buy the world's biggest megaphone to promote love, compassion, responsibility, tolerance, fairness, justice, unity, and idealism.

Push for higher (fair, not punitive) taxes on the extremely wealthy and their corporations.

Extensive scholarship programs for college, junior college, trade schools, and apprenticeships.

Work to rebuild unions and a thriving middle class.

Invest in businesses and people with good hearts and a sense of decency and fairness.

[Polybius]

15. I'll be the "way too honest" guy in this thread

First, pay the bills that I owe. Then, help out my close friends a lot, and donate to a lot good causes. Then a nice mansion, and another car or two (or three). Then, fill up that mansion with some of my hobbies, such as an arcade, classic computer museum, and a game room. Then I'd get some plastic surgery and a hair transplant, and hire a personal trainer and nutritionist. Then find a wife around 30, preferably from Colombia or Brazil. Then maybe fun for office.

Life is good.

[AntiFascist]

16. I'm about to watch the series finale of 'The Good Fight', we'll see how that turns out n/t

[electric_blue68]

67. Don't give it way! I never saw the last season or so... i'm going to be finally catching the rest streaming soon

[Evolve Dammit]

17. Free health care, education, nutrition programs and Departments of Peace.

[The Wielding Truth]

52. That would certainly improve our country.

[Evolve Dammit]

72. We might be on par with the rest of the civilized world.

[edbermac]

18. Buy a ticket for the next Blue Origin launch.

Give some to my family. Travel around the world. Donate to worthy charities.
I’m more interested in experiences rather than material possessions.

[Linda ladeewolf]

19. Solve problems.

World hunger, climate change, energy solutions. So many things.

[Vinca]

20. Give most of it away. It's really a waste having an ass like that with so much money and all he does is

buy himself politicians. He could be feeding, housing, providing medical care, etc., for those in need and he'd still be filthy rich.

[C Moon]

21. Get tires for my 13 year old car.

[True Dough]

34. Make a tiny dent in the U.S. debt

Musk is worth an estimated $440 billion.

The U.S. owes approximately $36.2 trillion.

[LittleGirl]

23. food! I'd give away food for the rest of my life.

I want to make sure everyone alive can eat.

[Haggard Celine]

61. I would feed the poor as well, no matter what

country they're in. I don't want to hear any of that bullshit about how they need to show me why they need it. People should have food, no matter what. There are so many hungry on this planet, but we have the ability to feed all of them. Some people will always have more and better food than others, but nobody should be going to bed hungry. And I would give millions ( or more) to organizations whose goal is to help young mothers. Planned Parenthood would get a lot from me, whether it's for abortion services or birth control. Overpopulation is possibly the world's worst problem. Most of our problems stem from overpopulation.

[LittleGirl]

63. I was brief but I agree completely! nt

[charliea]

24. Emulate McKenzie Scott

If I had than 400(!) billion, I'd plan on donating 10 billion a year. A billion of that would be to expose Republican plots and plans.

[OldBaldy1701E]

25. I would never be able to acquire that much money.

I am not sub-human enough to be that greedy.

Considering the question... I would start using it to help repair/replace aging infrastructure and then use it to support the arts, which would raise that number from 0 to 1.

[LoisB]

26. Fund training in the house-building trades for homeless people, fund the building of houses

for them, fund research for childhood cancers. There are so many good causes that could and should be supported.

[flvegan]

27. Keeping in mind that "Elon Musk's money" or wealth

is largely contingent on Tesla stock (to the best of my knowledge, at least), making him fairly illiquid, doesn't allow for $400 (or whatever) billion dollars of money in the bank. Still, he's likely got a few billion bucks in immediately spendable cash which would be very nice, and more than I could ever spend on myself, family and friends.

First, I'd get out of Tesla meme-priced stock as slowly as possible without causing some major crash. I'd spend a nice chunk of dough on my new secret off grid compound, complete with well-stocked garage (thinking 12-15 cars...none of which would be Teslas), set up my family members and close friends for life and drop million dollar donations to a number of animal rescues. The rest would go into a managed trust that would wisely invest that capital, donating the yearly gains to various foundations/charities of my choosing for the rest of my days and beyond. I'm thinking homelessness (human and animal) and hunger first. I'd be completely anonymous, never seeking any sort of spotlight, unlike Captain Dipshit Musk.

[Iggo]

28. I would be the Lord God King Bufu of philanthropy.

[Emrys]

29. "And I would enjoy it."

And there you'd be in a whole different ballpark to Musk before doing anything else.

He's got to be the most joyless, miserable asshole who hit lucky with some investments and didn't care who he screwed along the way that ever lived.

[jmowreader]

30. Solve the "what are we gonna do if we ain't got no farm?" problem

I’ve told this story before but it’ll work for this post.

When I was still setting type in a commercial printing plant in North Carolina someone brought in a book of his family’s history for us to print. He tells the story of how his grandparents moved to the city: they were farmers and going broke at it, so Grandpa found a good job in town and sold off their land to finance a move to a nice house in town. When Grandma was told this was to happen she asked her husband what they were going to do if they didn’t have a farm. She couldn’t see that there was a way out, even though it was sitting right in front of her.

One of the reasons Republicans win coal country is too many people can’t see a way out: they’re told that coal is going away by the Democrats, which it is, and think they’re going to starve to death if they have no coal mine to work at. The Republicans claim they’re going to bring back coal, which they can’t, and win all their votes.

So…the way to get rid of this attitude is to build factories in impoverished areas, put the people who are doing things no one wants done to work in them, and use the profits to build even more factories. There are a lot of consumer goods currently made only in China that could be made in those factories. And if you had Musk’s money you could do it.

[allegorical oracle]

31. Give majority of it away. Have a zillion causes I'd like to help. nt

[SWBTATTReg]

32. burn it. It's tainted w/ the stain of, ehhhmm, muskrat

Crooked money is still tainted money.

And yes, I know that it can be kind of stupid to just 'burn it', but the dangers of obtaining such money, and using it becomes a draw too powerful and before you know it, the process of handling such money becomes tainted.

I say this for I see Police Depts burn the drugs (for the most part), but they keep the money and distribute it among themselves. Which in a way I think is wrong, the money should revert to an independent agency who decides what to do w/ the money. Some do distribute the money to their community's general revenue fund but not all of them.

You can see how I view Muskrat and his 'money'. It doesn't help him one bit in my book, and if anything, the words of the bible does ring true (and to my surprise, there are tons of sayings on money, which by itself isn't evil, it's the handling of money that raises issues).

Here's just one of many, many statements found in the bible on money:

Money can be a stressful part of life, the anxiety of providing for your family by having enough to pay the bills. It is important that we remember to first seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all will be added that is needed. Additionally, it is wise to not have a greedy obsession with money, putting a love of money before your love for God. Hebrews 13:5 tells us, "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

[pfitz59]

33. build tiny homes across the US

endow charity hospitals. fund food banks and soup kitchens. like Taylor Swift, John Bon Jovi, Mackenzie Bezos, Melinda Gates and all the other humane rich folk.

[LiberalArkie]

35. I would pay off congess to put the tax rate back to pre Reagan rate and fix it there for 50 years or so. Pay congress

to set up national health care system with public hospitals like in the rest of the world. Note to the right wing -> they still have private insurance companies and private hospitals. In most cases the same doctors work at both since most of the medical workers college is paid for by the government.

[LakeArenal]

36. Make other billionaires miserable and....

Take everyone I love on a wild dream ride. New homes,educations, best medical care, whatever makes my loved ones safe, healthy with secured futures.

I’d spend it all down to the last few million, making rest of my life secure financially.

PS … a couple billion on CostaRican emergency health care.

[Wicked Blue]

38. Buy Merde-a-Lardo

and turn it into housing for the homeless. Do the same with all of the Orange Traitor's properties.

Pay the Orange Traitor to move to Moscow, permanently.

Buy all of Murdoch's media holdings including Fux News; buy Sinclair and Clear Channel, turn everything into investigative/progressive/liberal media. Permanently endow NPR.

Pour money into the most promising research for alternative energy solutions, medical breakthroughs, methods of purifying water, ways to collect microplastics from the environment and do something useful with them.

Buy up all medical debts and student loans, and cancel them.

Get Elon Musk deported back to South Africa and permanently bar him from entering the U.S.

Pump money into the nation's public schools, raise teacher salaries, fund research into effective curriculums and buy educational supplies for them..

Buy and shut down all the weapons manufacturers and sellers and gun show operators in the US. Push hard for effective national gun control laws. Buy members of Congress to vote for it.

While I'm buying members of Congress, pay them to vote for universal, affordable healthcare. And to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, back to the levels of the 1960s.

Find ways to make life acceptable in the home countries of people struggling to enter the U.S.

For myself, a decent electric stove with four working burners, and some less hideous kitchen cabinets. Get the rooms in the house cleaned and painted, since I can't do it any more.

[Mike 03]

40. Great idea. You know who could purchase Mar-a-lago and

do anything she wanted with it?

MacKenzie Scott, Bezos ex-wife. She has been doing fabulous things with her $43 billion, giving it away to good causes--in the truest spirit of philanthropy. She could buy Mar-a-Lago for the pure pleasure of upstaging Jeff Bezos and turn it into anything:

A library of banned books
Santa's Village and Amusement Park
A heavenly safe house for everyone on Trump's enemies list (and provide security)
A museum of Trump's Disasters

[LakeArenal]

41. Personally I'd burn M Lardo to the ground

Then rebuild decent housing and pay all the contractors what they are owed.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

39. Give it all away, except maybe $20M for myself 😎 Buy LAND for White Earth in Minnesota

Likely I would purchase as much LAND in Minnesota
Next to, or adjoining White Earth to gift back to,
AND especially buy back privately owned land within the Reservation

Ideally buy at least 100,000 ACRES,
Although that’s expensive and difficult to make happen
Without some sort of Tribal eminent domain to force transfers

Then in Minnesota, a Tribal Trust setup of at least $2BILLION for college tuition costs
Of any tribe members from Minnesota and South Dakota.

Build solar plants to serve Residents of Reservations in Minnesota and South Dakota.
Free electricity for tribal members houses in Reservations MN and SD.

Build new Tribal hospitals and medical clinics here,
And in Pine Ridge

That’s just a start.

[awesomerwb1]

42. Do whatever I could to buy elections

and presidents so I can become the first trillionaire in history.

Oh wait, you meant what would I do.

I would satisfy my ego by buying my favorite sports team. I would have a beach house in Spain, a house in England, a house/ranch in California for an animal sanctuary. A few nice cars (nothing too exotic like a Bugatti).

The rest would go to charitable causes like world hunger, climate change, and animal sanctuaries in Africa.

[Tommy Carcetti]

43. Two chicks at the same time. nt

[milestogo]

44. Two chicks? That's all?

[Emile]

48. You would have great pecks!

[alarimer]

45. Give most of it away.

Whatever would do the most good for the most people. Pay everyone's student loans?

I dunno.

[EarthFirst]

47. Full scale replica of the Wall of Sound

Everyone is invited to come relax and listen…

[DFW]

49. I'd have to pare down my ambitions a bit. Even Musk doesn't have as much money as Musk.

Much of his wealth is in unrealized gains in the value of the stock he owns in his own companies. Were he to sell it off and turn all those shares into cash, the sell-off would create a market panic, and the value of much of that stock would plummet drastically.

Of course, even if he lost 90% of his net worth in doing this, he'd still have $40 billion, which is still slightly above the poverty level, last I looked.

[jeffreyi]

50. I would fund environmental projects.

Buy land, lots of it. Restore it. Give it to worthy stewards.

[Maraya1969]

51. End hunger and homelessness.

[hamsterjill]

53. I'd save all the animals.

To hell with the humans.

[Lunabell]

54. Make sure every kid in the US has food, shelter and clothing.

Every kid would have free breakfast, snacks and lunch at school.

And have an animal rescue farm.

[IzzaNuDay]

55. I'd yeet Eoln's racist, misogynistic @&& to another planet

in another galaxy, another universe…

[Dan]

57. There are several things I'd do...

1. Engage a search for Trump’s brain and high-school/college transcripts and public them all across the nation.

2. Fund a search to verify if MTG is male or female.

3. Fund a search to find out the truth about JFK’s assassination.

4. Fund real Public education in the Red States with certified teachers and actual books, excluding the Bible.

5. Reveal verifiable factual information to the public about these mega-churches and preachers.

6. Reveal verifiable factual information on the justices of the SCOTUS and their ties to big money, churches and political entities.

7. Solicit and pay for the complete education of all qualified students that desired to be medical doctors in the USA with an agreement that they would provide medical treatment for all patients within our boundaries - combined with the legal services to protect them from lawsuits. In other words, I would finance the bankruptcy of the Red states via legal actions that have criminalized health care. I would also pay for the legal services for all medical people that in good faith provided good safe-and-sane medical care against all lawsuits - again by taking the Red states to court and keeping them in courts.

[keithbvadu2]

58. I would consider all these lofty goals and still have money to finish this way.

[republianmushroom]

59. I would hire the convicted felon coffveeboy and fire him.

47 months and counting

[CTyankee]

60. I'd give a ton of it to Planned Parenthood. My local one and the national office in D.C.

They save women's lives, it's as simple as that.

[Meowmee]

64. Even with a smaller amount

set up charities to help people and animals.. with a huge amount like that, try to influence the way healthcare and other such things are run here, to eliminate suffering etc. Retire and start doing what I used to do as well for myself.

[LudwigPastorius]

65. Musk has more wealth than the Gross Domestic Product of the poorest 68 countries combined.

He has the money to feed 160 million impoverished people for 20 years while remaining a multi-billionaire.

That sounds good to me.

[electric_blue68]

68. After hiring security, I'd keep about 20 mil after taxes for myself, then happily give the rest away....

I have my own ideas, but got more from other posters, too.

For myself 2 - 3 bedroom apts right next to each other in ?Upper Westside of Manhattan. That way stay overs for family & friends. The 2nd apt would be for major art-making, and crafting!

A great stereo, and big screen TV. Lots of meals out, or take out. I probably would still do some cooking. A violin (I played viola in grade school, but I wanted the violin!). A very cool configure it yourself marble run. Some fancy clothing, and jewelry - but I'd make my own jewelry, too.

Art supplies, and craft supplies I could either have no longer afforded, or never could afford. Including some extra gorgeous yarns, some 22k, or 23k gold wire, and sterling silver (I use plated silver now, vs sterling when I had more money, and never could afford any gold). Some drilled rubies, and an emerald or two.

I'd revisit the Grand Canyon but stay 3days/2 nights. Back to San Francisco, Paris (originally a gifted trip), visit my cousins in Switzerland. Visit friends far away in the US. Maybe see the Pyramids!

Money to my family, and friends! And a few surprise gifts! 🥰 😄

Sooo many good causes, people in need.
With expert advice I'd set up various investments, and/or trusts so money could keep going.

Democratic campaigns funds!

Safe, modest housing whether buildings, single houses with subsidies for the poor. Better, and more food for food banks. And/or good meals for poor people delivered.

Better research $$ for mental health, and safer drugs for mental and physical Cancer, kidney, diabetes, AIDS, and lung diseases research. Better health care in general. Campaign monies for Single Payer.

More research for Clinate Change mitigation! More funding for good current efforts, and actual projects!

Donations to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

An invested fund for natural, and man-made disasters USA, and international.

Money to protect endangered animals, and trees, and plants.

More money to NASA. Yes, I believe in planetary, and space sciences.

There, that covers a lot! 🙂👍

[proud patriot]

69. I'd give it away

I'd start foundations to distribute it . for myself I'd travel, always
wanted to vist stonehenge . I want to see Iceland
and visit hobbiton in new zealand . other than that I'm good I don't need
things .

I'd like to get into heaven one day if it's there .

[misanthrope]

70. Fund carbon capture efforts

Nothing else is as important now.

[Iris]

71. Build apartment communities for kids who age out of foster care

[Rebl2]

73. Keep a little

of it and invest it, and then give the rest away to charities.

[Marthe48]

74. I share what I have as I can

When I played the lottery, I had a fantasy list, so I'll recycle some of those ideas. If I had that kind of money, I'd fund the local animal shelter, start orphanages in countries where kids need a safe haven. I'd sponser refugee families that make it to America. I'd donate to organizations I already support. I had other ideas when I was younger,
and maybe I'd follow through on those.