Would you trust yourself with infinite wealth?

i think super rich people do fucked up shit because:

that's the only way you become mega-rich, and
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.

that’s the only way you become mega-rich
People have become billionaires by literal lottery. They're not evil geniuses; don't flatter them by suggesting so.
- Lottery winners don't often stay wealthy forever though
- It’s actually really hard to get a billion dollars directly from the lottery.
  You pay like 60% (or more maybe?) taxes if you take it as a lump sum. And still lots of taxes if you annuitize it, and then it will take too long to be a billionaire unless you win it in your 20s maybe.
- You don't become a billionaire by pure luck though, you need to seek out situations that could make you rich and then you need to get incredibly lucky (unless you are born into money of course).
  Being the type of person that seeks out becoming that rich is going to have to do it at the expense of others.
- according to this list, nobody has gotten a billion from a lottery, yet. but sure, i guess that is the way to get rich, without having to exploit others. i also feel like i ought to point out that i never accused anyone of being evil geniuses, just evil.
  edit: fixed link
- that doesn't typically end well for most of them either

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.

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.

Build lots of free housing everywhere
- Lowers rent significantly
Create a new healthcare provider that everyone is automatically included in with fees of $0
- Healthcare providers will have to lower their fees to even try to compete
Lobby government for fairness doctrine to he reinstated
- Right-wing media gets neutered
Create plentiful public food gardens
- Retailers have to lower their prices
Create a 500km tall gold statue of myself
- Satellites now have to clear larger orbits.
- Shining dong to inspire the masses

For the monument to your hubris, maybe make it a space elevator too? Also satellites can totally get around your enormous shining dong, it won't successfully clear LEO like you hope.
- Also satellites can totally get around your enormous shining dong, it won’t successfully clear LEO like you hope.
  narrows eyes
  what have you heard?

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.

Buy all the debt. Then fuck off into the sunset. Humanity is better off for it.
- I think this is sort of a pandora's box too. Buying the debt off means paying the banks, LOTS. So you'd not only inflate all currency to oblivion, but make banks the richest entities by far. That's dangerous.
- A Jubilee year should happen regardless. Yeah.

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

Maybe the worst of us should live in fear.

Billionaires should not exist.

But I'm a infinitaire

If I had infinite money, everyone would have infinite money.

Except Steve. Fuck you, Steve

If everyone has infinite money, it would suddenly become worthless and society would quickly fall into chaos. You must be an anarchist.
- You know too much. I will get to you first.
  Right after I deal with Steve
  Edit: In all honesty, I'd probably try and do a Manfred Macx, propping up technologies and social change aimed at leveling the playing field between the rich and the poor.

Yes.

Gimme.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.
- 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.

I’d get YouTube premium

I think I would because I know what it's like to have a real job and pay my bills with it - as opposed to being born into a rich family or striking it rich because you were the right tech bro at the right time and you got lucky (and you fucked your partners over a little too).

There's a million interesting social projects I would like to donate to. People and organization who don't need all that much to do a ton of good around them. I would feel truly happy to donate to them and feel as though I had a net positive impact in my community.

And also, I despise the arrogant tax-evading billionnaire class so much, I don't think I could live with myself if I realized I had become one of them without realizing some day. Just that thought alone would keep me on my toes every day I think.

I will hire people much smarter than me to fix those problems. Climate change? 100 billion to the scientist with the green coat. Poverty? 80 billion to the guy who gave away his only scrap of food. I will become the master delegator. Heck I’ll even have a guy who will do the delegating. Literally have the money do the work for you.

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.

Honestly, same.
On the propaganda campaign(in addition to other things) I'd directly target oil lobbiests and corporate executives. I'd drag them kicking and screaming into the light. Put a face on the ever-faceless corporate interests that fuck our planet up.

i would become so evil so quickly

Yeah, no kidding. I would never be satisfied with infinite money, I'd need more!

Let’s say that you have an opportunity to gain billions to fix the society from the top.

Society can not, and never will be, fixed from the top.

Nor is money the solution to our problems, if anything, it is a huge part of the cause (and why communism aspires to a moneyless society, among other things).

So even if I say I'd only accept the money if I could instantly redistribute it, as long as other billionaires, and the systems that create and uphold them, exist, my personal actions would probably make little difference in the long run, and any money I shared would end up right back in their pockets (by virtue of how capitalism works).

Does "corrupted by power" cover mega building projects?

I don't know where morality falls on my desire to build New Tenochtitlán.

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.

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.

If its just a money printer then you are basically just a federal reserve/ central bank. I would make myself rich and then buy up a bunch of property to convert into coops and a bunch of wild land to turn to reserves, also some big donations to hospitals. Anything more and I wouldn't trust my ability to predict the economic effects.

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

Give me the money, it will be wild.

2 chicks at the same time and no one would starve or be withought shelter.

..."I'll tell you what I'd do, man"...

Lol if I had truly infinite money, this is a story of what I would do.

I would first have a "magical investment bank" that would promise 200% per annum with interest paid monthly, but only if paid in cash and at least 50 million to start. Have this scheme open for a few months with actual results and interest paid out. This is to get billionaires and megacorps to liquidate their assets into soon to be worthless monetary instruments. Then, everyone in the world but the top 0.1% would get 1 trillion. Everyone's debt is virtually erased, and the old top 0.1% can go ahead, get their money back and feel bad about themselves. With all currency effectively rebased to a billion times than previously, now we can work on solving the world's problems as shoulder-to-shoulder equals. Give the world food, give the world shelter, give the world healthcare, give the people of the world a purpose, give the people socioeconomic freedom, give them trains, give the world a chance at reversing disastrous effects of climate change.

If it didn't work, then my money would be just as worthless any way (unless my infinite money powers could manifest in bottle caps or whatever the newest thing people found value in was).

I'd use the same tactics misinformation spreaders use to counter them. I'd buy all the media outlets I could and start forcing them to run left leaning and communist praising stories. I'd send the Murdoch's a check with "Kill Yourselves" written across the envelope and then play the rich guy "Whoopsie!" when they try to get me in trouble. I'd establish permanent funding for public schools with an attachment; you have to investigate each child's style of learning if you want the sweet 10 mil a pop. Honestly I think I can make every oligarch throw up and try to assassinate me.

Elon? That you? Start with overturning "citizens united"

Interestingly, I'd be forced to take this deal if wiping my memory of it was a side effect of rejecting it.

And when I took it? Yeah, the money would influence me and self interest would shape some of my decisions, but at the end of the day, I have to live with myself. If my decisions aren't also shaped by empathy and compassion for others, then I'd have lost myself.

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

Oh hell no. I would not trust myself.

Even less I would trust those I empower to fix problems because corruption is everywhere

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.

Literal infinite may be problematic. Let's say that I became rich enough by lottery for example. I for sure would live comfortably. But I trust myself to foster positive changes, but have in mind that collective problems can only be solved by collective solutions. Having money gives you power to mobilize people to work, but for the society structure to change, you need more than just that, you will need political change with population support, and that's demand time and a lot of work.

you will political change with population support, and that's demand time and a lot of work.
To be fair, this is exactly what Rupert Murdoch is doing for the right wing around the world.
- For his own gain.

If this is a magical entity, then I would just tell it to give me $100 for every $1,000,000 I use for charitable work that doesn't directly benefit me.

If I give away $1,000,000 100,000 times, that's 100 billion dollars of charitable work. And my net worth would "only" be 10 million dollars, certainly wealthy, but not idiotically wealthy. Plenty for me to invest and have doctor money levels of passive income, but only by giving away the vast vast majority of the money I get.

Or I guess I could just ask the entity to cap my net worth at 10 million dollars, and only give me that money when I have given away some arbitrary amount of money it gives me, like 500 billion dollars or something, Idk.

I trust my will to do it. But I will fail for two reasons:

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.
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.

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.

I would just buy houses in fancy HOA neighborhoods and let homeless people live there.
Homelessness doesn't exist because of a lack of housing.
- It exists because of a lack of affordable housing. If I'm gonna have infinite wealth it won't matter.

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)

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

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.

I think I would be fine. I already have limited wealth and I'm directing a significant portion of it to the betterment of the world around me. If my wealth/income increased tenfold (as an example) I don't think I'd be able to find a use for more than, idk, 15-20% of the additional money? So I'd just heavily ramp up the funds going to charities and local causes.

Extending this out to the infinite wealth scenario, I'd be able to help more causes so I'd need to find out which charities are actually putting money to use for what they say they are, extend my mindset beyond local causes and to the whole globe. Almost certainly drop some fat stacks into buying out basically every fossil fuel corp and start the process of getting that shit phased out. Sure I make some terrible people rich(er) in the short term with the buyouts but fuck it, the environment needs to be prioritized.

How I'd convince this hypothetical entity? Idk, probably just explain all of the above and I guess show some hard data on my track record for this. If the entity is determined to put the money in the hands of someone who is going to do good, either I'll be good enough or I won't.

If its not infinite and "just" billions then I'm probably going to funnel about half of it into local (national) causes and the other half into affecting what positive change I can worldwide. Process for convincing the entity remains the same.

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

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.

yeah I would just hire a really smart people And ask them what they think

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.

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.

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.

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?

I suppose it's a matter of perspective. Very few people in the world ever see themselves as actually evil. Every villain is the hero in their own story.

But if we recognize basic truths about people's preferences, I think a greater good can be achieved. Everyone wants a place to call home and good food on the table. Everyone wants good health and to have a sense of purpose or meaning to their lives.

This is universal, regardless of race, sex, gender, nationality, language (I can't include religion as some religions demand the oppression & extermination of others).

Infinite? Nah. I'm sure I'd use the money for good but even well-intended I do think there is such a thing as too much intervention.

I'd be good at first but then slowly get corrupted as I continue on feeling disconnected. The change will be so gradual thatI wouldn't realize until it's too late

Yeah, I’m awesome!

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.

If you see Bill Gates’ philanthropy in a positive light, then his public relations machine has done a number on you.
The Nation: Why Bill Gates’s Philanthropy Is a Problem
Jacobin: Bill Gates’s Philanthropic Giving Is a Racket
Adam Ruins Everything: Why Billionaire Philanthropy is Not So Selfless
Citations Needed podcast:
Episode 45: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire: Bill Gates and Western Media
Episode 46: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire, Part II - Bill Gates in Africa
News Brief: Big Pharma, Bill Gates Spin Against Generic Vaccines for Global South as Biden a No Show
News Brief: #VaxLive is a PR Scam So Those Causing Vaccine Inequity Can Pose as Saviors of Global Poor
Episode 146: Bill Gates, Bono and the Limits of World Bank and IMF-Approved Celebrity 'Activism'
- I did mention the criticisms there. Nobody else is stepping up to buy mosquito nets in the amount needed, though, so unsurprisingly Bill Gates gets to run the show, even when he has bad ideas.

I'd maybe be better, but I'd still have a kickass life.

Infinite? I would give infinite money away. Making the fiat currency worthless, and people would have to find a new way to exploit and fuck everyone over.

Believe me, humans will always find a way. Even if you took their imaginary money away. For now...

Maybe some day we will grow up past crying "mine mine mine!" Over literally every single thing. Doubtful i will even come close to living in those times.

I'm not saying I'm "forward thinking" or smarter or calling everyone dumb. I'm dumb as fuck 24/7. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how fucked up things are in our current way of life. I bet a huge majority of people would say it's fucked up to.

We just disagree on what to do next.

I would trust myself to spend it

I would give it away by making college trust funds for poor kids in my area until I had the 4-5 million left that I would need to retire and never work again. Why anyone has more money than that is beyond me.

Egotistical altruism.... Yes.

The better that we can make everybody else's life, the better your own life becomes in return.

I remembered reading a long post on Reddit about what to do if you win big on the lottery.

Reddit History: /u/BlakeClass's comment on What to do if you win The Lottery (GitHub gist)

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

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.

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.

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

The foundations I would be donating to probably would

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.

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.

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.

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.

You can’t fix society from the top.

Every person has to do their part to fix society.

The idea that societies can (perhaps only) be fixed from the top is a convenient excuse to abdicate one’s own responsibility for taking care of things around them.