November Challenge Meme, part 10
Is there no end to this madness? All this writing and writing, blah blah blah, it never ends!
On the plus side, I have a great idea for my next LJ project.
On the minus side, I'm really gassy this morning.
And on we go! trishalynn wants to know what I'd do if I was given $24 million dollars to spend in one 24-hour period any way I wanted, just as long as the money was given to help other people.
How To Help Others In 24 Million Dollars. The Clock Starts... NOW.
This is way more difficult than it seems. The easy answer is, of course, "Write a $24M check to UNICEF/Red Cross/Goodwill/some other charitable organization, and voila! Helping!"
This is bullshit and does not work.
The problem with many charitable organizations is that they've become more like businesses where charity is a very minor side product that they dispense with in order to remain classified as "charitable". If I wrote out a $24M check to the Red Cross, about $20M of that will go to paying their executives and staff and maybe funding some trips around the world advertising how great they are, and with luck the remaining $4M might actually try to help some folks somewhere. This is no different from numerous other organizations and charities and what not. They have grown too big for their britches, and now help themselves more than they help others. Therefore, the trick is to find the smaller charities that actually do help others more than they help themselves, and contribute to those funds. This, as always, is not as easy as it sounds. But that's our first, best option.
The cynical crazy person in me says that the best way to help people is to spend $24M on a professional hit man and have them kill a large number of useless people who actively try to harm or hinder humanity. This, however, is criminal and borders on terroristic, so we won't really go further with this.
Then there is the gambler's approach. If one searches various crowdfunding sources, one can find a lot of innovators with inventions and ideas that, if properly implemented, could benefit the population at large, especially in underdeveloped countries. Renewable energy, clean water, environmental improvement, and so on. One could invest the $24M in various projects of this nature and hope that they come out successfully. If they do, then great, you've probably helped people. But again, this is a gamble, and they might not work as well as expected.
We could follow the investor's approach as well. How quickly can I surf the internet and buy things from small businesses, local distributors, artists and craftsmen? This helps the smaller individual, the small business, the non-franchise, the artisan, those who don't operate in Big Business and eat million-dollar deals for breakfast. But it would take a lot of time to spend even one million in this fashion, much less 24 million. But it would be beneficial and helpful to those who received the business. And then, in turn, whatever was purchased in this fashion could likewise be donated to those who needed such things, which in essence creates a doubled value for the money.
Is it possible to, in one day, combine all of the above (except the hitman option) for a maximum distribution of helping? I think so. And that's the route I would take. Unless the hitman can take out the entire Kardashian clan (and all associated characters) for a cool million; I'll give them at least a second thought for that, because that would help everyone. Everywhere. Forever.
TL,DR version: Killing is bad for the most part. Mostly. So do charity. Not killing. Nope.
On the plus side, I have a great idea for my next LJ project.
On the minus side, I'm really gassy this morning.
And on we go! trishalynn wants to know what I'd do if I was given $24 million dollars to spend in one 24-hour period any way I wanted, just as long as the money was given to help other people.
How To Help Others In 24 Million Dollars. The Clock Starts... NOW.
This is way more difficult than it seems. The easy answer is, of course, "Write a $24M check to UNICEF/Red Cross/Goodwill/some other charitable organization, and voila! Helping!"
This is bullshit and does not work.
The problem with many charitable organizations is that they've become more like businesses where charity is a very minor side product that they dispense with in order to remain classified as "charitable". If I wrote out a $24M check to the Red Cross, about $20M of that will go to paying their executives and staff and maybe funding some trips around the world advertising how great they are, and with luck the remaining $4M might actually try to help some folks somewhere. This is no different from numerous other organizations and charities and what not. They have grown too big for their britches, and now help themselves more than they help others. Therefore, the trick is to find the smaller charities that actually do help others more than they help themselves, and contribute to those funds. This, as always, is not as easy as it sounds. But that's our first, best option.
The cynical crazy person in me says that the best way to help people is to spend $24M on a professional hit man and have them kill a large number of useless people who actively try to harm or hinder humanity. This, however, is criminal and borders on terroristic, so we won't really go further with this.
Then there is the gambler's approach. If one searches various crowdfunding sources, one can find a lot of innovators with inventions and ideas that, if properly implemented, could benefit the population at large, especially in underdeveloped countries. Renewable energy, clean water, environmental improvement, and so on. One could invest the $24M in various projects of this nature and hope that they come out successfully. If they do, then great, you've probably helped people. But again, this is a gamble, and they might not work as well as expected.
We could follow the investor's approach as well. How quickly can I surf the internet and buy things from small businesses, local distributors, artists and craftsmen? This helps the smaller individual, the small business, the non-franchise, the artisan, those who don't operate in Big Business and eat million-dollar deals for breakfast. But it would take a lot of time to spend even one million in this fashion, much less 24 million. But it would be beneficial and helpful to those who received the business. And then, in turn, whatever was purchased in this fashion could likewise be donated to those who needed such things, which in essence creates a doubled value for the money.
Is it possible to, in one day, combine all of the above (except the hitman option) for a maximum distribution of helping? I think so. And that's the route I would take. Unless the hitman can take out the entire Kardashian clan (and all associated characters) for a cool million; I'll give them at least a second thought for that, because that would help everyone. Everywhere. Forever.
TL,DR version: Killing is bad for the most part. Mostly. So do charity. Not killing. Nope.