 I put a version of this elsewhere. The idea is not mine, but the expression is. What is a #billionaire? Here I don't mean the definition. I mean more "what kind of person is a billionaire?" There's a simple #MentalExercise you can do to figure out what kind of person a billionaire is. Someone hands you a million dollars. You *must* spend it today. All of it. On yourself; no charity. Could you do it? Of course you could! Anybody could spend a million dollars in a day! ๐งต (1/n) 9 comments
But every day this person comes back. Spend a million dollars today. All of it. All on yourself. How long could you do this? A week? A month? I think at 30 days people are going to find themselves doing stupid things. Buying their third home. Their tenth car. The hundredth "ultra-rare" collectible (to be placed in the vault containing the rest of their "ultra-rare" collectibles never to see the light of day again). Certainly by six months most people would find it impossible. ๐งต (3/n) But day after day this person comes to you. A million dollars. Spend it today. For one thousand days (that's just shy of two years and nine months) you are faced with the ever-more-onerous chore of spending a million dollars in a day. What once started out as a fantasy is turning into horror. You're buying ever more idiotic things, just trying to get rid of the filthy lucre. You probably don't even know what you own anymore. You certainly won't be finding any joy in it. ๐งต (4/n) Finally, after nearly three years, it all comes to an end. You've spent a billion dollars. You're an absolute wreck. You have everything you ever wanted and ten times that in things you never wanted. And now it has come to an end and you can take stock of the insanity that your life had become. A #billionaire? That's the person who doesn't think this is enough. ๐งต (5/5)  @zdl I'm not a capitalist (obviously) but billionaires and their bootlickers insist that actually these billions of dollars are invested in businesses. They know very well how they'd spend that money. Money isn't just materials, it's power and influence, which is what it means to be a member of the ruling class. @comradeferret I'm aware of this. The point of this was to establish what kind of person a billionaire is.   Billionaires do not spend money on things, they spend it on power. @the5thColumnist You're missing the point of the mental exercise. A billionaire is a person who can own literally everything they ever wanted and then some by orders of magnitude ... and still think it's not enough. Of *course* that kind of person tries to get power with it. They're wired wrong. |
Gregory's Server
Most people either have a mortgage they'd like to pay off (or they rent and would rather own). A million bucks is a nice chunk of a mortgage (or a nice down payment). A fancy car. A nice wardrobe. Cool hobby gear. The list is endless. Anybody could imagine spending a million bucks in a day.
Next day you're facing the same person and they give you a million. Same rules. Spend it on yourself in a day. Could you do it?
Of course you could! Easy peasy! Loads of things left!
๐งต (2/n)