I’ll be honest, I have not been following the billionaire space race with Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk or whoever else has been trying to get to space on their own dime. What I do know is that I don’t want to live in a country where people prioritize cosplaying as a space cowboy instead of solving real problems. I’m borrowing from many internet memes here, but if I were a billionaire, I would recklessly fix things and make our country a better place. I wouldn’t waste my time and money to fly myself to space.
My interest in space and all things related is minimal at best, so perhaps I’m not the best source for this analysis. I support NASA and I think it’s important to learn about the universe around us. But I think that is best left for professional scientists and engineers. If people need to go to space, then it should be professionally trained astronauts under specific guidelines from NASA. I think we need to be aware of things in our atmosphere (and beyond) including satellites, meteors, comets, stars, planets, and maybe extraterrestrial life. I have never given much thought to the existence of aliens or UFOs or life on Mars, but it’s cool for the people who are interested in exploring those possibilities. However, I think those tasks should be given only to professionals who have spent years studying, researching, and analyzing.
If I had as much money as Jeff Bezos, I would fix things without a second thought. Flint still doesn’t have clean water? Fixed. Homelessness? Looks like I’m building tiny house villages across the country. Kids are going hungry? Grocery gift cards to every low income house. I would certainly pay my fair share of taxes. I would pay my workers a fair, living wage, based on the cost of living in the area of my warehouses. None of my workers would be homeless, hungry, or without healthcare.
I know next to nothing about business, but I do know a little about non-profit work. When people feel their money is supporting an ethical business, they will spend more. If Amazon’s profits have made Jeff Bezos the richest man in the world being this unethical, imagine how much more people would spend if the company was ethical? I spend a lot of money on Amazon every year. I admit it, but I wish I didn’t. I wish prices were comparable at other stores, I wish other stores could compete with the shipping speeds, and I wish it was easier to find some of these items at other companies. The facts are simple: Amazon is cheap and convenient. In our society, this trumps all else, including ethics.
Sometimes my wife and I like to play a game called, “What Would You Do with $1 Million?” This is a fun little break from reality where we get to dream about how we would spend this sum of money. We start off by allocating about $400,000 to debt. This would pay off all of our student loans and any credit cards or medical bills, as well as our cars. We set about $200,000 aside to buy a house. A nice house, but functional and affordable, to be purchased with cash. We would create a college fund for Julian. Since he’s currently planning to be a veterinarian, we know this is an expensive endeavor, so we’d start with $100,000. We plan to encourage him to pursue studies at community college, then a state school for both his undergraduate degree and his veterinarian degree. There’s no need to further line the pockets of private college presidents (been there, done that). That leaves us with $300,000. We would pay off both of our parents’ homes, give a large gift to a few certain relatives, and take an over the top vacation to Europe. Any money remaining would likely be invested or put away for retirement, likely less than $100,000.
Obviously people like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have more than $1 million to play with. According to a quick Google search, Jeff Bezos is worth just under $200 billion. Elon Musk, another favorite, is worth around $160 billion. Richard Branson comes in at a measly $5 billion. Let’s examine some spending options:
-Ending homelessness in the United States: $20 billion (HUD)
-Ending hunger in the United States: $25 billion (Hunger Free America)
-Fixing the Flint water crisis: $1.5 billion (Reuters)*
-Providing a tiny house for every homeless veteran in America: $370 million
I also think of less structured things, such as offering college scholarships, paying bail bonds for people charged with ridiculous crimes, building playgrounds, sponsoring underprivileged sports teams, granting wishes for sick people, or even tipping underpaid workers their rent money. I would sponsor adoption fees at animal shelters and donate food. I would pay off layaways at Christmas. I would buy beds for kids sleeping on the floor, buy bags for kids in foster care, or cover school fees. I would pay off lunch debt, support senior housing, and cover other things that are stupidly expensive.
As the wealthiest person in the world, is it Jeff Bezos’s responsibility to fix America’s problems? Absolutely not. But there are other very wealthy people who have worked to make a difference in the world. I think of all the things LeBron James has done for the Akron area. I think of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I think of the celebrities and athletes who have started foundations, scholarship programs, or other philanthropic endeavors to improve society. I think of the people, ranging from Average Joe to well-known celebrities, who engage in acts of kindness and pay off layaways or pick up restaurant tabs. I think everyone has a responsibility to make the world around them a better place. People who hoard money have a greater responsibility.
*An interesting note about the Flint water crisis is that Elon Musk pledged to fix it in July 2018. In October 2018, he donated approximately $480,000 to Flint schools for upgraded filtration systems. As of December 2020, there were still over 100 homes that still needed upgraded pipes and testing. None of these costs include ongoing healthcare for people who developed health issues from drinking this contaminated water.
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