What would you do with all that money? In this scenario, nobody else needs to know you have that much dough either.
According to this article, $241 trillion USD is the combined wealth of the entire world. You could buy a pizza the size of the African country of Niger with that amount of money, and there's virtually no way you could run out in a normal human lifetime.
If I had that kind of money, I admit that I would use it for hedonistic purposes. I would buy myself a big houseboat and a Ford F-250 pickup truck, move out of my current residence in freezing Wisconsin, and travel around the world endlessly, exploring pretty much every inch of every country. Every day would be its own unique globe-trotting adventure. One day I'm exploring the jungles of the Amazon with my gorgeous Brazilian girlfriend; two weeks later I'm researching my family history and retracing my ancestors' lives in Denmark; two weeks after that I'm hiking in the Himalayas, or whatever the heck I feel like doing. I would have a telephone set up in my boat so I could call my family and friends even if I was elsewhere in the world; I'm sure my Brazilian girlfriend will miss me when I'm hanging out eating curry in Mumbai, on the complete other side of the world from her, and I know I'd miss her too and want to talk to her again. Just think about all the cool T-shirts I'd pick up from all of my adventures, all the awesome people I'd interact with, and all the one-of-a-kind experiences I'd have. I'd hit up most of the major tourist spots at some point, but 99% of my time would just be exploring the hinterlands and the provinces, getting a feel for how the locals really live and seeing if I really like everything else about Havana, Cuba, as much as I consider their climate to be almost ideal. I would have so much fun island-hopping off the coast of India, meeting with the indigenous people of Greenland, exploring every ancient Greek, Roman, or Egyptian site possible, or just cruising down the desert highways of Namibia with the tunes cranked way up; it would be hedonistic to the max, but it would be awesome!
If I ever got tired of that almost-nomadic lifestyle, I could get an island constructed next to Aruba or somewhere else in the Caribbean, declare it to be its own sovereign country, move there with my significant other and a few of our friends, and live the ideal life on our ideal island in the ideal climate. We could have big greenhouses where we could grow any kind of crops necessary or desired for food, fish from the water around the island, and have near-complete privacy among the six or so of us. And of course, we'd still no doubt have trillions of dollars left over, so we could still take trips to see family or wherever we wanted in the world without a problem. If I ever wanted to return to civilization, I could just pick a spot and live in a pretty lavish house there, and I still wouldn't have to work a day in my life if I didn't want to. It would be awesome!
I know it's a completely unrealistic and, in my case at least, hedonistic fantasy, but it is something I think about sometimes. (Also, of course, if there was an election in my home state or country I felt passionate about, I could send my preferred candidate as much money as I'm legally allowed to help his or her campaign too. I would also donate to environmental causes as while I'm not a global warming alarmist, I do think reducing pollution and superfluous land use is very much an admirable goal, and if we don't care about the environment, effectively we're just screwing ourselves and each other over.)
What say ye, NSG? Would you live the same way given you had that amount of money, or would you spend it in a different way?
