A billion pounds?

[ciphergoth]

babysimon: "You could do a lot of good with £1bn"

How would you spend a billion pounds in order to do good? You can't spend it on yourself or your friends.

Comments

[lovingboth]

Someone I know is friends with a handful of people who do have a billion quid. The basic lesson is that when you have that sort of money, you don't actually need to spend much of it for people to do what you want.

It's a bit like the joke about if you owe the bank £300 you don't have, it's your problem, but if you owe them £300 million you don't have, it's their problem. Various people become so eager to please you that they'll do stuff for peanuts.

You could buy a large chunk of the UK educational system, for example, by being the sponsor of 'academies'. You don't spend much, the state still pays 95+% of the capital costs, plus all of the running costs, and you get a peerage thrown in.