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

[andrewducker]

If you'd asked me a few years ago I'd have spent a chunk of it on making a Watchmen TV series - but now there's an actual movie in production that seems a tad pointless :->

I think I'd put half of it into a massive advertising campaign pointing out the huge loss of life/quality of life caused because we subsidise agriculture. And the other half into providing clean water in Africa. Those two things together would massively improve life for some of the poorest people in the world.

[figg.livejournal.com]

Burn it.

I think this question perpetuates the myth that everything can be fixed with a sufficient amount of money.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I'd fund immunisation and sexual health projects.

[aster13.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid my brain falls over when confronted with that many noughts.

Some of the sorts of things might be:

Investing in a public transport and cycle transport infrastructure which is sustainable and efficient
Investing in a more integrated healthcare system so that inexpensive, but more personal methods of improving health were a standard part of the system (such as massage, pleasant multisensory outdoor spaces in hospitals/hospices, mentoring, supporters, doulas, pets in hospital schemes etc
Investing in decentralised, sustainable, eco-friendly methods of energy production, conservation and transmission, particularly for those who can least afford it

These just happen to be things at the top of my head atm

There's probably about a million more, and a different day i'd pick different things. I've also just done things for the UK.

[lolliepopp.livejournal.com]

cancer research, homes for people who need them, more cancer research, old peoples homes.

[figg.livejournal.com]

Or maybe I've just been listening to too much KLF.

I don't understand the intent of this question - is it what project do you wish had more funding?

I don't think I'm at all qualified to decide how to spend that much money, and I doubt that in the end it would do as much good as changes to the law without money. For example:

You could buy drug patents, but it would be better not to have them in the first place.

Maybe I would go and get a couple of geostationary satelites and wireless kit to try and build a free global mesh network. Until it got blown up by the us military.

[andrewducker]

The problem with not having drug patents is that you've removed any incentive for drug companies to research them in the first place.

Now, if you want tighter control over drug patents, then I'd be with you.

[redcountess]

I'd give it to UNFPA, I've just calculated it's about US$4,000,000 short of the funding the Bush administration has withheld for the last six years.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I like this suggestion, but the figures don't seem right: according to this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_UNFPA

they're owed only $200M, so you could pay them that and still have about 90% of the money left...

[reddragdiva]

$10 million over five years to the Wikimedia Foundation, another $50 million to start an endowment fund for them. That leaves $940 million to go ... hmm. Similar sorts of arrangements for other small charities of my acquaintance, I suspect - enough money for them, not so much they don't quite know what to do with it.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

I'd give a chunk to the singularity institute, and use the rest towards treatment/prevention of disesase and provision of sustainable food and water in the poorest parts of the world.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

I think I'd put half of it into a massive advertising campaign pointing out the huge loss of life/quality of life caused because we subsidise agriculture.

I like this idea a lot too.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Surprised - I would have thought the SIAI's position and goals incompatible with a belief in either souls or a final judgement, enlighten me?

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

I don't see any reason why AIs wouldn't have souls, any more than evolved beings can't. I don't believe in a final judgement per se - I think everyone gets to heaven eventually, and suspect that singularity might well be exactly that.

[figg.livejournal.com]

You mean the only incentive people have to help each other is profit? Or that the drug companies only do so for profit.

Either way, why are they they ones entrusted with such a task?

[redcountess]

Oh yes, I always mix up how many millions in a billion :)

Ok then, I'd match Terry Pratchett's donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, I'd fund HIV research and HIV education and treatment in developing countries, I'd fund cancer research and hospices etc. I'd fund SANEline and buy a new server ;) and if there was anything left I'd give it to Liberty, Amnesty, Shelter and my other favourite charities.

[andrewducker]

Ooooh. I wonder how much it costs to start up a national newpaper, staff it, and keep it running for a couple of years...

TV is expensive, but newspapers might be doable.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

Because generally only organisations who have cared about making profit have the capital to put into the enormous costs of developing new drugs.

[altamira16.livejournal.com]

Say you have a research scientist. The research scientist has to pay to support his family. The only way he could do that and still do what he loves is to find someone to pay him to do his research. Now he can go work for a big company that has a big research budget, usually profit motivated, or he can stay in academia and receive grants to do his research.

You could funnel the dollars to pay for research involved in making new drugs.

I am not convinced that the dollars spent there are nearly as much as the dollars spent on meeting the various regulations to see if the drug is safe enough to use on actual people though.

[skx.livejournal.com]

Buy up a lot of blocks of flats, and rent them to students for peanuts.

Possible to the unemployed / other good causes. But primarily students.

[skx.livejournal.com]

How much do we spend on cancer research already? Would increasing that result in a "cure" more quickly?

("Cure" because there are multiple types of cancer, and not a single one.)

[hughe.livejournal.com]

recording studio and equipment available to the public on a limited basis, with a large amount invested with the intrest and dividends above inflation could pay for staff, bills and maintainence.
and other projects on a similar basis.

a bit like what was done with the roundhouse, but avaiable to the over 25s too.....

[elfy.livejournal.com]

woah... SIAI = interesting stuff! *reads*

[andrewducker]

Entrusted? Who's entrusting anyone?

Or to put it another way - anyone can research anything they like. But they'll find it costs them a lot of money to pay for materials, researchers, permits, testing, etc. If you want anyone to invest money in those areas then you have to make it worth their while. After all, they might invest a lot of money and not find anything at all.

The alternative method is for the government to employ a lot of researchers, but generally speaking it's turned out to be more productive to let other people take the risk, letting them head off to work in thousands of areas (rather than exerting a top down control over where they should work) and letting them get on with it.

Drug patents don't actually last very long - 20 years. After which point anyone can make use of that research to make their own generic copies of the drugs.

[figg.livejournal.com]

Say you live in a capitalist society....

Fair point.

I'm almost sure that more money is spent on marketing drugs than researching them though.