£40,000,000,000

[BobbyD]

I'm certainly not saying that Twitter has some kind of right to exist, that it will last forever. Just look at Altavista in search, or MySpace in social media. But at the same time, it now has a sufficiently big network that whatever replaces it would have to be more than just "a bit" better than Twitter - or Twitter has to get a lot worse (Musk is doing his best). There doesn't seem to be an equivalent right now - Mastodon seems to be the nearest but it has its quirks and lacks the instinctiveness of Twitter, it's a bit like Twitter for Linux - so they seem to be setting it up as a backup rather than using it day to day.

All sorts of things with big networks persist even if they're demonstrably not as good as some of the alternatives. A classic example is Brunel's insistence on using a 7' gap between the rails of the GWR - to allow more powerful engines, a more stable ride and more freight capacity - but they were reduced to the 4'8.5" spacing of the rest of the network by 1892.

Musk has just paid $44 billion for a loss making business he has no idea what to do with, didn't want to buy in the first place, and whose advertisers customers are very sensitive to the potential harm being linked with a covid denying, pro-Republican internet troll who has suggested allowing Russia to annexe parts of Ukraine and giving Taiwan to China might do to their reputation...

There's no good 'previous' to compare this to. Whatever replaces it, in whatever time frame, might not have to be better just solvent. There's also a significant movement to re-de-centralise the internet which isn't going to help the established players, least of all Twitter which has a meagre 250 million active users, and that's before you discount all the extra bot accounts Musk was so insistent existed and the fact that whatever he decides to do with Twiteer they've just fired half the people who make and maintain the code...

[DrFfybes]

Personally

Haven't made this years ISA contribution yet. Pull the trigger on the new computer I've got specced out...

Good deeds come out of income not capital, although by the time we've got to this point that might not be quite so necessary...

Oddly after my lottery win earlier this week (£3.59) and this post, I was lied in bed last night pondering what I actually would do with £40Bn.

First thought was "get someone in to replace the kitchen tap that dribbles occasionally", then I realised this was daft, as it is a Bristan easyfit and I can DIY in 20 min if I remembered when Screwfix send me a tenner voucher. The difficult question is knowing how much that sort of money would change someone - we are not natural spenders, we prefer to do jobs ourself, and if I wanted to splash out on a new car or spend £20k on new double glazing or whatever, we already can.

I actually think that much money would be a huge burden. I would have to get someone to look after it, I think Vanguard migh have a fit if I tried to buy £20Bn each of VEVE and VHYL, so perhaps split it thirds in BRK.A And as Bobby says, the income alone would be sufficient to do a lot of good. Even at the 2.3% from VEVE that's a billion a year in income, or roughly £3m per day. That takes some donating.

There's a green area in the village owned by the church, been leased to the Parish for 50+ years but now the church is trying to sell it for housing. I could buy that and gift it to the community, but then what do I do with tomorrow's income? Ignoring the impact on supply chain and resourcing, the local Foodbanks would be set for years by lunchtime, by teatime the local homeless would have homes within a couple of days, then there's a local stately home in need of a roof, but then what? Asylum seekers, homeless, schools, mental health, etc etc.

The only thing I do know is that is I did suddenly acquire that sort of money, I sure as hell wouldn't be putting the fact on Social Media.

And I'd probably still have a dribbly tap.

Paul

[Leothebear]

The reason I asked the question was, apart from passing the responsibilities on to established charities, there is no easy answer. Even one billion requires a lot of thought. Do you concentrate on one needy cause or several, with the risk of spreading your charity too thinly? What about the issue of trust? Keeping tabs on where the funds go will be one of many tasks you'd have to bear. It'd simply be a lot of work.

On a personal level, I'd look after all the debts for friends and family. Maybe a nice gift as well.
As for my own material desires, I already have all I need, so it'd just be the initial spending frenzy and after that I'd expect the thrill to subside after about half a million. Some time ago I'd have jumped at the idea of a luxury world tour of some kind. Now, however the pleasure of that is tarnished with the guilt of the negative environmental impact of such a venture.

All that said, I wouldn't turn down the opportunity.

[ReformedCharacter]

£40B is obviously a huge amount of money and if one wishes to make best use of it for other people then it would take a great deal of work to ensure that the money is usefully spent. My personal preference would be to provide education for young people in African countries to help improve standards of living and to prevent the vast waste of human potential there, with particular emphasis on young women. I used to work at a girl's school in Kenya so I have some idea of practical measures that would improve standards of living which should offer some likelihood of reducing population growth. Secondly, I would like to support the provision of clean drinking water and other measures to support improved medical care. Thirdly, I would like to support funding for the development of solar power to make sustainable energy use widespread and therefore affordable and within the reach of the poor. Lastly, I would like to promote sustainable food production which is becoming more difficult due to climate change. I have been impressed by the movement towards promoting some of the more sustainable traditional cereal crops that were produced and consumed before the introduction of maize which requires higher rainfall than more traditional cereal crops which are more drought tolerant and provide a wider variety of nutrients.

RC

[Howard]

£40B is obviously a huge amount of money and if one wishes to make best use of it for other people then it would take a great deal of work to ensure that the money is usefully spent. My personal preference would be to provide education for young people in African countries to help improve standards of living and to prevent the vast waste of human potential there, with particular emphasis on young women. I used to work at a girl's school in Kenya so I have some idea of practical measures that would improve standards of living which should offer some likelihood of reducing population growth. Secondly, I would like to support the provision of clean drinking water and other measures to support improved medical care. Thirdly, I would like to support funding for the development of solar power to make sustainable energy use widespread and therefore affordable and within the reach of the poor. Lastly, I would like to promote sustainable food production which is becoming more difficult due to climate change. I have been impressed by the movement towards promoting some of the more sustainable traditional cereal crops that were produced and consumed before the introduction of maize which requires higher rainfall than more traditional cereal crops which are more drought tolerant and provide a wider variety of nutrients.

RC

If you wanted to do most of the things you mentioned above but in a smaller way than 40bn you might be interested in Action on Poverty, a small charity supporting initiatives in Africa. They have a number of projects supporting young women and are small enough that you could talk to the team who are in charge and check them out.

Worth a look? https://aptuk.org.uk/

Other charities are available, of course.

regards

Howard

(Declaring an interest, I am a supporter but otherwise have no connection.)

[BobbyD]

I actually think that much money would be a huge burden. I would have to get someone to look after it, I think Vanguard migh have a fit if I tried to buy £20Bn each of VEVE and VHYL, so perhaps split it thirds in BRK.A And as Bobby says, the income alone would be sufficient to do a lot of good. Even at the 2.3% from VEVE that's a billion a year in income, or roughly £3m per day. That takes some donating.

I'm not sure if i would describe it as a burden, afterall worse case scenario you take the day off and the numbers on a computer somewhere get bigger.

I'm also pretty sure I'm not the only one here prone to falling down the odd Internet rabbit hole. The one change that scale of money dies make is that you can consider buying companies rather than shares and funding projects rather than donating to them. Whether you make a call and stick with it or hand the day to day off and move on o think I could probably handle having the resources to solve any problem that irked me on hand.

Food, health and education in the developing world are obvious but worthy causes. I've always been interested by givedirectly which takes Milton Friedman's observation that what poor people need is money and put it in to action, then looks at the effect it has on the recipients and their communities. Solar microgrids seem like an obvious but underused developmental tool. None of these would require much thought. Eventually I suspect if you keep digging you are going to find that many if the problems you come up against are going ro be governmental and political, and less easy to overcome...

Oh, and i might be giving FSG a call about the investment opportunity in Liverpool FC. It's probably the only way to ensure I retain the insanely good seat I've git for euro games this season...

On balance I think I'd probably accept the money if anyone is offering.

[TUK020]

That's what I meant by any teenage dweeb inventing Chitter/Bitter/Shitter/Squitter or whatever. If it's a bit better than Twitter, then they'll all be over there tweeting their condolences in a flash. At no cost. Or course, it could also just 'run its course' and folk get bored with it and just drift off. Who would have thunk that Zuckerberg would have had to reinvent Facebook?

Rumour is that they are going to merge the platforms of Twitter, WhatsAp and Facebook. They will call the new super ap "TwatFace"

[brightncheerful]

£40,000,000,000 would almost cover Jeremy Hunt's fiscal deficit

Dod

Don't worry. the government would soon find a way to replace the current deficit with another.

I reckon one reason the UK productivity growth is so poor is that taxpayers are fed up with the politicians wasting the hard-earned money on hair brain projects, etc.

[brightncheerful]

If I had £40M I'd put the max into an ISA, get £50K in premium bonds, and live off the capital and never pay tax again.

[swill453]

If I had £40M I'd put the max into an ISA, get £50K in premium bonds, and live off the capital and never pay tax again.

Your bank will love you, for putting nearly £40M (or is it £40B) in a non-interest-bearing account.

Scott.

[Dod101]

If I had £40M I'd put the max into an ISA, get £50K in premium bonds, and live off the capital and never pay tax again.

Your bank will love you, for putting nearly £40M (or is it £40B) in a non-interest-bearing account.

Scott.

BNC could maybe own the bank!

Dod

[brightncheerful]

If I had £40M I'd put the max into an ISA, get £50K in premium bonds, and live off the capital and never pay tax again.

Your bank will love you, for putting nearly £40M (or is it £40B) in a non-interest-bearing account.

Scott.

Who said anything about putting it in a bank?

As for the risk of being robbed, a client felt vulnerable when he was carrying £5,000 in cash in a plastic bag when walking along the high street to where his car parked. Until he realised only he knew what was in the bag. Mind you nowadays, that the bag was made of plastic would be more of a worry.

Speaking of which, whilst visiting a National Trust property and after reading about the mistlethrush which uses leaves, moss, twigs and sometimes plastic for its nest that can take up to 3 weeks to make, i wondered whether if and when plastic is rare if the bird would take longer than 3 weeks to build a nest.

[Lootman]

If I had £40M I'd put the max into an ISA, get £50K in premium bonds, and live off the capital and never pay tax again.

It is £40 billion, not £40 million, so the ISA would not make much of an impression on it.

But I like your idea of having that much and paying no tax. Other ideas would be to invest in anything that doesn't create a tax event e.g. zero dividend/coupon bonds, Berkshire Hathaway shares etc.

Or just buy an island somewhere, or a yacht, so that you aren't tax resident anywhere.