HOW MUCH MONEY CAN ANYONE IMAGINE HAVING ?
4/23/07
I saw a news item recently about a man who won the Powerball lottery. His cash out was $85,000,000 after taxes. He invested most of it and made $125,000,000 in two years. I have a pretty good imagination and have had a few ideas of what I would do if I won or came into sudden massive wealth. I immediately thought of what an amazing business I could build with just one million dollars. Then I imagined what I could do with two million dollars. Two million dollars could buy the best production and recording studio I could handle. I could buy my own radio station. I could afford a full staff . I could start a publishing house. I could create and promote a full length feature movie. I could feed one million people for a week in a third world country. I could buy an ambassador post to any country in the world. I could lobby congress and change foreign and domestic policies. One million dollars could pay $2000 to every congressman’s and senator’s campaign. A one million dollar donation to the Democratic or Republican parties could insure me a cabinet post in the next president’s cabinet.
I thought about having two million dollars; then I thought about having $85,000,000. What would I do with that sum of money? How much more would I possibly want? A person like myself has difficulty imagining that amount of money in their possession. What would I do with it?
I always laugh when I hear people say “if they had that much money they would invest it.” Invest it in what? The most difficult thing to understand is how anyone could lose all that money. So many lotto winners have gone bankrupt. I often wonder if I would be one of those people. The major problem people have with vast wealth is trying to keep it. Even people who earn millions the hard way often lose it all. Sometimes it is stolen from them, and other times they just spend it all. I can’t imagine how anyone can have so much money and lose it all, unless they lost their minds or gave it all away.
I can’t think of any reason I would willingly give away all of the money. A charitable trust gives money, but it never gives away everything. The Bill Gates Foundation has 59 billion dollars to give away. That is almost 10 dollars for every person on the planet. I know a millionare who owns three yachts. I always wondered why? Why would anyone want three yachts? He needed one for racing, one for his clients and one for his kids to use. I’d be more than content with one. I would be happy with a nice cabin cruiser.
I guess if I had all the money I could ever possibly use, that would be enough. I wonder if I would make a good millionare? I wonder if I would have the self disapline to be a responsible steward of all that money? One of my favorite televison programs, when I was a kid was The Millionare. It was about a billionare who gave away one million dollars to different people each week, and how it changed their lives for the better or worse. It wasn’t a reality show. It was well written. Some people had great lives and others lost or spent it all within months. I always thought I’d be the guy, who had a great life with the money.
After someone buys everything they could possibly want for the rest of their life, and had millions of dollars left over, why wouldn’t they give it away? When I see CEO salaries of 400 million dollars for one year’s work it staggers my imagination. It infurates me when I know they received these salaries because they cut 30,000 American jobs and outsourced them to China or Mexico or India or some other underdeveloped country. This is greed and treason at its ugliest.
Every rich person I have ever known has wanted only one thing. They wanted more money. They never had enough. They were constantly investing in something. I knew a rich man who would never buy a cup of coffee for anyone. He expected everyone else to pay for his coffee or lunch or dinner. He was so cheap that he wouldn’t give anyone gifts and the few people who worked for him all complained at how cheap he was. I knew another wealthy man I didn’t like. He had a crude and miserly personality. If anyone ever met him they would have thought he was homeless. In his case his love of money caused his mental illness. I was a commercial finance broker, when this man came into my office to apply for a loan. He had 25 million dollars of slum property and was about to be arrested and heavily fined for the condition of his properties. He needed 10 million to fix up a few properties and get himself out of trouble. His personal assets were nearly 50 million, but no bank or finance company in the state would touch him. I remember him sitting across the desk from me. His clothes were filthy, his glasses were dirty, and his demeanor was foul. His language was gutteral and profane. I examined his accountant’s statements and a thick book discribing his assets. I didn’t trust him, I didn’t like him and I understood why no one wanted to lend him money.
Ten million dollars wasn’t a big commercial loan, his credit history was good, and he had ample equity and income, but he had the reputation as the worst slum lord in the state. I was his last chance for a loan and I turned him down in our first meeting. I could not in good faith refer him to any of my private or public lenders without warning them of who he was, and he refused to consider a private lender’s high interest loan. One week later I read in the paper and saw on the television news, that he was arrested and heavily fined. He was forced to pay the fine and clean up all of his property in the state. More than half of his property was condemned and the rest had numerous violations. He had enough money to pay for it. He spent no jail time, paid the fines and cleaned up some of the property and abandoned some of the worst. I always wondered how and why anyone would allow themselves to become so low, with so much money. He reeked,his clothes were old and filthy. His face was wrinkled with deep lines in his cheeks and forehead. His glasses were smudged and held together with tape. His hair was grey and disheveled. He was a human wreck.
It must of killed him to be forced to spend so much of his own money. Shortly after the statewide scandal his only son legally changed his name. What good did all this man’s money do for him? He lost his family and his fortune, and made every person who had to live in his slums miserable. I never forgot him because he possessed almost every character flaw a man could have. He sold his soul for money,if he ever had a soul, and was left without any redeeming quality.
Money is a great thing to have as long as it doesn’t own you. Generosity,charity, and smart management are the secrets to keeping money. I think I could handle great wealth without loosing it. I think I could handle it without going mad. I think I would really enjoy being remarkably rich. It must be a great feeling to be able to write a personal check to feed one million people.
L.A. STEEL
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