If you were a rich man... What would you do?

If I were so rich that I'd never have to work again, I'd go to law school and become a public defender. I can't become Batman, but I can still help others.

SCIENCE! So much science. If I have enough to go around, I'll pay others to do science with me.

So basically, no change from my current life, except I'd be less stressed about money, and therefore much more productive.

I'd ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum.

If I were “influence the government” rich I’d probably start an organization designed to facilitate and encourage the spread of cooperatively owned businesses by providing loans to unions to purchase stock in their employers and by loaning money to start cooperatively owned businesses.

I’d also probably lobby the government for more protections of individual rights and environmental protections and more human focused urban development prioritizing shared mass transit and bicycles over cars.

Lifestyle, I’d stick to a middle class life. I don’t need things to be particularly nice to be happy, just more time with the people I love and the ability to partake in community

What this person said^

If I was a rich man, the only thing that would really change is the anxiety of losing my job and not being able to pay rent would go away.

It depends how rich

If by rich you mean what a child would consider a lot of money, i dont think i could do much with 100€

If by rich you mean infinite money, i would try to buy all companies and politicians i can, make money worthless in as many countries as i can and attempt to achieve anarcho-posadism or something similar

Move to a different country

if I was billionaire rich, I would buy companies that provide essential services and make them non profits.

buy useful tech services and convert them to non profits without advertising. e. g. YouTube etc.

lobby to ensure environment protection laws are made to protect the environment and not profits.

stop government subsidies on anything that's bad for the environment. meat. fossil fuels.

Buy secluded land and build a prep retreat/bunker just in case. Then take some time, hire a team, and map out a path to first taking over the Democratic party, maybe rebrand, then a path to taking over the government and updating the Constitution.

Have a child / children. Invest in my community. Help my parents retire. Get another dog. Buy the fancy chocolates. Probably join some sort of workout class for my own health.

Hunt other rich men for sport, and have my very expensive team of lawyers keep me out of prison.

Just become president, problem solved
- Is hunting billionaires an official presidential act? It will be when the Supreme Court gets the checks!

If I were just a little rich, I would work less, and spend more time traveling.

If I were rich (but not rich-rich) I would retire, move further away from the city, and make my own saw mill. Also spend more time traveling.

If I were rich-rich, I would fund Vasalgel, lobby for that project to make mosquitoes extinct, and fund a few low budget films per year, outside of Hollywood. I don't know where I would move, but I would probably still travel more.

Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash

New car, caviar, four star, daydream

Think I'd buy me a football team

Obligatory.

All day long, I'd biddy biddy bum

If I were a wealthy man

Came here to say this
You wouldn't have to work hard. You could build a great big house with rooms by the dozen, right in the middle of the town. ...if you were a wealthy man.
I’d have one long staircase just going up and one even longer going down.

And one more leading nowhere just for show.

I would buy up as many apartments as possible and lower the rent below market value, this driving other landlords to compete. Since they could not maintain a "sustainable" business model with their profit driven mindset, they would sell and I would buy. I would still seek a modest profit, which would be rolled into further acquisitions to further infect the market with sanity. It would be a McDonald's or Walmart approach to housing, positive effect by volume and low margins, but actually provide an undeniably good product.

I would also work with local businesses to offer discounts to residents of the apartments and employees of other businesses that also wish to partner, with the end goal of creating incentive to shop local and increase foot traffic, and therefore profits for those small businesses.

I would find residents who would be interested in starting a business, startup costs covered by my organization, and outcompetes with businesses who do not wish to be our partner. I would endeavor to provide free childcare and animal daycare/boarding. Ideally a pseudo private and free school system could be established to further promote the ideals of the community. Ideally provide free therapy. Ideally offer scholarships to traditional higher education or trade schools. Ideally create a system to help homeless people get back on their feet.

Overall the end goal would be to keep as much money within the local economy and maintain businesses that embody the values which create a healthy local economy, lower the costs of living, and restore the community to a healthy social state.

Or maybe I'll just start a sex cult in the woods.

I've been thinking if I could ever afford it, maybe work with section 8 to actually buy the property for the "renter". Sort of a lease to own, except section 8 pays. Once I've gotten my money back plus a small profit the home belongs to the tenant, and I build more housing, rinse and repeat. Would probably need to hire someone to help people manage that though. Some people don't know how to maintain a home because they've always rented or because mental illness or whatever.
I think the housing market plan doesn't seem likely to work. The real issue is not that current landlords are exceptionally greedy (the rules of capitalism assume and encourage everyone to be as greedy as possible), it's that there isn't enough housing stock to give everyone who wants one a unit. In economics, housing is more or less a commodity like everything else and thus follows the usual rule of supply and demand, i.e. insufficient supply drives up price until demand tapers down to meet it. If you buy up the city's housing supply and then price them below the equilibrium price, the result will just be that far more people want a place than you will ever have supply for, since you are not actually creating any new housing supply, just buying existing supply from other people.

I would think you'd have more success getting into the property development and construction business, buying up vacant or derelict lots in the city, building them into blocks of flats, and then letting them out on the cheap. You'd also have to hire lobbyists to prod the council to change zoning laws to allow for this development and obtain planning permission. It takes a lot of political maneuvering to make a housing project successful, not only because of legal restrictions, but also because you'll need amenities for your new development. Parking is a big one in the US unless you build a dense mixed-use development which is bureaucratically difficult to get planning permission for, but there's also considerations like whether the nearby bus line can handle the influx of passengers, whether the neighbourhood school can handle a hundred more pupils, whether there's a grocery store nearby, whether the area "feels safe", and so on.

Kind of the reason why State-run public housing schemes are so successful is because they are a government agency that has the power to brute-force the solutions to these problems. Zoning codes? Overruled. Public transit? Ordered. Schools? Built. Private developers don't have the power to do these things and have to beg the council for them instead.
- it’s that there isn’t enough housing stock to give everyone who wants one a unit
  
  There are >27 empty homes in the US for every homeless person.
  
  Alternate, non-paywalled source
So a commune?
Uber Landlord
That was worth reading to the end.

Well played friend. Well played.

To me "rich" means someone whose passive income exceeds their spending.

So if I was rich I'd stop working and instead pursue my personal interests. Ideally I'd buy a property somewhere remote and close to water with a lot of land and start building a homestead of some sort.

disappear from radar

do random acts of charity

buy senators and media to support climate change and education

make a competing big cheapo pharma

redirect fame/blame to paid actors

I'd donate to cancer research. You never know when it's gonna hit you and I'd rather die knowing I did something to help cure it.

Build a sweet ass house with a wizard's tower.

Im building the Planet Express building from Futurama.
YES! And then we ponder!
- You must be one of those goody two-shoes wizards... I'm going to be scheming - about orbs.

We have this really cool cafe in my city where you can buy buttons when you eat there, like 20 bucks worth, and people who can't afford to buy food can come take six buttons and use them to get a hot meal. I would subsidize the fuck out of it and hopefully open other locations so we could help as many as possible.

I'd tell ya what I'd do, man.

Two chicks at once.

Oh darling, if I had real money, I would use it to sow chaos and undermine the world's financial markets.

But most of all, if I have to live in this bullsh!t cyberpunk reality, we might as well have shadowrunners/Edgerunners/mercs. So I'd recruit as many paramilitary mercenaries as I could find and set them on the task of sabotaging critical corporate infrastructure, kidnapping any oligarchs we could find vulnerabilities for, and doing brazen, overt terrorism kind of stuff.

The idea being if I can cause enough chaos perhaps the people of the world might finally have enough and force change for the ultra wealthy.

It depends, how rich? Millions? Billions?

I would fix the gym/auditorium at my old high school (the drama club has to share it with all of the sports teams and PE, and all of drama’s stuff gets broken or stolen) so that drama has their own space.

Honestly I would only want two things, to not have to worry about money and to live where I want. So much stress and thinking goes into money that I think I would be quite relaxed if I didn’t have to think about it except for investments. I also wouldn’t have to worry about home security or how my pets are taken care of. For living where I want, my job and family takes me around the a world. I wish I had a small place in each location :)

Buy a place in Montreal. Try to do random acts of kindness on randos where I can. You can't generally change the world, but you can make personal impact.

I miss living in Montreal, great choice :)

Not go to work and sleep for about a year before I figure out what I really want to do.

Edit: move to Finland first.

move to Finland first

It's dark, wet and cold in here.
- Don’t threaten me with a good time. :-)
  
  Seriously though, we have friends there and have visited. We fell in love with all of it, from the culture to the landscape.

Get a house with a garden (backyard)
Start my own laptop/desktop line
Obtain and maintain a naturally aspirated manual V12 Aston Martin

I'd fund online counter propaganda campaigns. Drown out the voices of the troll farms attacking our democracies.

Pay the debts of myself and all my close friends.

House with a yard is already a check for me but I have a neighbour on both sides. I want a standing house.

Then I'd invest a lot in art, my own and others. Work less, play more. See the sights. Meet people.

You didn't say how much, from lowest to highest income level:

Retire

Help every homeless person in my city, then my county, my province.

Order or build locally, tiny homes for all the homeless in my city. Expand outwards if I had money left.

Buy the local power corp and run it as a nonprofit.

2 chicks at the same time

With enough money i think you could do that

If I were a rich man, Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. All day long I'd biddy biddy bum. If I were a wealthy man. I wouldn't have to work hard. Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. If I were a biddy biddy rich, Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man.

I'd build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen, Right in the middle of the town. A fine tin roof with real wooden floors below. There would be one long staircase just going up, And one even longer coming down, And one more leading nowhere, just for show.

I'd fill my yard with chicks and turkeys and geese and ducks For the town to see and hear. And each loud "cheep" and "swaqwk" and "honk" and "quack" Would land like a trumpet on the ear, As if to say "Here lives a wealthy man."

If I were a rich man, Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. All day long I'd biddy biddy bum. If I were a wealthy man. I wouldn't have to work hard. Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. If I were a biddy biddy rich, Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man.

I see my wife, my Golde, looking like a rich man's wife With a proper double-chin. Supervising meals to her heart's delight. I see her putting on airs and strutting like a peacock. Oy, what a happy mood she's in. Screaming at the servants, day and night.

The most important men in town would come to fawn on me! They would ask me to advise them, Like a Solomon the Wise. "If you please, Reb Tevye..." "Pardon me, Reb Tevye..." Posing problems that would cross a rabbi's eyes! And it won't make one bit of difference if i answer right or wrong. When you're rich, they think you really know!

If I were rich, I'd have the time that I lack To sit in the synagogue and pray. And maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall. And I'd discuss the holy books with the learned men, several hours every day. That would be the sweetest thing of all.

If I were a rich man, Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. All day long I'd biddy biddy bum. If I were a wealthy man. I wouldn't have to work hard. Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. Lord who made the lion and the lamb, You decreed I should be what I am. Would it spoil some vast eternal plan? If I were a wealthy man...

Be Batman.

If I had millions I'd buy some land and build a space for artists and musicians to come and hang out and make things.

If I had billions I'd disrupt the appliance industry because I can't find any decent appliances.

Disrupt the appliance industry by making indestructible appliances that share replacement parts. Same heater in the dishwasher as the oven. Sell/rent them as a subscription service. That way you ultimately get to realize the longevity and repairibility.
- Totally. And have a microwave with programmable settings. And make an induction cooktop with <1 second pulse width modulation and probe thermometers. A dishwasher with a detergent dispenser. Open source the plans, build them without plastic parts that break and fall off.
  
  And bring back that awesome Sunbeam toaster.

Fuckin' A

Buy a house in a safe neighborhood for myself. Establish at least one housing complex for the homeless with medical, psychiatric, and general care staff as close as possible to said safe neighborhood. Repeat until all that is left is enough to keep said complexes staffed and operational for at least 5 years.

Keep at least $1,000,000 to invest into the stock market in various ETFs, REITs, and LEAP Option calls. All profits go back to maintaining and establishing more housing complexes for the homeless.

All my free time would be spent figuring out how to end the homelessness crisis. If ever accomplished, focus my efforts on the public education system, and praying I somehow have the willpower to avoid corruption.

Great old novel/movie "The Magic Christian."

https://youtu.be/FE2zTnOJ94I

Peter Sellers is a billionaire who decides to wage war on his own class.

At this point, setup a refuge for disabled people in similar situations as myself. I would help people make the best out of what they can do without the misery of fighting for the fundamental right to survival in a suicide inducing system of terrorism from government and those that do not understand chronic pain and unfixable problems.

I'd also likely get an Iron Man like exoskeleton to fix my weak and useless torso.

I'd pay my workers more and stop being a dick

Do art, woodworking, and other hobbies in a remote location.

I would calculate the amount of money I would need to keep in investments and in my bank account in order to generate, in interest/returns,etc, the amount I would need to live comfortably for the rest of my life. I would then donate the rest to various charities.

Weekend everyday, basically. I don't care for a house or fancy things, I'd spend my time creating art and having fun with friends - who I'd share some wealth with.

I'd go to college. I'd learn all the things I had to teach myself, but properly. I'd spend as many of the remaining minutes of my life with my family, giving them the things I always couldn't. As a father, you're expected to work your ass off to provide for your family, and doing so trades away all the precious moments you could have had. My kids are almost adults now, and I regret every day not being born rich.

I'd buy myself a more proper country and be the change I want in the world.

id like to open a roller skating rink with attached cereal bar.

Do whatever I could to get sustainable energy going, just invest in all the renewable energy projects. Let's get everyone going with solar panels! Wind farms wherever we can! Free charging stations for everything!!! Oh, your battery tech project needs funding? Here's all the money you need!

Buy high-end items for all of my hobbies.
Eat regularly at my favorite restaurants.
Wear clothing that isn't locally available.

it sorta depends on if I already was rich with financing setup or if I like one a huge lottery. Im not rich now so im assuming like I won a multi billion dollar lottery. I would talk with lawyers and accountants to see how I could do the following. Half to my wife to do as she pleases but I would encourage her to do as I do with my half. Half of my half goes into a fund that would be very diverse but dividend heavy for stocks and auto rebalance. divedends would go to me to live my life. The other half I would be to give away but split in two. Half for family and friends and half to strangers. I would see if there is ways to give it out without connecting back to me. For the half that goes to others fully half of that would be for use in my country and currently it would be geared toward donations to get campaign finance reform, fighting citizens united. If our democracy was brought back to it would pivot to environmental causes (more important except that anything is useless when the country is useless). the other would be for global and geared toward to helping democratic processes and unbiased news abroad along with climate intiatives. Again all the things would emulate the same fund structure.

Probably never work again. Get a house that I actually like. There's nothing wrong with the house I have, but it's no dream house. It's just a house.

After that, 🤷. Maybe I could actually take some oversea trips. I hate flying them in coach. Maybe first class wouldn't be so bad.

Hobbies. I like making lots of different things and giving them away. I would fix all sorts of things and give them to the needy. I'd love to fix up crappy houses and cars and everything broken and give it back. I hate throwing things away and love repairing them. I think the world would be a better place if we did that a lot more, so I want to be the change I want to see.

Learn to fly a helicopter Build a simpit Fund a research expedition somewhere

Assuming Elon musk level money with a diversified portfolio that doesn't bias me to a small set of companies or industries. I'd make a man made archipelago on international waters and start my own country. We'd be formed foundation style with a purely meritocratic government and society contributing 100% to the betterment of mankind and our future prosperity. I'd like to envision something like a modern library of alexandria were all are welcome. Alternatively I could just try to make the uk or America less moronic but sadly the state of things just depresses me. We need a hard reset IMO.

Pretty much what I do now, but with way more sex.

(I'm disabled so I have lots of free time to game and fuck around on the internet)

I've always had this fantasy of dressing up like a superhero and helping folks out. Like fixing flat tires and small stuff like that. I'd hire a sidekick to do all the heavy lifting while I stood around taking the credit and making silly jokes