I'm surprised to see so many posters saying that they would give to charity anonymously. Wouldn't it be a much more effective way of combatting greed to have such unselfish acts publicised, to inspire others?
Personally, I'd give away every single damn penny of that money. Which may be difficult.
Firstly, I'd invite some people over, and pay them a large salary to help and advise me in the mammoth task of getting rid of the money. Steve Pavlina, for one, if he'd be interested.
Spider Robinson, for his imagination, intelligence, optimism and ability to see the Big Picture. Perhaps Bill Gates - I don't know. Facade or not, his charitable organisation has helped a bunch of people, and he's good at managing large sums of money, so he'd probably be an excellent resource.
Then, I'd phone up the BBC and say "Hey, I'm going to travel around the world giving away five hundred million quid - wanna send a camera crew and make a series about it?"
Meanwhile, I'd set up a website to accompany the series, and start monetizing it. This will be
my money, to spend on myself and the ones who are close to me. The original billion will be money for the rest of the world.
I'd take the advice of Bill, Spider and Steve into account while coming up with things to spend the money on, but here are some things I want to do regardless:
1. Invest in the One Laptop Per Child initiative. Let's be honest, although it may not be politically correct to say this: Africa is ************ed. Their social structure has completely broken down, their economy is laughable, fundamentalist religion is sweeping the country like some vast, unstoppable plague (teaching them that condoms don't protect against AIDS and other such evil, despicable bollocks), and the Government makes Saddam look like Mister Rogers. The
only thing that can help them right now is education, and that's what OLPC does, starting with the kids. It provides tools to help you think and communicate - which should hopefully kick off something to topple the Government.
Granted, it may take a bloody, vicious revolution to do it, but I say bring it on - as long as we and the USA keep their noses out of it.
2. Extend that principle to already-developed countries, establishing broadband lines everywhere we can. Get the USA's communication networks up to speed, and change the culture a little bit to ensure that everybody can talk to each other.
3. Build an arcade for disabled kids. I blogged about this a little while ago, and here it is:
JAMMA Forever - Accessibility-Aware Video Game Hacks
And, um... that's it, so far - for getting rid of the rest, I'd have to talk to whoever I included in the consortium. I'd get rid of all the money, and rely on monetising the site and getting some wages off the series in order to live a comfortable life for myself and my loved ones.