100 Billion Dollar Assignment

Dear Mr. Lobb:

Handing over $100 billion would be a gruelling decision to make. Think of it. What is $100 billion?  It was what President George Bush asked his Congress for in 2003 to add to the fiscal year to continue the fight on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was 1/10 of all of the money in circulation in the United States in 2007. It was the GDP of New Zealand two short years ago. It’s about the net worth of the social networking website Facebook. It is 1/5 of Canada’s debt in 2010.Trying to wrap your head around this quantity is hard. Just view the following clip of Austin Powers character Dr. Evil, plotting to hold the world ransom. Giving me the responsibility of handling this amount of money would be a leap of faith. But I am up for the challenge and I’m no Dr. Evil.

To begin with, money, in the past, has burnt a hole in my pocket. I’m sure this doesn’t give you much faith in me. But I would be responsible, for the most part, especially when you see how a mere $1 bill can grow to $1 trillion dollars in the attached video.

 My first priority would be my family. I would take a small and insignificant crumb of this amount to help them. I would make sure our electrical wiring is up to code. I would outfit Dad’s shop with all the power tools he would ever need. I would take care of the mortgage, car loan, taxes, and other debts to relieve any financial worries. I would make sure my education is taken care of, even though I wouldn’t really need a job, because I’d be rich. I would make sure to give us a massive holiday all around the world. Helping my family really helps me because home is where the heart is.

Personally, I would ask for just a little of the 99.9% that remains. I would invest in the company Blizzard.  They are the creators of World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, and others. This company has user-friendly games with awesome websites that will continue to expand and grow for many years. I would like to be an investor so they would have to take me into their company and let me test and develop future projects.This would bring me great happiness in my future life. The only other item I would need is a computer called the Emperor 1510 so that I could run these programs. With such a small investment of perhaps $10 billion dollars, I would still have 87% of the gift for my biggest priority.

So far, the hole in my pocket hasn’t burnt big enough. There is still a great amount of money left over for charity. I would probably donate as much of it, around 100 million, for our town to rebuild as many houses as possible, as quickly as possible after the destruction hit when the tornado struck. No one would have to worry about their homes. I am a believer that charity must begin at home. So, I would make sure that the one in nine children that live below the poverty line, roughly one million kids, have enough money to feed themselves, clothe themselves and have a place to live. I wish I could give them $1 000 000, each, but that would be ten times more than I started with. That’s a very scary reality for Canadian kids. I couldn’t even begin to fix other problems in other countries of the world. There just isn’t enough. 

Mr. Lobb.  Please give me this money.  I want to make the world a better place for my family, Canadian children, and even myself.

Sincerely,
Jack Thomas

PS: If I had a little left over, I would finally buy myself a copy of Microsoft Office, because I’m too cheap to buy it right now. And I would buy you a pony (haven’t you always wanted a pony?)