We humans have an innate tendency to help others. To varying degrees, in ways large or small, most of us help the people around us pretty consistently.
Whether we hold a door for someone, give a co-worker a sheet of paper, or volunteer at a charity, most of us find a way to scratch that altruistic itch, and that includes the billionaires. Many, if not most of them, have a drive to help. What follows is a plan to harness that drive.
It is estimated that the approximately 2,000 billionaires in the world have a cumulative worth of about 8 trillion dollars ($8T). This is over a dozen times the amount of money that has been poured into sub-Saharan Africa, to pick one example, since the end of the World War II. Some rough calculations show that various programs, both by governments and NGOs, have given the average sub-Saharan African about $1 a month for the last 60 years. Political corruption, interference by foreign interests, and uneducated masses do not let that dollar go very far. It is time to bring in the billionaires.
Consider this: The average billionaire is worth about $4B, although their fortunes range from a single billion to over $80B. Granted, this money is not sitting around in big, cartoony piles in their mansions, but they do have it– in one form or another.
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett– and many of their peers, have stated their intention to give away most of their fortunes, and they will. As important as the money would be the real value would be in the example being set for the hyper-rich. If each of these people pledged to annually donate 1% of their wealth, on average about $40M, to a ‘world improvement fund’ it would amount to about 80 billion dollars ($80B) a year. As senator Everett Dirksen (1896-1969), is reputed to have said: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
Why would someone do this? There are probably as many reasons as there are billionaires, but a few spring to mind:
They could leave a legacy in the form of a foundation that would provide basic human needs, like a medical clinic, or a community farm, far into the future.
They could build schools, from elementary school through university that would provide free education to anyone who maintained the drive, and the grades, to keep advancing themselves.
They could finance infrastructure projects like roads or seaports, making commerce and trade more efficient and profitable, as well as providing jobs to the local population.
Of course, there would be a condition to meet to be the recipient of such largesse. In this case, it seems reasonable that the billionaire donors would administer the money, not just hand it over to potentially corrupt government officials. History shows that that does not work. A condition of the gift would be that involvement by local governments and politicians would be kept to an absolute minimum.
An advisory body, to be established and maintained by the donors, would consider the funding of a particular effort. Proposed projects would be developed internally as ‘pet projects’ of particular donors, or through requests submitted by prospective recipients.
As far as putting the plans into action, locals would build what they could themselves, within the limits of their infrastructure and technical skill. On small, low-tech projects like irrigation systems for community farms, the locals would be able to execute the plans, with organization and overall management being the responsibility of the donor and his agents. On large projects, like power stations or housing developments, global engineering companies would be invited to bid on the work– with the stipulation that they hire as many locals as possible should they be awarded a contract.
Compensation to outsiders for specialized knowledge and equipment would be based on negotiations solely between the donor and the specialist. These donors are intelligent, accomplished individuals. They will drive a hard bargain, and see the best companies step forward to be part of a project that would have the potential to change a society for generations to come. The positive publicity generated would be an invaluable side benefit to all involved.
At the level of the individual recipient, there would be agreements to pay back the donor in some form of community service. A college student could help young children learn to read, for example. It would be a point of honor to be seen as a person helping the community while improving themselves.
What makes this proposal different is the fact that wealthy individuals from all over the world, worth at least one billion dollars, would be asked to come together as a group to identify and address problems that have bedeviled societies for ages. This effort would be undertaken by individuals bound together only by their common desire to improve the lot of their fellow man. (A small lapel pin, the Earth overlaid with “1%”, would identify this community of givers to themselves and those in the know. The pin itself would be inexpensive, but the chance to acquire one would be priceless.)
The money is there, and will be there for a long time to come. We now have available the potential to bring large resources to bear on large problems– without depending on politicians to act, or coercing taxpayers to approve the spending of money grudgingly handed over to wasteful bureaucrats.
I am not a billionaire; my thinking is not as grand as it might be at that level of financial success; but it seems that a relatively small amount of money, used properly, could do a world of good.
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