I would buy an art school so my wife and I could study under a variety of practicing artists in a variety of disciplines for free, any time we wanted. This art school would have to include a music department :-)
More than what I would buy, I would think about what I would create.
I’d love to have the funds to travel around the world with a MBP and D700, and help out in impoverished areas while taking photos to tell the story back home. A photo studio would also be nice.
Heh, now that I think about it, let’s make that D300 a D3. :)
I would build in Times Square a 200 ft. pure diamond statue of myself tea-bagging George W. Bush also and at the same time ripping the throat from Dick Cheney’s snakelike neck, Patrick Swayze Road House style. I would surround said statue with a moat full of live alligators with official Iraqi IED’s strapped to their backs. Also and furthermore there would be a ultra High Definition sound-system inside the statue that played nothing but Megadeth’s Symphony of Destruction. Every night at exactly midnight there would be a fireworks show and free McDonald’s ice cream cones.
Id pay off our loans. Buy two or three homes in the city. Maybe a volvo. And alot of crap from the apple store.
makes me remember a question i used to ask in college –
if you had a billion dollars, and decided to give it to your alma mater on the condition that you could have your way with 10% on their campus, what would you change?
1. Google Inc. (Because I can.)
2. Apple Inc. (Steve keeps his job!)
2A. Mac Pro
2B. (2) 30″ Apple Cinema Displays
3. Microsoft Corp. (Yes, national unemployment rates will increase.)
4. … Do they really print this much money?
The ability to never work.
Just travel and enjoy myself.
I would also train myself in the ways of the ninja, come back to Springfield, buy a bunch of high tech stuff, and fight evil-doers. I would take up the image of what I am most scared of, so that my enemies could share my fear.
I would be know as Carrot Top.
NASA, the ESA, Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic, and the moon.
And a Vandercook Proof Press. Expect nicely letterpressed invitations to my new lunar base in about ten years. Everybody’s invited!
I would buy a small third world country and hire enough brilliant minds to create our own sustainable economy. I’d set up universities and hospitals with research facilities, provide clean water and free medical treatment for everyone. Abolish any child labor and improve working conditions throughout. I haven’t figured out the government part of it, but this is all hypothetical anyway.
That’s my big thinking brain talking. My initial response would be to buy a little house with hardwood floors and a yard big enough for a dog and little Dukes’ to run around. Also, to pay off the debts of my loved ones.
I would buy the AC/DC catalog and put it on iTunes.
If you had unlimited money, what you would ‘buy’ would become irrelevant, since you could purchase anything.
The relative values of any particular item are meaningless – everything would have a price tag of ‘free’, so you’re essentially just obtaining items instead of purchasing them. Your possessions would be exempt of any arbitrary value outside of their personal value to you.
That said, in order to not upset the world economy and bring about the next world war, I would adopt a transient lifestyle, buying a dozen or so homes across the world which I would leapfrog to and from, traveling via the least efficient means possible to photograph anything and give strangers cash. I’d finally keep a journal. I’d anonymously donate large amounts to blogs and nonprofits. I’d eat at a different restaurant for each meal; I’d invest overseas for future generations; I’d take good financial care of my eldest elders. I’d never wear the same pair of socks twice.
I have often thought about this (as has most anyone I know). There are the usual things that come to mind, like buying a house, making sure my entire family is taken care of, buying a nice new vehicle (1967 Shelby GT 500 btw) but I have a couple other things I would like to do. Our church is trying to raise about $1,000,000 so I would love to be able to just give them that money. I’ve had this idea to have the best Internet Cafe ever! A place where not only would there be amazing Wi-Fi available but also Cat5 jacks up the ying-yang for those who just need to be hard-wired, organic coffees and teas, amazing, healthy, organic food and snacks and of course live music. I know there’s places like that already but I live in South San Diego and there’s nothing really amazing down here like that. I’ve also wanted to grab people off the streets, help get them cleaned up and give them whatever they need to get back in society. I am a firm believer of teaching men how to fish ;)
I’d finish off my woodshop with a 20″ planer, Saw Stop cabinet saw, 10″ jointer, and a sick dust collection system.
A much larger supply of quality tonewood and Ameritage guitar cases.
Maybe a building. Right now my big tools like the bandsaw, bench, and thickness sander live on the porch, while my chisels, planes, wood, etc. live in a humidity controlled spare closet.
I have a dead on clone of a Dumble Overdrive Special (down to the brand of component used where) and ’64 Vox, but a band to actually use them in would be cool.
And one of the new BMW M3′s to top it all off.
I’d buy everything on earth, make it communal property and see what happens. Also, I’d buy a totally wicked fortress island to watch my little social experiment unfold.
I second the AC/DC catalog idea…as well as any Apple products….
1. Remake the Transformers movie properly….!
2. Erase the memory of Michael Bay’s Transformers!
3. Keep Megan Fox in my new movie :0)
4. Keep Michael Bay far far away in solitary (well maybe his friends can visit.. but he cant come out)
5. Chill with Optimus Prime after the movie is finished….
I would buy the future.
Freedom for those in slavery.
a warehouse, 1 of every arcade game made from 1980 – present plus 1 glide hockey table and 1 ping pong table(if they wouldn’t fit I would buy another warehouse to house), and a change machine that accepted 1 million dollar bills.
All the tea in China.
I don’t even care too much for tea, but it sure would be cool to say I did it for all the tea in China.
Seriously (prolly should be an unordered list):
1. I’d buy my 2 kid’s eventual college tuition now.
2. I want to go to South America, especially Brasil. I am addicted to tropicalia music and I’ve been close but never have made it to the Southern Hemisphere. Like to spend time at the Ponta dos Ganchos in Santa Catarina.
3. I’d build a studio where I could work from home, but not in my home.
4. Mid-century modern bullet planters
5. TRAVEL: Hotel Arts Barcelona, Dubai (want to see the architecture they are trying), Singita Sabi Sand, South Africa and whereever. I love to travel.
6. A slurpee, I’m thirsty.
I’d buy a perpetually deepening and ever expanding ability to cultivate life and land.
Mars.
my baby and probably about a dozen others.
About The Author
I'm a graphic designer and sometimes writer living in Anderson, South Carolina. I serve as the Design Director for NewSpring Church. I love Jesus, my wife, Levi's Jeans, good Tex-Mex, and 8oz glass bottle Coca-Cola Classic. On good days I love them roughly in that order. Email me.
A Question Without Parameters, Designed to Make You Think Big and Abstractly
Wed 07/30/08
Given an unlimited supply of money, what would you buy?