Forbes’ list of billionaires is out once again. Several of them probably will have the question, “Frank, what can I do to better use my resources to create a world that works for everyone?”
This is an excellent question for everyone in the world to ask, especially billionaires.
None of them has contacted me directly so far, but as soon as they read this article, I’m sure I will be flooded with phone calls!
When I chat with them, I will give the following suggestion:
“Since you are one of the richest people in the world, why not join together with the other biggest winners to take on the world’s largest problems? If you band together in small groups, you could parcel out the biggest problems of the world among yourselves and heal the planet!”
Some of them are modest and would say, “Oh, I only founded this or that company, or I only managed to accumulate investments, or my dad left me this dough. What would I know about solving the world’s biggest problems? I don’t even know what they are!”
The good news is that the task of figuring out what the world’s biggest problems are has already been done by the United Nations.
It hired some smart people to figure out what the biggest problems in the world are and they even came up with 17 answers! They are called the “17 Sustainable Development Goals.”
The homework is already done! If we only had 2,781 billionaires to fund this movement! Oh, wait a minute, that’s how many people are on Forbes’ list this year!
They already know how to do this. That is, do what you do to accumulate, protect and increase your riches: Hire some smart people to figure it out!
What are the problems? Which are the most important? What causes them? What causes us not to resolve the causes of the problems? What is the priority order? How can I use my money to make these things happen?
For example, I notice there are five Africans on the Forbes’ list. They could take on the poorest countries in Africa first!
According to World Population Review, the poorest country in the world is Burundi. Its gross net annual income per person is $841. The next poorest countries are Central African Republic, DR Congo, Somalia and Mozambique. All in Africa!
The five African millionaires on the list have a combined net worth of $49 billion. Maybe each of them could take on just one country to deal with.
They could hire somebody to talk to the insiders and outsiders. Ask, “Why is this country so poor? What are the causes? What causes the causes? What can be done about it?”
Maybe some of the corrupt dictators can be bought off! Who knows? Maybe you would have to buy off some armies, too. Maybe retrain them to grow crops, maybe persuade private landowners to sell off or give away some of the land, maybe talk the World Bank into allowing countries to pay their national debt with their own currency, etc.
There is a lot we can do! Money talks!
It is interesting to note, by the way, that Bermuda is the richest country in the world, measured by net income of individuals. It is $125,240 per person, with a population of only 65,000.
Hmm! I wonder if that has anything to do with offshore banking, its biggest industry. I wonder if any of the Forbes list has a bank account or companies listed there.
Imagine if Forbes contacted each person on its list and said: “Next year we are going to rank everybody on the list according to how much they spent to resolve the world’s greatest problems. Would you like to do that? What are the world’s greatest problems as you see them? Which one do you want to take on? Who else from the list do you think might want to work with you?”
Forbes, by the way, actually already gives everybody on the list a “philanthropy” rating. But it is simply a measure of total dollar contributions, not of how those contributions affect the poorest people in the world.
Of course, many list members, and their money, are already doing good work. However, I am asking them and everybody on the list to get even bigger.
I wrote a Forbes theme song:
“We are the world! We are the children.
We own the world! Together, we are taking on the greatest problems of the world!
We are actually so eager, we are fighting each other to see
who gets which problem, and who solves it first!”
Something like that anyhow. I am available for consultation.
Forbes billionaires, please feel free to consult with me. My fee will be hefty, but it will be donated directly to resolving one of the world’s major problems!