So I’ve just started watching the new Netflix series ‘Countdown’ about Elon Musk’ latest innovative money spinner to send people into space for 3-days, eclipsing Richard Branson’s previous effort of 4-minutes. Now I won’t dive too much into billionaire p****** contests and in fairness I know Elon Musk has done a lot of good (electric cars, Ukraine’s recent internet issue) and to clarify this rant isn't specifically about how rich people spend their money but more accurately aimed at both the mis-spending of mass wealth and how mankind continually fails to fix its own mess before making another one elsewhere, which is a question actually put to Musk in the documentary.
To perhaps Segway from there to here, a few years ago we’ll all remember Greta Thunberg appearing in our lives, the Swedish teenager putting her peers and us adults to shame with her activism on the current s*** show that is our environment and how generations before us have put their wallets before our livelihoods. It begs the question why we’re still deciding to have children when it seems mankind is hell bent on destroying the planet, be it by pollution or warfare or both, as is currently happening to accelerate ourselves towards extinction, or Mars, as per Musk’ vision.
In a nutshell, I think we have a small window (8-years) to considerably reduce the current carbon footprint to within the latest set of target parameters (whatever that is) and by 2052 we have to be completely ‘green’, which is a hugely over-simplified statement, since I don’t have the column inches to run through all the means and methods along the way.
Now, while some billionaires use nuclear weapon threats as a vehicle for their p****** contests and others mini-breaks to space, it makes me wonder how this mass amount of money could be better spent. To give context of how much money Wars cost, it was only in 2006 that Britain paid off the debt of World War II…and that was a war fought in large on the ground by soldiers with guns, not with the high-tech missiles and drones utilised in modern warfare. Also, I read an article last week how Président Biden was sending $800m in aid to bolster the Ukraine’s military arsenal, which although is a must to support Ukraine, could build approximately 2 or 3 hospitals or 16 schools, depending on which Country you build them in. Imagine such an amount going into cancer research, AIDS and Ebola vaccines, poverty, education, child illnesses, animal shelters, the environment, taking guns off the street…pick anyone of them or the other millions of good causes, which require funding. I’ve no idea how much the current sunk costs of the War on Ukraine are let alone the endless wars which have gone before it but it’s in the trillions and beyond…money we can’t even comprehend yet there’s always adverts on the tv begging for £3, £5, a month to donate to endless great causes across the world while Governments spend billions on security. One of my mates is currently raising money for underprivileged girls in rural communities of Morocco to provide them with schooling. One of the guys who runs a class I take my son to is campaigning for larger funding in his line of work, which offers support work to children with illnesses. There’s an endless list of benefactors who should receive money before anarchy.
I get money has to be spent on national security due to an endless conveyor belt of miserable miserable miserable men wanting to destroy each other. I’m a fan of the work Elon Musk puts his money too and his electric cars are obviously creating a better environment but the cost of trips to space are ludicrously expensive and surely all this money, which exists in our world needs to be spent more wisely for the sake of saving lives and our planet.
Furthermore, why do we not spend money on fixing problems on Earth. Instead they’re often left broken and money is then spent creating another mess somewhere else. Like the money spent on trying to determine if we can live on Mars, because we f***** up Earth.
All the issues with the environment, damage to infrastructure, even many illnesses have been created by mankind. We’re just getting the other side of a global pandemic, which mankind is ultimately to blame for. The fact a certain Far East Government enables such marketplaces to exist is just plain extreme negligence…another easily avoidable trillion dollar expenditure. Chernobyl, both Iraq Wars, 9/11, COVID-19, the Oklahoma bombing are just a small sample of some of the significant events, which have occurred in my lifetime that have cost huge amounts of money to fix due to the damage created by mankind. It must also be said that although the expenditure required to rebuild, fix or maintain, there will never be enough money to repair the ultimate cost of life for the victims or their families.
There are some examples of large amounts of money being spent in the right places (eventually). Many sportsmen and women are paid huge amounts of money in sports, such as basketball, football (Both types) and tennis. The NBA, NFL and EPL, to name a few, are multi-billion dollar industries and the players, managers, coaches are remunerated extremely well…too much in my opinion but that’s another rant. I’ve no idea how some of them spend their money…you could literally buy Countries with the money earned by say Lionel Messi (€90m a year). That said though, many sports stars do donate money or win bonuses to charities or even set-up foundations for underprivileged kids. Cristiano Ronaldo often donates his money, golden boots and win bonuses to charities, most notably the children of Gaza a few years ago. Sadio Mane of Liverpool FC sends large portions of his salary to developing villages in his Country of Senegal. We all know Marcus Rashford used his status and platform to overturn the UK Government (twice) to pressure them to put money towards feeding the UKs underprivileged children during school holidays…I’m glad Boris was able to find some money down the back of a Downing Street sofa since the actual cost of feeding children is negligible when compared with that of Wars or the monthly cost of furlough brought about by COVID-19 £14bn).
It begs the question why we are the way we are with all of this. It is great to see money being spent on entertainment or innovative ideas and it’s even important to spend money on security (it’d be naive not too) but it’s just a shame that this vast amount of wealth is not spent on fixing the more important matters - LIFE!
I wish my father-in-law managed the worlds money, as he will always work to fix a problem before abandoning the issue and that’s what the world needs…Fixers!
Comments