Let’s think out loud about @MikeBloomberg. Specifically, about his money. What could he spend it on that would make a difference in the world, that people would notice and appreciate? [thread]
Well, Bloomberg is said to be worth north of $60 billion. That’s a lot. It gives him....options. For example: Bloomberg could buy, staff and endow for 20 years newspapers in, say, 25 cities from Portland to Honolulu. They’d mostly operate at a loss, but why would he care?
Bloomberg could be the savior of local journalism in America; this investment would change its culture, and its politics, reconnecting Americans with their local communities.
Or, Bloomberg could fund accelerated cleanup of Superfund sites from the Gulf of Mexico to Puget Sound. These abandoned industrial sites and waste dumps are most often located near lower-income neighborhoods, and leach toxins and carcinogens into the surrounding land & water.
Bloomberg could be responsible for the most impactful act of environmental justice in the history of the world.
Or, Bloomberg could pay to rebuild every home on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands destroyed by Hurricane Maria, rebuilding their devastated economy. He could, singlehandedly, be responsible for a new, 51st state of the Union.
Bloomberg could fund opioid and other drug rehab programs across the country. He could pay for vocational education programs in the nation’s prisons, helping to break the cycle of crime by giving inmates useful skills.
Or, Bloomberg could lease water rights from farmers across California for, say, 20 years, from April through September. At a stroke, he would transform American agriculture. Urban areas surrounded by some of the world’s richest farmland now get their produce from California,...
....12 months out of the year. If they couldn’t for part of the year, they’d have to seek local sources of supply; Illinois farmland that now grows feed for animals and soybeans for export could be put to use growing food instead. Pressure on California’s water supplies....
....would be reduced at the same time. This would be a gigantic step forward for environmental sustainability, on a national scale.
Can anyone think of other ideas? Feel free to add them. The point is, a fortune the size of Bloomberg’s could make visible changes in the country and the world — in a timespan short enough for a 78-year-old man to see and be appreciated for them.
Instead, Bloomberg is running to be the oldest President in American history. Sigh. His credentials are his spectacularly lucrative business career, and his success in making Manhattan and some of the Outer Boroughs of New York City more attractive to tourists....
....and wealthy people like himself, when he was New York’s Republican mayor. Running for President promises substantial ego gratification for someone like Bloomberg; being President promises much more. Look what it has done for Trump!
Bloomberg could replicate in the White House the All-Highest position he holds in his business empire, keep nearly all his money, and indulge every whim and impulse he has. They’d mostly be more constructive than Trump’s, I suppose, though that’s not especially comforting.
An American democracy that replaces one Manhattan rich guy with another, wealthy enough to buy the election instead of conning his way into the White House, would be an uninspiring example for the world. It wouldn’t be terribly stable at home either.
Why? There are 78 reasons. All Bloomberg’s money doesn’t make him immune to the effects of age. The ad-heavy, primary-skipping campaign he’s running now has the advantage of limiting stress on him — contact with his prospective subjects, that kind of thing.
The Presidency itself comes with a much higher level of unavoidable stress — provided one is not goofing off much of the time. I’ll give Bloomberg credit at least for not being like Trump in this respect. And, I’ll not belabor this point.
The idea of making Mike Bloomberg President is, from my point of view, bananas. It is discouraging indeed to see so many people — even people Bloomberg hasn’t paid! — taking it seriously. However gratifying it must be for his ego, it isn’t good for the country.
That’s not just in its own right. Bloomberg’s candidacy also means so many worthier things he could do with all his money won’t be done. That is a tragedy. It almost makes one think the tax code should be revised to make it impossible to accumulate that much wealth. [end]
