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What If You Had as Much Money as Jeff Bezos? - YouTube
Channel: What If
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As the CEO and founder of Amazon,
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the multibillion dollar online shopping company,
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Jeff Bezos is the richest person on the planet.
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With a current net worth of $193.7 billion,
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Bezos can buy just about anything.
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If you're feeling good about
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that $100,000 salary of yours,
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Jeff makes about that every minute.
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That's $6 million per hour.
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Jeez, I think it's time to ask for that raise.
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So, what would you do with all that money?
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As a former Wall Street computer engineer,
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Jeff's humble beginnings with Amazon
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began in 1994.
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It all started in his garage in Seattle.
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What began as an online store for books,
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CDs and software
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grew quickly during the internet boom.
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By 1997, Amazon stock was up by 40%,
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netting Jeff a cozy $12 billion.
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Fast forward twenty years,
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Amazon has dominated
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the online marketplace
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and has grown astronomically.
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With all this newfound wealth,
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Jeff made the single-largest
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charitable contribution ever.
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$10 billion to help fight climate change.
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But as far as his net worth goes,
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that's a tiny drop in the bucket.
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How about a shirt made of pure gold
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for only $250,000?
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Ooh, shiny.
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Or maybe a $276,000
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Mongolian dinosaur skull suits your fancy?
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Any interest in a 14 ft (4.2 m) preserved shark
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for $12 million?
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Or, if you want your tushy to feel pampered,
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how about a 24-carat solid gold toilet?
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Talk about flushing
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your hard-earned money down the drain.
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With Jeff's riches,
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you could pick up
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a $65 million Gulfstream private jet
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or even purchase citizenship
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to a foreign country.
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Want to be an Austrian citizen?
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A passport will cost you
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a whopping $23.7 million.
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Citizenship to Cyprus,
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Malta,
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Turkey,
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and certain Caribbean islands
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is also up for grabs.
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With hundreds of billions of dollars,
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the sky's the limit.
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If you got the money overnight,
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you'd likely be invited to apply for
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the Centurion Card from American Express,
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the ultra-exclusive credit card
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made of black titanium.
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Or, if you're feeling more like Scrooge McDuck,
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you could liquidate everything
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and fill your home with a mountain of cash.
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But this would remove 15.7%
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of the U.S. currency in circulation.
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Okay, would all of this money make you happy?
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You might be surprised.
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A study published in the journal
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Nature Human Behaviour found that
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the richer we get, the less happy we become.
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Once you reach $105,000 in household income,
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any more money
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tends to be associated with
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reduced life satisfaction
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and a lower level of well-being.
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And that's not just because of higher taxes.
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The "treadmill effect"
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is a term coined by psychologist
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Elizabeth Lombardo.
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We think more things
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or more money will make us happy,
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but as soon as we get it, we wonder
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what's next?
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Could more happiness be around the corner?
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Should I buy 10 exotic cars
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instead of just one?
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Gimme, gimme, gimme.
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Both children and adults
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are affected by this phenomenon.
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Children of affluent families
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are more likely to suffer from depression,
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anxiety,
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and substance abuse later in life.
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So, parents,
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you might want to slow down on the toys.
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Your three-year-old does not need an iPad.
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Researchers at the Harvard Business Review
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have concluded that wealth is isolating.
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The more status we have,
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the more we feel a psychological urge
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to distance ourselves from others.
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This can possibly be due
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to a feeling of competition or selfishness,
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but also a general lack of reliance
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on other people for survival.
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Many of the wealthiest elites are workaholics.
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Like Elon Musk, whose plans to colonize Mars,
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build electric cars,
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and develop brain implants
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keep him busy enough that
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he only sleeps six hours a night.
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Being extremely wealthy also makes you
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a much higher target for kidnappers
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and the paparazzi.
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So good luck going out
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to your favorite restaurant.
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Aside from the glitz and glamour,
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could charitable donations
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bring you happiness?
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Becoming a philanthropist
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could certainly solve
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a lot of global problems.
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689 million people are
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living in extreme poverty worldwide.
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This number is expected to grow
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by 115 million people this year
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due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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If you gave 804 million people
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just $3.20,
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the money needed to surpass
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the lowest poverty threshold,
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it would cost you $1.05 billion.
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Mere pocket change for Jeff Bezos.
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Around 2.2 billion people
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don't have access to clean water globally.
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But not even Jeff Bezos' fortune
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could solve this problem entirely.
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You could, however,
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help the folks in Flint, Michigan.
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Around 140,000 residents have been exposed
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to poisonous lead in their water supply.
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Replacing the lead pipes
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would cost you anywhere from
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a few billion to $50 billion.
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Even if you're not a billionaire or a millionaire,
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experiences bring us the most joy.
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It won't cost you a penny to volunteer
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at food banks or shelters.
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And there are plenty of opportunities
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to volunteer abroad and help the less fortunate.
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All in all, no matter what you earn,
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it's important to be thankful for what you have.
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Still, I know some of you may be dreaming
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about buying your first Lamborghini
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or paying off your student loans.
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Maybe stocking up on Bitcoin could help?
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Just bear in mind,
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this is not investment advice,
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but it is a story for another What If.
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