Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. He's quickly dropping its worth to zero. What else could he have done with that money instead?
1. End famine worldwide
$44 billion could legitimately help 42 million people facing famine, and Musk should probably do that, seeing as he
promised he would back in October.
2. End US homelessness
In 2012, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated the cost of solving homelessness in America would come to around $20 billion. That number is a decade old now, but it says something about the ridiculousness of Musk’s deal that he could have done it twice over a decade ago.
3. Clean water and toilets worldwide
$600 million a year is enough to get clean water & toilets into every health centre in the 46 least-developed countries - keeping staff & patients safe and helping to avoid future pandemics. $44 billion
would finance 73 years of this.
4. Buy Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka defaulted on its $35 billion debt. He could bail them about and have $9 billion left to fix whatever got them into this trouble.
5. Fix US bridges
According to the 2021 Bridge Conditions Report by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, one in three US bridges are in need of repair or replacement. The cost to repair and replace all these failing bridges? About $42 billion.