Okay, so you have 650 million dollars that you can spend, well what could you buy:
Make a Hollywood movie.
A typical blockbuster these days is about $300 million (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”) to $300 million (“Avengers: Age of Ultron”). Now that would have been a good investment as the combined tickets sales were over 2.266 Billion dollars.
Buy a town
If you hunt around, you could pick up a US town for about $600,000. Mind you, people living there are extra. You can make a nice downpayment on an Alberta town going for 1 Million dollars as far as Canada.
Buy a Caribean Island
Some will remember when Canada once contemplating the purchase of Turks and Caicos going way back to 1974. While today Turks and Caicos are out of the question for $650 million, you could pick up one of several smaller islands in the Caribbean for less than 650 million dollars.
Buy a Superyacht
Steven Spielberg, the president of the United Arab Emirates, and Google's Eric Schmidt have one. Why shouldn't you? According to industry experts, a superyacht is just like a yacht except that it's, well, super. A luxury yacht, by any other name. $650 million will get you a decent one, mind you might be able to get one for as little as $300 million. That'll give you plenty of money left over for crew, dockage, insurance and upkeep (annually, about 10 percent of the yacht's initial cost).
Hire an English butler
You're lounging around. Suddenly, the thought strikes you: I'd like a cup of coffee. Do you get up and make one yourself? Perish the thought. You ring for Briggs. He'll cost you perhaps $40,000 to $50,000 annually — if he's young and inexperienced, and as much as $190,000 a year if he's a polished pro. Multiply that by all the years you won't be fetching coffee. Best of all, you'll be able to refer to him as “my man Briggs.”
Spend a week on the International Space Station
The airfare is expensive on any vacation and to fly to the International Space Station is no different at about $84 Million. Staying at the International Space Station will cost $67,500 per person per day so add $472,500. Figure you are not going to go alone so that the total bill would be $168,945,000. If you want something from the gift shop, you can pick up a retired Space Shuttle for about $80 Million, so you have lots of money left to buy an excellent camera and a healthy diet of gravel pills if you get flight sickness.
Pay for a Canadian Federal Election
While $650 million will pay for a federal election, the outcome could be worse than when you started:
In 2015, the Federal Election resulted in Liberals having 184 seats, and last evening's results currently have 148 seats.
In a nutshell, the Government of Canada will be run by a minority government which is the same in 2015 except for:
- In 2015, the balance of power (meaning the deciding vote in Parliament) was the NDP. This means that the Liberals vote one way, the Conservatives vote the other, and the NDP votes decide.
- 2015, the balance of power now looks like it will involve the NDP and the Bloc Québécois.
The above means in our eyes instead of trying to get three to play nice in the sandbox of federal politics (Liberals, Conservatives, and NDP), now four have to try not to throw sand in the other faces with the Bloc Québécois holding the joint balance of power in deciding decisions for Canadian's. Essentially this means that a political party that does not have a presence in any other Province other than Quebec and whose only focus is the Province of Quebec will now have the joint balance of power in making decisions for all Provinces.
Time will tell on what will happen once Parliament comes back into session. Still, looking in, we give this Federal Election a massive financial, and political failure as not making decisions in Parliament will now involve four political parties trying to decide on Canada's future. Spending the $650,000 on the purchase of a Caribean island would have been away better investment! Or better yet, even though the $650,000 million only works out to $23.90 per Canadian taxpayer – um, I want my $23.90 in a tax refund, mind you, after estimated cheque processing costs of $15, I would be left with $8.90. The estimated cost to issue a one-time refund by the Government of Canada is as little as $15, Youch!
