Alexa, Throw 10 Billion Dollars Into a Huge Hole ーアレクサ、巨大な穴に10憶ドルを投げてー

Imagine that you had so much money that you could drop a billion Dollars down the back of the sofa, and completely forget about it.  That must be what it is like for Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who is the world’s richest man.  He is estimated to be worth 130 billion Dollars.  This week he announced that he is planning to use 10 billion Dollars of his huge wealth to fight climate change.  I suppose that can only be good news.
                                                              

The 10 billion Dollar donation only adds up to around 8 per cent of the businessman’s total wealth.  What if he met you in a coffee shop and, impressed by your intelligence and good character, he decided to give you another 10 billion Dollars to help the world?  How would you spend the money? 

How about dividing the money equally amongst all people on the planet?  With 7.8 billion people currently living here, everyone would in theory receive a little more than 1 Dollar each.  According to UN statistics, more than 1 billion people live on less than 1 Dollar per day.  So the gift might not mean much to you or me, but a lot of people would be very glad to receive it. 

The problem with this idea is that it would be impossible to administer.  You would have to hire an organisation in every country in the world in order to distribute the money.  That would probably eat up most of the money on administration costs, and leave littleto give out.  Besides, you would give money to lots of people who didn’t need it, such as Queen Elizabeth and the Sultan of Brunei. 

So, instead of spreading the money really thinly, how about throwing everything into one huge hole?  The Channel Tunnel linking Britain and France under the English Channel has the longest underwater section of any tunnel in the world–23 miles. 

Unfortunately, the Channel Tunnel eventually cost 21 billion Dollars to build, and it was finishedin 1994.  In today’s money, 10 billion dollars could only build a smaller underwater tunnel, perhaps one quarter of the length.  Northern Ireland is about 12 miles from Scotland at its closest point.  Perhaps you could offer to build a tunnel half-way across, and hope that Britain finished the other half. 

I’m sure that there are smarter and more effective ways to make use of 10 billion Dollars than I have suggested.  If you have any good ideas, just tell Alexa, Amazon’s AI virtual assistant.  There are already more than 100 million Alexa enabled devices in the world.  And Amazon is using them to listen carefully to what people around the world want.  Why not make a good suggestion directly to Mr. Bezos?

Vocabulary:

a billion – 1,000,000,000

“He is estimated to be worth” – people guess that his total wealth is

a donation – money given as a gift, especially to charity

to eat up (money) – to use up money, especially wastefully

virtual – not physical, e.g. Only existing on the internet  or in a computer

(Alexa) enabled – with the ability to use (Alexa)