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Alright, folks, it’s time to play a game!
Are y’all ready for this?
It’s gonna be fun, trust me…
If you were given $2 trillion and 20 years to build something in the good ol’ USA, what would you build?
Let’s see what folks on AskReddit had to say about this.
1. Sounds good to me.
“I would build hundreds of huge apartment blocks with thousands of rooms.
Each one would be rentable by the month/year for a very affordable price. The rooms would be self-contained with a bathroom, kitchen, living area and bedroom. They would have a modular design that would be easy to clean/repair between occupants.
There would be community owned shops, markets and restaurants on the ground floor (priority would go to helping residents establish businesses there) – one of the units would be dedicated to in-house fabricating of replacement parts for the apartments above. There’d be a communally owned top floor social area with a subsidised bar/restaurant/cafeteria, outdoor space, gym etc.
There would be an online system hosted in the building designed to foster social activity (introduce you to other guests, allow discussions to take place etc). This system would be tied into all the other apartment blocks so guests could choose to swap to another venue if they wanted (either temporarily or permanantly).”
2. Who wants to try.
“Tantalus – The Maze of Madness
10 square miles of concrete and steel walls, 20 feet tall.
If you can navigate it, you get $1 million. But you are wearing a loincloth and you can’t take anything in there with you – no food, water, writing utensils, friggin’ navel lint – NOTHING!”
3. Please!
“A legitimate railway system for public transportation.
One of the biggest issues I’ve had with the US when living there.
They told me public transport wasn’t good. They didn’t tell me that it was f**king nonexistent.”
4. Let’s figure this out.
“Build several huge dollar science competitions and grants for carbon recapture, climate cooling/heat harvesting, sustainable plant-based meats (esp. fish) and ocean clean up.”
5. Got some plans.
“I’d spend it on healthcare and education.
And a giant statue of William T Sherman on Stone Mountain looking down on Atlanta with flaming eyes.
But mostly health and education.
Oh, and fix our f**king roads and bridges.”
6. Solar farm.
“I’d build the largest solar farm in the world, out in the go**amn desert of Arizona near Yuma.
At least part of the money would be spent on grid-scale battery solutions. NOT LITHIUM ION, I want something that will still work 20 years from now with a daily discharge cycle. I’m thinking molten metal batteries, but I’d have a competition between various battery mfgs to see which tech comes out on top.
This place would power a good chunk of the US, carbon free, for CHEAP. There would have to be a very minor fee, just to pay the workers to maintain the solar farm (basically wash the d**n things once in a while and fix/replace panels/wiring that’s not working).
Extra money coming in beyond what’s needed for expansion/disaster-recovery funds would go directly to a separate fund for expansion. Eventually I want to power the whole god**mn nation.”
7. Transform the industry.
“Transform the farming industry, rewild large areas that were formerly farm fields. This is something that needs to happen badly.
The current model is just too inefficient, too much waste, damage to biomes and unpredictability with ever changing weather patterns.
This along with wind and solar needs to be the next “space race” in this world.”
8. A new kind of skyscraper.
“A very large skyscraper completely composed of gardens with no glass in the indows.
The entry costs will go to keeping it nice, and it will help with oxygen and air quality in the area.”
9. A way forward.
“Electric and hydrogen fueling infrastructure for cars and trucks, and then electrify all the railroads.
With the left over money, as much solar and wind power generation as possible.
That way we can get off oil and let the middle east consume itself with tribal warfare and we don’t have to do s**t about it.”
10. Sounds like a plan.
“Public hospitals , improve poorly maintained roads and public buildings , install a one or two new sea ports.
Build a bunch of public housing , maybe make a few parks , install public transport in all major cities , a bunch of solar panels and windmills for electricity.
And at the end build a museum that will show all the great work I did to improve this country.”
11. Sounds great.
“I’m turning the whole state of Utah, Wyoming and Idaho into a giant animal conservation program.
It’s time to do something positive for nature.”
12. Wouldn’t that be nice?
“A better education system.
So much of what’s wrong with our country comes down to human stupidity, poor education, and unequal access to quality schools. Lots of great ideas in this thread, but think about what 20 years of better, smarter Americans could do for everything from racism to public transportation to climate change to politics. Especially if the school systems also addressed issues such as mental health, life skills, and food insecurities.
If everyone had a quality postsecondary education or training, they would have enough employment opportunities that bosses would be forced to treat their employees better or risk losing them. If teachers were paid better, we might get better teachers.
If all students were required to attend public school, then parents in affluent neighborhoods would be encentivized to invest in the public school system, and if we had larger, better-organized school districts with the money distributed more equitably, lower-income neighborhoods would benefit from the trickle-down effect.
Children would be exposed to ideas outside their own family echo chamber. People in restrictive cults couldn’t use lack of proper education to keep their offspring dependent on the hivemind. Regular contact with the outside world would mean more opportunities for abuse to get noticed and reported.”
What would you do in this situation?
Let us know in the comments.
Please and thank you!
