500 Million Ways to Spend $500 Million
Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race the day after Super Tuesday. The former New York mayor stood out most for one thing in particular: the massive amount of funds he threw at his own campaign. The numbers have yet to be finalized, but it’s estimated Bloomberg spent around $500 million on his self-funded campaign over the almost four months he was campaigning.
So, now that he has called it quits and half a billion dollars has basically gone to waste, we decided to come up with a list of everything he could have spent that money on instead.
Buy one (or five) private jets
Price tag: Somewhere around $90 million
2. Pay off the entire debt of the Marshall Islands
Price tag: $50 million
3. Buy the Sultan of Oman’s super-yacht
Price tag: $300 million
4. Pay off Apple’s settlement in the lawsuit over slowing down older iPhones
Price tag: Exactly $500 million
5. Feed every food-insecure adult and child in America breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a day
Price tag: About $400 million
6. Buy the world’s most expensive apartment at Odeon Tower in Monaco
Price tag: $400 million
Fun and games aside, $500 million is a lot of money, money that could have been put to a more fun or a more charitable use. Our presidential candidates are making promises that they will change America for the better, but campaigns such as this one can make you question whether that’s really the intent. Of course, Bloomberg’s spending grossly exceeds every other candidate. In the span of a little over three months, he outspent Trump’s self-funded portion of his 2016 race five times over.
Bloomberg however, doesn’t seem to think this spending was a waste. He is now throwing his funds at Joe Biden in hopes of a takeover by Democratic moderates in Washington. In a few short months, we will see how much of an impact this next spending binge has really had on our country.