When I was growing up it was a mark of distinction when someone became a millionaire. It seems that lately the new measure of extensive wealth is having billions. Having billions also seems to allow one to spend some of it to expand your place in the universe.

Two of the most well-known billionaires in America, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos spent part of their fortune in developing rocket ships and space capsules that have successfully allowed other wealthy people, and a few invited guests, to spend time in space as astronauts. 

Recently Elon Musk spent some of his estimated $219 billion, to acquire one of the most popular apps on the internet. For the reported sum of $44 billion dollars, he bought Twitter. Almost immediately it was reported he fired over 11,000 employees and soon thereafter realized he did not have enough knowledgeable programmers to produce the changes he desired. So, as reported on the news feeds, he asked “anybody with coding experience to report to the tenth floor.” Maybe when he eventually reconfigures Twitter, Musk will name his new app “Chaos.”

A week ago, another international story incorporating the word billion hit the nightly news. A baby was born in the Dominican Republic. Babies are born all over the world all the time. But this baby girl was unique. She became the 8 billionth person on the planet. While most people marveled at the number, I began to wonder how they knew that she was the one. According to the book “Counting Baby Steps” by Del Livery, around the globe there are 267 births every minute. Let us examine the math. The last time I counted there are 60 seconds in a minute. Using the mathematical method I learned in elementary school, I placed the 267 as a numerator over the 60 as the denominator. That means that over 4 babies are born every second. Was there some kind of game show like device in Santo Domingo where a nurse in the delivery room ran to her desk and hit a button that alerted a central baby birth notification station in the basement of the United Nations? 

In America, another mystical billion number caused quite a frenzy a few weeks ago. Nobody had won the national Powerball drawing for over three months. Since the game is offered 3 times a week, an increasingly number of players lined up to buy tickets for the ever-growing jackpot. I usually buy a ticket to a few of the lottery games having grown up on the slogan “you have to be in it to win it.”

Personally, I find it puzzling why so many people only play when the news media begins to hype up the larger jackpot possibilities. For most of us, winning a few thousand dollars would be a nice surprise. For the November 7th Powerball jackpot of over 2 billion dollars, people lined up for hours. 

Waking up the next day, I eventually read that of all the millions of tickets sold, there was only one winner. Somebody in California had the winning ticket. However, 22 other people, who had every digit except the important Powerball number, won one million dollars. It is only human nature, that they probably still fret over the “what may have been” syndrome despite collecting quite a nice sum.

If billionaires really want to do something to help our planet, I have a suggestion. Instead of acquiring the “hey, look at me” apps like Twitter or building space capsules, Elon Musk could have done something different with those $44 billion dollars. Since there are now over 8 billion people on our planet, how about finding a way to give everyone on the planet a voucher for 5 dollars with a catch. The voucher could only be used for a charity of their choosing. Feeding and housing the needy, helping the environment, providing clean water and protecting endangered species all sound like good ideas to me. 

Of course, the distribution of those vouchers would be difficult but, to paraphrase a lottery commercial, “all you need is a few billion dollars and a dream.”

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.