Thursday, June 5, 2008

Fantasy Part 2

Fantasizing is an interesting past time. In fact, now that I actually think about it, is the perfect couch potato activity and by activity I mean something that can be done with the body at rest with a drink in your hand. It does not require sweating or taking a shower afterwards, except for certain fantasies. You can do it alone or with a friend and if you do it alone it does not have the same stigma that some of those activities you, and you know who you are, do when your alone in the dark.

So, what is your fantasy?

I have a number of them that I have been working on over the years. Before you start opening the Yellow Pages for crazy doctors, also know as shrinks or psychiatrists, I know these are fantasies and if you will bear with my ramblings, you will see that you might have thought of these yourself had you been so inclined with excess time on your hand or while driving long distance.

1. Money. Now who does not fantasize about money? Raise your hands out there if you never ever thought about what it would it be like to have all the money for all your ideas and then multiply that by some factor of 10 or 100 and that is the kind of money we are talking about. Real money. Well, years ago when I began, the sum of money was in the neighborhood of $10 million. It seemed like enough without being piggish. Take care of immediate family, money for extended family, charitable money and comfortable, not excessive lifestyle. Not crazy. Well, time moves forward. Yes, I know it does not move in any other direction except in SciFi books or movies ... I am not crazy. Inflation, larger extended family, kids growing up, charitable vision expands ... money fantasy needs to keep pace. Now, I am looking at $1 - 5 billion.

Now, your response ... you are out there aren't you? I am not here alone ... talking to myself? Oh yeah, I do that.

So, any good fantasy has rules, structure. Particularly a fantasy that has had years to develop. In my fantasy land you can not just say ... give me all the money in the world. There are practical considerations. Income tax considerations. Lifestyle considerations. Safety considerations, yes people with lots of money are targets even in fantasy land.

So, I am approached by an individual telling me ... Mr. C. your dreams and nightmares are being answered. Here is a check(s) totaling $1 Billion ... some days $5 Billion. The money as you can see from the legal notebook here for you is tax free. You can have your attorneys check it over before you cash the check(s)but there is only one string attached. See, even fantasies come with conditions. The man says ... you can never revel where you got the money from. So, its my fantasy so I say ... okee dokee.

Now I have $1-5 Billion. What do you do?

Well, I first have the documents reviewed by a competent tax attorney who is preferably not Jewish and discreet. Its okay of course.

So, here is my plan. It is a two part plan, part one (1) personal and (2) charitable. Let's start with (2) charitable.

Jewish education is critical. My family has spent countless hours and dollars supporting it. We, for those of you that can not remember and by you I mean my three readers who already know this but all four sons attended J School from K-4 through 12 and 3 through college and number 4 is on the same path so far. Without belaboring families volunteering time to this worthy cause, lets just say we are believers.

Two problems for Jewish education, (a) tuition is too high and (b) teacher compensation is too low. So, how does my fantasy work? Well, I would commit as much as 50% to this cause. I am not looking for recognition since it is not really my money, so I engage a representative to represent an anonymous donor. He/she would go to designated schools and ask to see financial budgets. Knowing what specific school's budget is currently, we ask if they would like to participate in our program. The program is this, we provide a significant endowment ... say $50 - $100 million. What does the school have to do? Provide a 3-5 year plan. Part two, agree to charge little or no tuition, give staff a significant raise and accept all Jewish kids who want to apply. The school would receive an endowment that would allow it to do just that ... be free and open to any Jewish child and provide a real living wage to its staff.

Now, I know your going to say ... well isn't that the Chicago / George Hanus plan? I had it first. Second, he has raised $26 million for the entire city of Chicago. Nice but nowhere near enough money for even that one city. My uneducated guess is that Chicago would need nearer $260 million.

So, depending upon needs, I would fund schools in Milwaukee, Florida and California. These schools would be role models for other schools and communities.

So, that is part one of my fantasy. The other part ... pay off student loans, provide adequate housing for all family members, funding for college education of all nieces, nephews, children, and grandchildren, allow for regular family vacations, time to actually take up a hobby or two and maybe get decent at one of them. More normal stuff.

So, there is my money fantasy. Since, I have been told that I ramble too long at times and this is certainly one of those times ... I will leave my other fantasies to another post ... but the key is that if you are what you fantasize about ... are you proud enough to tell someone some day?

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