prompt two

still following http://mandywallace.com/25-journal-prompts/

prompt 2) What would you do with $10 million

ans. Imagining having 10 million dollars (or another large sum of money) floods the mind with dopamine. I suppose, this is what makes gambling and buying lottery tickets addictive.

Assuming I do get $10 million, first I'll pay the tax on it (which takes 49.6% according to this Jan 2016 times article http://time.com/money/4177517/powerball-jackpot-taxes/ ), tithe it to God, then give 10% of it to my parents. I estimate around $2.5 million would be left for me to spend (or save). One other thing to consider would be that lottery winners in the US have two options: to take it all at once or to receive it in installments over several decades

Now if it was an investment fund to handle, that is not mine to own but rather to manage, I would invest the $10 million in schools, because children are the future, and a hope that this world will be better if we invest in them.

However, to keep children alive to a good old age, we would need state of the art hospitals to keep them healthy and to research medical treatments. Also, we would need to invest in educational materials promoting healthy lifestyle habits like exercising, developing healthy relationships and mental growth.

Although trying to describe this concept is different, it is an underlying principle of modern society's rotten core. I think one of the biggest disadvantages society faces is the mental instability of the modern era because many relationships between family, friends and coworkers are unhealthy. This may be because we are too busy trying to be successful and entertained to fix the things that matter: ourselves and relationship development.

And the way to start fixing it is to fix my own self. Can I even fix myself? (anyway, back to the topic)

In investing in children's (our future's) health, and developing research, medical treatments and facilities (which would get expensive very quickly), investments in keeping society safe must also be prioritized. This could be broken down into three different areas: national security, civil security, and digital security, which was more recently highlighted by a certain country's (or countries’) election(s).

National security tends to be the highest funded as it takes the limelight, consisting of military arsenals and intelligence assets, in other words: protection from external threats. Civil security would consist of police and lawyers: assets which protect a society from internal threats. Digital security traditionally has assets both in national and civil security. However, if an hostile threat from another country is attacking a server located inside our country, does the jurisdiction fall under the military, which protects us externally, or the police, which protects us internally? Technically, the threat came from outside so the responsibility would fall to the military. However, the server being hacked is inside the country, so the military would (on their honor) be required to yield the investigation over to the local assets to protect and defend our country. Which could end up falling to the national guard, which I think is the least funded and most underdeveloped of all the US military branches, but I could be wrong. I think this might have happened in the 2016 elections when the servers of both parties got hacked, but sensitive (and damaging) information was leaked at the right opportunity.

Hence, the need for a centralized command in order to properly protect our country, our children and our future (but this could get expensive fairly quickly, and easily stalled, and congress might counter the progress).

Man, that was depressing to think about.

Well, apart from education, medical and security investment to our future, children also need libraries and varied travel experiences in order to develop their world view and make informed decisions as adults.

Lest we fall to our inbred thinking and crumble from within.