Give Legislators $1,000,000
Brewster's Millions Re-engineered
Back in September when Congress was debating on whether or not its members could/should invest in the stock market, Philadelphia businessman Jeff Yass penned a letter to the editor to the Wall Street Journal:
Yass is worth approximately $65,000,000,000 (that’s B - billion) and has been a significant political contributor over the years.
He wrote basically saying that Congress should be required to invest in the market in order to get a better understanding of business, economics, and governance. Yass went so far as to suggest that Congress should be given money to do so.
That brought to mind an idea that is a take off from the movie Brewster’s Millions starring Richard Pryor and John Candy - among others.
The movie’s plot is that Monty Brewster is set to inherit $300,000,000 IF he first spends $30,000,000 within thirty days but can have no assets at the end of the thirty days and he also CANNOT tell anyone that he has to blow it all.
Hilarity ensues watching Pryor spend recklessly to the shock of all of his friends in order to get the bigger prize.
Spoiler alert - he ends up blowing it all by running for office.
Let’s take up Yass on his suggestion and reverse engineer Brewster’s Millions.
Give $1,000,000 personally to each of the 140 members of the General Assembly.
The only condition is that they HAVE to invest it in Virginia, where would they invest? and why?
Where not and why not?
Maybe not a specific locality? How about a region of the Commonwealth?
Would they invest their money in their district? Remember - this is their personal money.
Make it an annual competition and the legislator who gets the highest return on their investment is crowned Governor of the Commonwealth for the next year.
One year term.
Reminder - Glenn Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe combined spent about $140MM on their 2021 race for governor.
Put the whole thing online for real time results and show all the different investments being made.
Even add betting on one of those “prediction” markets like Kalshi and Polymarket to see where the betting public would go.
Which legislator would you bet on to win? (FYI - those predictive sites are gambling and should be regulated as such.)
At the end of every year, legislators keep what they gain and the game starts over again at $1,000,000.
Interesting academic exercise? Maybe.
Given this year’s legislation, votes, and inability for some (many) to articulate a grasp of basic economics, I know who I would be betting against - and why.
A race to the top sounds a whole lot more interesting (and productive) than the current race to the bottom.
I could see Letterman doing a highly humorous “Top Ten” list from the nonsense that would be funded.