Roundtable
The Roundtable Open Forum # 72
A Multi-Million Dollar Birthday Gift For Yourself
by BILLY JOHNSON
A recent news item reported the following story. Since then, there have been denials, as well as a claim that it is all a hoax. We neverthless present it to you as part of this week's Roundtable Open Forum, in order to garner your thoughts around the questions posed below.
Most young adults would be content celebrating their 21st birthday with a trip to Las Vegas, but rap superstar Soulja Boy had a grander idea.
For his 21st birthday Thursday, the Atlanta rapper bought himself a $35 million dollar private jet, a rep from his management team reportedly told TMZ.
But apparently, the G5 jet needed some "Pretty Boy Swag" upgrades. According to reports, Soulja will be spending an additional $20 million dollars to add flat screen TVs, 4 liquor bars, a dozen Italian leather seats, Brazilian hardwood cabinets, and travertine tiled flooring.
The restroom will be remolded and enlarged, and the aircraft will get a new custom paint job featuring his logo.
A spokesperson for Soulja Boy had not responded to our request to confirm the jet purchase by press time.
On Friday, the "Crank That" rapper, will host a birthday extravaganza in Miami believed to cost $300,000. Sean Kingston, Bow Wow, and Dwight Howard are expected to attend. The event will be streamed live from SouljaBoyBirthdayBash.com at 11 p.m. eastern.
In April, Soulja Boy told Hip Hop Media Training that he was planning to team up with MTV for a Las Vegas-based bash. "MTV [is going to] be doing my birthday party. It's going to be in Vegas. I'm going to be in Vegas," Soulja Boy said. "MTV is going to be doing it just like I did my swag eighteenth party. I don't know. It's going to be my first time being 21. So I'm just gonna do me."
The Roundtable Open Forum
Regardless of whether the story is true, false or exaggerated, we pose the following questions to you:
If you were fortunate enough to somehow acquire similar wealth, what would you do with it?
That is, if you had enough money to be able to spare miilions of dollars for an extravagance, what would YOU do?
What would be your priorities ... after ensuring, of course, that your own and your family's financial future was totally secure, having covered all contingencies and foreseeable eventualities?
August 4, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Pritpal Singh (New Hampshire, U.S.A.), August 04, 2011, 8:54 PM.
In this regard, my hero is Andrew Carnegie, a 19th century super-successful businessman and philanthropist, whose generosity and far-sightedness led to the building of more than 2500 libraries - "Carnegie Libraries" - around the world. They are still flourishing today, either in original or upgraded form. He is the man I would like to emulate.
2: Aman (California, U.S.A.), August 05, 2011, 2:54 PM.
We all do things that make us feel better about ourselves. These rapper guys have low-self worth to begin with and therefore all they can do is make extravagant purchases to make themselves feel better. This is true of a lot of insanely rich people. Would I do the same? Probably not, but then again maybe being that rich makes one go a little nuts. The interesting thing is that some of these rappers don't know how to spell "jet" but they can afford one!
3: Devinder Singh (India), August 06, 2011, 3:05 AM.
My suggestion to the insanely rich, from the framework of the non-wealthy, is to turn to being social entrepreneurs, instead of rent-seeking capitalists. "The game of the free market works out beautifully with one-dimensional investors and entrepreneurs." But there are other dimensions to life, such as, religious, emotional, social, moral, political ... See: http://www.muhammadyunus.org/About/social-business-entrepreneurs-are-the-solution/
4: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), August 06, 2011, 8:10 AM.
There was a man who said: "I am so poor. I have only money to give."
5: Manbir Banwait (Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada), August 08, 2011, 11:32 AM.
I have no issue with someone spending that sort or money on themselves. At the end of the day, the purchase of that plane gives many people good jobs; so do the upgrades to the plane, etc. There will be maintenance jobs for that plane for the next 25-35 years. The spin-off jobs are countless. At the end of the day, people need work. Not charitable handouts. Good for him.
6: Navjot Kaur (United States), December 17, 2011, 1:34 PM.
I have no idea what I would do if I had this much wealth on my 21st birthday. But I can certainly say that if I ever get enough money, I would like to help the children with disabilities all over the world and would celebrate all joyful moments by sharing. Life is all about giving and bringing a smile to others.