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A million just ain't what it used to be. In fact, a million dollars is a mere 820,237.40 euro.
In days of yore when I was a nipper, and Tina Turner was singing Private Dancer a million dollars meant a lavish lifestyle of swimming pools, private jets and lambos. These days it’d not even get me this four bed semi-detached in a desirable, but not too desirable, Dublin suburb.
Strangely enough, while family home prices throughout the country have gone through the roof, absolutely no pun intended, there are old rectories, schoolhouses, and convents, all with substantial land, going for just over a song.
When my brother and I ran a legal services business many moons ago, we used to give employment to ex-heroin addicts who’d gone through the rehabilitation programme. The trouble was they still had to live in the same drug-ridden areas of the city where they became addicted in the first place, so the relapse rate was high.
What I would buy with my million tomorrow is this:
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It comes with a student accommodation block at back of main house with 80 bedrooms. I’d turn a portion of it into a luxury hotel/retreat/health farm which would finance the other part accommodating homeless and recovering addicts. We would grow veg to provide organic food for the hotel and employment for the residents and perhaps have an alpaca sanctuary;)......... "An' live off the fatta the lan' an' have rabbits."
We are in the short term accommodation business so marketing wouldn't be a problem. Redefining decadence as philanthropy….Two for the price of One…. Give an addict a hand while we wait on you hand and foot....Stay with us and you’re directly financing a roof over the head of one less fortunate.....
You don’t tell them the drug addicts are actually on site until after they book;)
I believe that there are inexpensive solutions to many of our social problems but simply no will by the authorities to implement them. People solve problems, governments simply hinder them doing so.
Just one example is a homeless group who took over an empty (publicly owned) office block here in Dublin a couple of years ago and housed the city’s homeless with donations from just about every business in town; food, personal hygiene supplies, beds, computers, showers. You name it; it was donated. But of course government intervened, the courts evicted them, and they were back on the street as quickly as you could say taxation is theft, leaving the building standing empty to this day.
I must confess that solving the city's homeless/heroin addiction problem is a longstanding plan of mine and my brother's, and we still haven't given up on financing it ourselves, lottery win or not.
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Posted in response to @omra-sky's nomination in the million dollar challenge to spend a million in 24 hours
images and screen shots are my own
I nominate @ablaze, @bgie8311, @wales, @ladyrebecca and @fishyculture but it is entirely voluntary and since the notification/tagging doesn't work anymore, you can just pretend you didn't see it
Love the idea. Most addicts just need a help up to sort out their lives.
If there was a place to go to after their treatment like what your planning it would really help.
My friend has tried quitting several times from hard drugs but after release from treatment he is back to the area where drugs are every where.
NO ESCAPE.
Many addicts have talents, as you say, many could work the land and grow organic food, look after the animals and help generally in the up keep of the place,
Agreed. The environment post-treatment is a very important factor as well.
15 beds + 10 bathrooms + land? What's the catch?
Plus a student accommodation block with 80 bedrooms! It's an old boarding school. I've seen quite a number of these over the years going very cheaply. It likely needs half a mil spent on it for refurb.
I see! It sounds like a great idea and you would be rebuilding the community from the ground up through your efforts. Here's my small contribution towards your 1 million dollars. Followed!
Hahaha, thanks a mil. Perhaps if I sit on it long enough it will grow into a million;)
That's the dream!
Haha! I saw it! I will play, but your dream is very, very touching. Hugs!
Great, I look forward to your scribblings.
Actually, when I was writing the piece about growing veg on the land, I could hear you chuckling away and thinking.....dream on.
What a fantastic plan. I hope you get to see it through some day.
If I can just live long enough;)
Great vision and a great perception of true value!! Loved it and re-steemed it!
Cheers, thanks a lot. That's very sweet of you.
Oh, God, I did see it.... I'll see what I can do with my million dollars! In the meantime, can I come visit that fabulous place you're buying... not the very fancy suites...maybe you could add rooms for budget tourists!?
And, although I can only guess what a nipper means, I do remember Private Dancer...
It used to be a boarding school. There's a block of 80 bedrooms at the back called the lady rebecca wing;) and for you m'dear it's stay don't pay!
A nipper is a little one who nips at one's ankles, also referred to as ankle biters or rug rats;)
No worries about the nomination if it's not your bag. I have a very poor memory and by tomorrow, will have forgotten that this conversation ever took place.
I knew the term rug rats :)
Of course you did. I'm always surprised at how colloquial your English is for a non-native speaker.
Slightly lost for words reading that @deirdyweirdy Your selflessness is commendable and heart-warming. What a wonderful way that would be to spend a cool million.. and thanks for the nomination as well, I can't pretend I didn't see it now that I've commented ;o)
I'm thinking of using this as my new Steemit signature. What do you think;).jpg)
Joking apart, and don't tell anyone, I've been nominated for an odd thing here and there.... and lo and behold if it didn't slip my mind entirely.
ha ha... Seriously though fair play to you, we could do with more compassionate people like you running the show..
Very good heart you have.
May God bless you and facilitate you with all your plan.
Thanks very much. You just reminded me of this wonderful track.....probably way before your time
a good heart
Released in 1985, which means I was 8 at the time, I could say yes it was before my time. Never ever heard the name Feargal Sharkey before this. But, thanks, never too late for a good music.
He was more famous for being in a band called
The Undertones but that's really going way back to the year after you were born.
I believe so.
Sorry, but how old are you.
Well m'dear, to quote the divine Oscar Wilde; “One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell one anything.” ....................
And on that note, I must bid you adieu for it is after 3am and I am old;)
Haaha, so tactical.
I can say that you're on the right age of yours.
😆😆
Boom!!! Love that song...
Me too. Hadn't played it for so long when one of the comments above bought it to mind.
Mwahahaha XD
Ah social problems. We'd need more than a few beers to sort this one out. Yes, the govt gets in the way. On the whole though, according to research by Ste Pinker, society is getting better and less violent. Drug addiction is generally self-medication for psychological issues often caused by having some sort of familial dysfunction early in life. It's nice to help them in their hour of need but in order to fix the problem, we need to get them years earlier. How do we do that? Eek!
It's nice of you and your bro to help them.
I think the problem lies in the way we treat addiction as a social problem rather than a health/medical issue. There is some evidence to indicate that isolation is one of the big drivers of addiction, so social exclusion can only exacerbate the problem. Also, returning to the old drug-ridden environment almost assures relapse.
Of course we could sort most of it out in months if we just killed the war on drugs.
Amen to that! It's the most ridiculous concept!
I think there's a chicken/egg situation here. What's first? Isolation or the drug problem? I've known some addicts (suppose we all have, eh). They self-isolated, only bothering with others that were reflecting similar behaviours, possibly to make themselves feel more normal about what they were doing. Saying that, it's difficult to maintain loving/caring ties with someone who's just hocked your new phone or Nanna's pearls.