Here Are All The Things Mike Bloomberg Could Have Bought With The $500 Million He Blew On His Failed Candidacy

Not a lot of good news came for the more progressive wing of the Democratic party on March 3, after billionaire Mike Bloomberg decided that he was dropping out of his bid for the vice-presidency. The man spent $500M on an ad buy as well as staffing for his national campaign. Now, that amount has completely gone to waste.

If there’s one thing we learned from this, it’s that money can’t buy an entire election—at least not yet. But now, everyone’s wondering what good that half a billion could have done if it was allocated elsewhere. For Bloomberg, who is reportedly worth $60B, it might be nothing. But for us regular folk, it’s something else altogether. Here are a few things the billionaire could’ve better spent the money instead:

Eliminating medical debt

As per RIP Medical Debt, a group that buys clinical bonds in mass, each $100 donation can ease $10K in harsh medical expenses. They stated that 66% of all American bankruptcies are linked to medical debt issues. So far, about $1.3B in clinical debt has been wiped out by the group, but if you do the math, Bloomberg could’ve helped alleviate $50B in debt if he only chipped in what he used up for his campaign. Even though that won’t clear everybody’s tab in the US, it would’ve been enough to change thousands of American lives overnight.

Tidying up Flint

For approximately 1/10 of what Bloomberg had splurged on getting humiliated in front of the world, he also could’ve bought replacements for all of the dilapidated lead pipes in Flint, Michigan. Not just that, he could’ve also pulled citizens there—or even in some cities—out of poverty with the millions left unspent. A lot of folks made this a point after the campaign lamented about their Michigan headquarters being slightly vandalized.

 Paying Out student loans

$500M is a small amount out of the $1.4T unpaid US student loans. However, with an average overdue debt of around $3K, that’s about 150,000 individuals whose lives the ex-New York City mayor could’ve changed for the better. What would good would these folks have gone on to do if they weren’t shackled to their predatory student loans anymore? Just think about that for a hot minute.

Housing the homeless

Reports say that there are 60,000-80,000 homeless people in New York City. Bloomberg won’t be able to buy all those folks a house in his hometown with only $500M, right? Yet, with $226K as the average home cost across America, he could’ve obtained a home for at least 2,200 people—without even noticing his money was gone!