What would a "benevolent" dictator of the world do to ensure survival and prosperity of mankind?

Question

If the whole world was run by a single person, and his or her only brief was to ensure the prosperity and survival of mankind as a whole from now until his/her retirement in 40 years time, what actions would he take to achieve this?

Would he invest heavily in technology to try to find alternatives to oil for our energy needs

Would he promote more education and media so that people don't need to travel as much, and use less energy.

Or maybe he would authorise a world war to get the population down to a level where the remaining people can live more comfortably with the dwindling natural resources there are.

Answer 1

Are you Tony Blair's director of operations ?

Answer 2

Give tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations?

Answer 3

We'll get on fine providing you do everything I tell you

Answer 4

'Benevolent' dictators have a nasty habit of turning out to be just 'dictators' in the end.None of them have actually managed to lead anybody to any sort of promised land.

Answer 5

He would yell and enforce:"Put that knife down, and invest all your money in me! Suffer your little children to *** unto me!"

Answer 6

Benevolent dictator is an oxymoron.  Speculate all you want.  I will never happen.

Answer 7

There has never been a benevolent dictator. Even those who seize power with good intentions ultimately become consumed by their own excesses. Lenin wanted to liberate the working masses from poverty and oppression and created a totalitarian state with mass starvation. Numerous African dictators have come to power promising to end political corruption and post-colonial oppression only to become butchers of their own people. All power corrupts.

Answer 8

For starters I think he would get rid of despot dictators like Mugabe. Stop handouts to third world countries but give the people education and the tools to become self sufficient and enable them to trade with other countries.

Allow alternatives to Oil to be released to the public which I'm certain there are, there must be an invention of an engine that can run on water that has been suppressed by the Governments of the world, and if the argument is "what would that do to the worlds economy" I say the individuals it is helping have been holding the rest of the world to ransom for too long.

Answer 9

All dictators start as idealists and eventually end as oppresive tyrants - as Lord Acton said - power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely - or Shakespeare - will to power - power to appetite and appetite an universal wolf - (Troilus and Cressida).

However to take your hypothetical question seriously - and assume we have a saint without the human propensity toward megolomania.  S/he would ensure that every citizen has food, shelter, healthcare and lack of poverty.  Then to ensure that we do not embrace the slavery currently being forced upon us s/he would educate all citizens in ethics and philosophy to ensure that ordinary people understand what their rights and responsibilities are and to impress upon them what it means to be free, how to responsibly exercise free will and know what integrity is.  Too many people today believe integrity demands that one lies for ones friends.

From there we might be able to understand the futility of war, the sanctity of human life and the importance of the tenet that 'all men are created equal.'