As of January 31st, 2020, Michael Bloomberg had personally contributed $200M to his own campaign for president. Of that, his campaign had spent $188M.

As of January 16th, 2020, Tom Steyer had spent over $100M of his own money on his presidential campaign (according to Bill Allison of Bloomberg).

Both candidates recognize the growing homeless problem plaguing cities like L.A. and Seattle as a high priority.

How much good would $288M have done to alleviate the problem through the construction of lower income housing?

Spent in such a fashion, how much of a boost would this direct approach to the problem  have been to each candidate’s campaign? Certainly the media would have enthusiastically covered this type of philanthropic endeavor to provide a high level of publicity more honestly and ethically than the ” I approved this message” commercials.

If you see a residence going up in smoke, do you grab a hose and attack the fire or do you spend money advertising what a good fire chief you would be if only people would hire you?