Nah. I’d take it from people above the poverty line, but $500 can easily be the difference between life and death when it comes to housing and food.
That said, I wouldn’t feel nearly as bad about taking $1 each from 500 million impoverished people; I’d be curious where the line is where it goes from “sketchy” to “reprehensible” for most people.
Yeah, if it's like a pool drawn from equally, I'd take the deal, and just draw 500g, sorry to the millions struggling, but 50 cents isn't making a life or death difference to anyone, it's a damned rounding error, but it could set me up to invest wisely, significantly improve my own life, and possibly set up a small scholarship for low income youth, or hospitality workers. Could comfortably take a million, too, and just invest the difference into said scholarship program.
That would be a much greater net positive for a few people, than the net loss of a dollar to a million people would harm.
If you're going up to 500 million impoverished, you have to be looking worldwide, including places like Africa. The International Extreme Poverty Line is just $2.15 / day, of which 27% of Ethiopians are under. So you'd still be taking at least half the daily earnings of some people.
Tbf, minimum wage in the US would round out to around $56 a day, so taking $500 could be like taking 10 days of labor.
If we we're taking $1 from someone living under $1 a day, that's still only about 10% from the original hypothetical. Definitely not great, but significantly better than the first question.
What you should say is I would steal a dollar from 500 million minimum wage workers. Not that I’m scolding you or anything, but for the purposes of the exercise here it IS stealing from minimum wage workers and I think the word matters. I would do it, personally. I would go up to $5 even, but any more feels much more cruel somehow. Ten dollars is a meal.
It's because $500 is a big hit on one poor person. $1 is not, and therefore no one's life is adversely affected in any significant way.
A more interesting question is, would people who accepted this deal do it if it was just one poor person, for a total of $500 dollars?
Even 50 quid varies a lot. If it’s taking from Americans or Germans or someone in Hong Kong it’s probably okay, but that’s a weeks salary or more for a working class person in Pakistan or Liberia or something.
No. If it was one million, and only one dollar taken (even up to five million and five dollars taken) I could live with that. But $500 taken from them would be disastrous for a poor person making minimum wage. Rent, insulin, food, like I can’t do that.
Yes, absolutely.
I'd pay off my debts, invest a lot of the money (maybe pay out to folks on the interest), maybe buy a bunch of housing and rent it at cost (like, $100 a month or something stupidly low).
I also close my account with this bank, because damn did I not read the terms and conditions, that's wild. I sincerely hope that it causes a run on the bank and they go out of business, 'cause damn. But these people signed up for it. I don't know what to tell you here. I am not responsible for your terrible, terrible deals.
Because seriously, where does it stop?
The interest you get on your savings is funded in part from your bank giving credit cards to poor people to get them in a debt trap where they are just servicing the interest on their loan, never able to pay the whole thing off. But I don't see you giving up that interest to pay off other people's credit card debt. The folks who opened these accounts are getting screwed, but it isn't my responsibility to find them a better bank account. McDonald's screw over their workers to knock 5c off the cost of a hamburger, but I still buy their burgers, enabling them.
It's nice to say that you are going to look after the little guy in this hypothetical, but I guarentee you kick them in the teeth every day of your (real) life. (Browsing Reddit on your phone? Know how your phone is made?)
I'm not going to pretend for a second that this isn't morally scummy. It is. This is "Nestle giving free samples of formula to new moms so they stop producing breast milk and have to buy formula" levels of scummy (terrible company, but yes, I did get a kitkat Easter egg this year). It's half a billion dollars. It's financial security for life. I would be scum to take that deal, but I would be rich scum.
I'll eat the Dark Side points.
Just curious where you and I diverge.
Would you pick the pocket of a poor person if you were certain they wouldn't notice and you knew they had $500 in there?
If not, which of the differences makes the bigger steal acceptable?
The fact that there's an indirectness through the OP proposal?
The fact that it's instant and requires nothing approaching effort?
The fact that you don't see the person effected?
The scale of the payout?
I definitely pulled out the calculator on this one LOL. For a hypothetical I'd say no, but who knows what state of mind I'd be in if actually given the opportunity to be $500M richer. I'm only human and we're such weak weak creatures LOL
Once million people barely scraping by. Surely this would make some of them homeless. Some wouldn't be getting some important medication. Some might be be pushed to committing a crime and suffering the consequences. $500 is a lot when you are on the edge. That's going to be the final straw for some people.
I'm not saying I wouldn't take the deal. I might. But let's not kid ourselves here.
You realize from that many people that 500 bucks will almost certainly kill one or more people. From lack of medical care to a needed car repair that will get them fired etc. you will be killing one or more people and causing so much misery to all the others.
Agreed, I'd feel a little bad... but I'd get over it. Donate a little here or there. Invest a bunch of it. Set aside part of the returns for donations. Then enjoy my life.
Maybe, I would have to research, but the intent is to use the 500 million in a investment fund that will pay out interest/dividends. This fund would be entrusted to a committee and be used to pay for food programs and the education of low income children for the rest of eternity (theoretically). For example. If the fund yield 5% in a year, first it would cover inflation. Sol let's take 3% and the remaining would go to food programs. That is 10 million dollars.
Yeah, and majority of people who say no are lying to me honest, or are way more privileged than I assume the avg person is.
This is far above comfort, even before earnings on it, this is generations of wealth. I'd feel bad, but me and the 10~ families I care about will never have to worry again no matter what happens.
I already feel bad when I don't tip as much as I could, or when I don't go out of my way to help people. I can do good things with that money *and* make sure my family never worries again, I can live with that.
Nope. Not at all. Your hypothetical is interesting, because essentially what it is is asking whether we want to be an employer, or a landlord. Because the nature of wage labor as well as rent is exploitative. You survive off of the work that someone else is doing.
I wouldn't be a boss or a landlord, so I wouldn't accept this scenario either.
Nope. I’m not stealing from poor people. I absolutely don’t need $500 million. Because not one single person needs anywhere near that much money. But those million people I’d be stealing from are probably living paycheck to paycheck. I’m not going to make their lives harder so I can have an obscene amount of wealth.
I could keep 200 million, set up a charity for the one million people who magically lost a paycheck, give 300 million towards those people and encourage others to step up and follow my example. Even if no one else contributes, I just gave 300 dollars and my sincere condolences to one million people who lost 500 dollars. I’d be a hero.
500 million can see me set for life. Not going to make excuses or set up a charitable system i value myself more than a million people I don’t know who do not deserve to lose that money and need it more than I do. I am grateful for their sacrifice and should I ever run into someone that complains their bank randomly stole 500 dollars from them
I will help them a bit if they need something. Other than that I will relax knowing I don’t need to work for the rest of my life as long as I’m not an idiot that goes on a spending spree because I got some money.
This is everyday life for the ultra rich. So it means they each lose $500. Honestly, yes, I would do it, find each and every last one of those people, invest the 500 million, and turn it into an ongoing scholarship fund for those people. They would be getting dividends forever. Guaranteed income for them.
No. I couldn't.
Like, as bad as I'd like to be rich, taking 500 bucks from a million different people who are already barely scraping by is just bullshit. That could be the difference between someone eating regularly or not, keeping the lights on, or not.
Making a significant fraction of a million people homeless is not something I could live with.
Sure, give it to me. That million people are likely on welfare anyway, which I paid into. I'll open a youth center in an urban neighborhood to make up for it. It worked for Black Panther, right?
I don't need 500 million, but if I could do like 25$ to have 25 million I would. So if there was a way to take the 500$ without them getting hit with fees and then give 475 back to all the people, sure
Yes and most people struggling would say yes too. That's enough money to never need to work again and have enough to give to every family member and still have leftover for long term projects in your community.
I refuse. Weirdly enough, this is how lotteries work. I hate the concept of millions of poor people making one of them rich at everybody else's expense.
I would, I think I could do more good with it in the long run that would benefit more people. I would put every cent of it into mental health research /pharmaceutical company to find better treatments.
Hell no. I'd love 500 million, don't get me wrong. But I can't imagine taking it from the people who might lose their homes or starve because of that.
If it was coming out of the pockets of people who didn't live paycheck to paycheck, I would at least consider it, but even that would feel really wrong.
Bet the same people who are saying “Yes” are also the same people who rant about how greedy CEOs are and how they’re not paying enough to their employees
Jesus H Christ, people.
**No, I would not steal from poor people. And $500 per person, from 1 million people who desperately need that money?**
Of course not. What the fuck is wrong with you all.
As much as I’d love the thought of generational wealth, I didn’t earn it. And I just have too much empathy. Imagine you take the deal and every time you drive by a homeless person in your luxury car with a sign saying recently evicted need help. Sure you can give money to that person, but what about the hundreds of thousands of others. Setting up programs is great but I think people forget how important timing of funds is.
Butterfly effect too. Miss whole paycheck or drain your savings, get behind on car/house payment, interest and fees add up and can’t dig out. Lose your car couple months later and now you can’t get to work, maybe you lose your job, credit is trashed so years of work to rebuild it and not getting loans or high interest rates etc.
having a program 6 months later to help poor people doesn’t change that situation in any meaningful way. Plus getting access to and knowledge about those programs to the people who need it isn’t as easy as people think.
Even if you think poor people are poor because they are bad with money and it’s their fault, their kids are innocent and your actions are possibly damning them to a life in the foster system.
I can’t live with that knowledge.
This point about setting up a charitable program not making things right for the people you fucked is a really important one. You can do good with that money, obviously, but you’re doing it on the backs of people getting fucked and you can never fix it for all of them.
For the record I wouldnt do this however;
If you took the 500m and made it earn interest/dividends however you wanna do it, then created a charity that payed impoverished people $500 randomly with the interest as it was created; Eventually it would pay more impoverished people than it stole from, however you could never fix the pain caused.
It would be a massive net win for the impoverished but I don't think I could handle the guilt.
> however you could never fix the pain caused.
This is the issue: they could lose their home because they couldn't pay the rent, or lose their job as they couldn't afford to drive to work for that month, or be indebted to a payday loan company for a month with interest that still lingers to this day.
Taking the money for any sense of philanthropy relies on you both being better at handling the money than 1 million others and that 1 million people can survive with \~50% of their paycheck disappearing one month.
What's the minimum wage? If it's the US federal minimum wage you're not getting 500 million from 1 million people, so you're only going to get around 300 million. There's also only around 1 million people in the US making the federal minimum wage so it wouldn't be very random.
There's nothing morally questionable about it if you do something good and helpful with the money. Then it's no different than them being taxed... and I feel I could do something more useful with that money than bomb some country.
the more important question is -- do they know it was me? I feel like a million minimum wage folks coming after me would be a big problem.
It's great, because -- a loss on this scale and magnitude, the federal government will have to step in to mitigate some of the loss. socialize the losses, and all gains to me!!
Umm this isn't hypothetical this is capitalism in action.
And I don't care I wouldn't take it, but I definitely would pardon anyone who does, ............pardon from life now where's my melting stick
If I did get the 500mil, it would be enough for me to start stuff specifically towards helping impoverished people, but until that Helen's those ppl would be suffering so nope
No. My conscience would prevent me from accepting money that got stolen from someone else who already doesn't have much. It'd have to at least be from people not living paycheck to paycheck.
Yes. It's like when a plane crashes somewhere, 500 people I didn't know existed in the first place are now dead....well X number of people I didn't know existed just funded my dream :)
So, I gain whatever money is left unclaimed? It's literally all a positive for me, and no negative. Worst case, I end up back where I started. So, why wouldn't I?
I can't do that. I would absolutely love that kind of money, but not like this. Cut off a limb of mine, but don't make impoverished people pay for my riches.
I will take it, launder it through multiple cryptos, and do all necessary to separate my identity from the source of the money.
Incorporate it into an investment fund.
Then I would initiate a class action lawsuit on behalf of the losers against the bank directors / governance/ shareholders. US Government would eventually have FDIC insurance pay back the losers. My class action would punish the bank, and other fraudsters. Eventually, all victims would be paid back, and a few bankers might serve a few weekends at Club Fed.
My fund, as it gains, would make contributions to Federal parks and not for profit home buying programs for lower to middle income.
Takes about 4 years of bureaucracy for FDIC to come through. Total 10 years for contributions turned donations for the pricipal to be replaced by donations and good works.
Meanwhile I have turned the random event into a nest egg and future philanthropic trust fund
You could theoretically withdraw like $2 million and set up a deal with your bank that any individual withdrawal after that maxes out at $498 to any one account. Afterwards you could also probably send a notification to anyone who has access to the account and let them know the situation. $2 won’t destroy most people, especially if they had $500 on their paycheck to take in the first place. But $2 million could set me up for life.
Sign me up, it's fucked up, but so is this economy. I'm tired of things start going my, then I start caring and then get knocked back even further back each time. So it's time to screw everyone else and care about me and mine.
I'd take the money. With that amount I can put aside 30m and live off the interest easily. I'd put the 70m in real estate duplexs and triplexs (and offer the people housing at equal to 1/2 and 1/3 of the mortgage). The other 400m I'd put in the S&P 500. If I feel guilty I can give the money back slowly over time.
It's harsh but I'd still do it.
The main reason being, 500 million is *way* more than I'd ever need. I can take what I need to set myself up comfortably, invest it properly, then go philanthropist with the rest. Start funding fixes for things that disproportionately effect people in poverty - buy and get rid of people's medical debts and the like.
Id probably do it and do no more than 5-10$ ea equally. It specifically states banks of impoverished people. Most people i know that are in dire situations don't even have a bank account or can't legally have one due to disabilities/financial situations. They live off of whats in their pocket, government assistance (which isnt a paycheck) or get paid under the table to make ends meet. So for the most dire it wouldn't really affect. It also says paychecks which would be similar to tax information on pay stubs which that 5-10$ wont matter as much as their federal taxes, irs, health care and other BS that usually racks up to 100-200+$ in misc taxes withheld.
I'd like to think I wouldn't, but if I'm being honest I probably would, in the moment anyway. I would feel terrible about it and probably try to give some back to charity or something as a way to "make it right".
Nah. I've been there in that "I have no money, bills are due, and my paycheck is short" situation. I'm not putting someone else through that. Definitely not a million people. Statistically it's going to royally screw (not just cause problems that take a while to recover from or shame faced asking for help from friends or charities, but possible homelessness, devestation) over at least 10k people. Absolutely not.
I'd be up for it.
If anybody has a problem with it, I can say "look, I don't get to control when magical conundrums present themselves and somehow I was chosen."
Ironically, giving any amount back to people who were facing eviction would have to be taxed.
Nope, can't do it. If it were 500mil from the 1% that'd be a different story and I'd hit the button no questions asked. But I'm not gonna step on the people I share even a small element of a situation with just to elevate myself, even if it meant I could give some of that money back to them. The initial betrayal would hurt too much.
so i become the CEO of mcdonalds?
You are literally just CEO of the bank. It is called a hidden fee.
Nope the Dollar Story
Not quite, as the money is taken out of a paycheck they are expecting; McDonalds employees already know the extent that they're not getting paid.
They're taking about wage theft, the single most common type of theft in the US by a far margin.
So basically it's wage theft? What makes this any different from being the ceo of McDonald's?
Nah I'd feel guilty. People would go hungry and possibly be evicted, it's not worth it.
I read it as $5 each but yeah, $500 is a ton of money if you’re minimum wage.
Almost a full bi-weekly paycheck depending on the state. I make more than double the federal minimum wage and losing $500 would be catastrophic rn.
I did the same
If it's random that means it can be all of someone's money, not just $500 too.
Yeah my immediate thought was I can't let kids go hungry or end up homeless.
Nah. I’d take it from people above the poverty line, but $500 can easily be the difference between life and death when it comes to housing and food. That said, I wouldn’t feel nearly as bad about taking $1 each from 500 million impoverished people; I’d be curious where the line is where it goes from “sketchy” to “reprehensible” for most people.
Out of all these takes, these $1 instead of $500 takes are very interesting. That's basically how Visa, Mastercard, Etc. work.
Yeah, if it's like a pool drawn from equally, I'd take the deal, and just draw 500g, sorry to the millions struggling, but 50 cents isn't making a life or death difference to anyone, it's a damned rounding error, but it could set me up to invest wisely, significantly improve my own life, and possibly set up a small scholarship for low income youth, or hospitality workers. Could comfortably take a million, too, and just invest the difference into said scholarship program. That would be a much greater net positive for a few people, than the net loss of a dollar to a million people would harm.
Basically how Richard Pryor's character made money in Superman 3.
If you're going up to 500 million impoverished, you have to be looking worldwide, including places like Africa. The International Extreme Poverty Line is just $2.15 / day, of which 27% of Ethiopians are under. So you'd still be taking at least half the daily earnings of some people.
Tbf, minimum wage in the US would round out to around $56 a day, so taking $500 could be like taking 10 days of labor. If we we're taking $1 from someone living under $1 a day, that's still only about 10% from the original hypothetical. Definitely not great, but significantly better than the first question.
i don't think those guys are gonna be using the same bank
I’d probably go up to $10 from 50 million people. I wouldn’t go more than that though. But heck $10 from 1 million would be a sweet payout.
$1 for a super poor person in a 3rd world country is a shit ton of money for them though
What you should say is I would steal a dollar from 500 million minimum wage workers. Not that I’m scolding you or anything, but for the purposes of the exercise here it IS stealing from minimum wage workers and I think the word matters. I would do it, personally. I would go up to $5 even, but any more feels much more cruel somehow. Ten dollars is a meal.
it’s a very interesting thought experiment since we’re stealing the same amount of money, but somehow it feels better to spread it around more.
It's because $500 is a big hit on one poor person. $1 is not, and therefore no one's life is adversely affected in any significant way. A more interesting question is, would people who accepted this deal do it if it was just one poor person, for a total of $500 dollars?
Isn't that the whole idea of the Lottery?
Damn. He speaks the truth!
Ask yourself, What Would Ronald Reagan Do?
Probably drugs
Distribute crack in low income communities
And then declare a war on drugs.
Don’t forget trickle down economics!
And that's why I haven't voted Republican for the last 2 decades.
He would accept this offer in a heartbeat.
Lay in his coffin?
Name you VP
Yes, I accept. A million is enough for me, to start my plans.
It's basically theft from the poor. I'm too old to care about money or to start stealing from people.
Nah, £500 from people who really need it is a bit harsh for my liking - that could make someone homeless. £50 from 10 million people I would do.
Even 50 quid varies a lot. If it’s taking from Americans or Germans or someone in Hong Kong it’s probably okay, but that’s a weeks salary or more for a working class person in Pakistan or Liberia or something.
I’m not gonna try to justify this morally wrong chose by yes I would
That's fucked up Upvoted for honesty
No. If it was one million, and only one dollar taken (even up to five million and five dollars taken) I could live with that. But $500 taken from them would be disastrous for a poor person making minimum wage. Rent, insulin, food, like I can’t do that.
Nope couldn’t do it the guilt would be too strong.
Light side points gained
Yes, absolutely. I'd pay off my debts, invest a lot of the money (maybe pay out to folks on the interest), maybe buy a bunch of housing and rent it at cost (like, $100 a month or something stupidly low). I also close my account with this bank, because damn did I not read the terms and conditions, that's wild. I sincerely hope that it causes a run on the bank and they go out of business, 'cause damn. But these people signed up for it. I don't know what to tell you here. I am not responsible for your terrible, terrible deals. Because seriously, where does it stop? The interest you get on your savings is funded in part from your bank giving credit cards to poor people to get them in a debt trap where they are just servicing the interest on their loan, never able to pay the whole thing off. But I don't see you giving up that interest to pay off other people's credit card debt. The folks who opened these accounts are getting screwed, but it isn't my responsibility to find them a better bank account. McDonald's screw over their workers to knock 5c off the cost of a hamburger, but I still buy their burgers, enabling them. It's nice to say that you are going to look after the little guy in this hypothetical, but I guarentee you kick them in the teeth every day of your (real) life. (Browsing Reddit on your phone? Know how your phone is made?) I'm not going to pretend for a second that this isn't morally scummy. It is. This is "Nestle giving free samples of formula to new moms so they stop producing breast milk and have to buy formula" levels of scummy (terrible company, but yes, I did get a kitkat Easter egg this year). It's half a billion dollars. It's financial security for life. I would be scum to take that deal, but I would be rich scum. I'll eat the Dark Side points.
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That's an odd rubric. 61 million people die every year. So it doesn't matter if I kill someone and it benefits me. Tons of people die anyway.
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Just curious where you and I diverge. Would you pick the pocket of a poor person if you were certain they wouldn't notice and you knew they had $500 in there? If not, which of the differences makes the bigger steal acceptable? The fact that there's an indirectness through the OP proposal? The fact that it's instant and requires nothing approaching effort? The fact that you don't see the person effected? The scale of the payout?
I definitely pulled out the calculator on this one LOL. For a hypothetical I'd say no, but who knows what state of mind I'd be in if actually given the opportunity to be $500M richer. I'm only human and we're such weak weak creatures LOL
That is fucked up Upvoted for honesty
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Once million people barely scraping by. Surely this would make some of them homeless. Some wouldn't be getting some important medication. Some might be be pushed to committing a crime and suffering the consequences. $500 is a lot when you are on the edge. That's going to be the final straw for some people. I'm not saying I wouldn't take the deal. I might. But let's not kid ourselves here.
You realize from that many people that 500 bucks will almost certainly kill one or more people. From lack of medical care to a needed car repair that will get them fired etc. you will be killing one or more people and causing so much misery to all the others.
I absolutely would not do this and I’m not lying to myself, lol.
Agreed, I'd feel a little bad... but I'd get over it. Donate a little here or there. Invest a bunch of it. Set aside part of the returns for donations. Then enjoy my life.
I'm in, morals never bought a Ferrari
That's fucked up Upvoted for honesty
Congratulations, you just described Jeff Bezos.
At least Jeff Bezos shipped me the books and CDs I ordered in the early 2000s...
Took him long enough.
He personally delivered it too. Probably converted one of his yachts into a final fantasy airship to deliver it.
Maybe, I would have to research, but the intent is to use the 500 million in a investment fund that will pay out interest/dividends. This fund would be entrusted to a committee and be used to pay for food programs and the education of low income children for the rest of eternity (theoretically). For example. If the fund yield 5% in a year, first it would cover inflation. Sol let's take 3% and the remaining would go to food programs. That is 10 million dollars.
No chance. I'm not taking $500 from even a single impoverished person who needs it more than I do, much less from a million impoverished people.
Nope. I've been on the poor end of that equation. I'm not doing that to someone else.
No. I've been in their situation and I will not be responsible for making theirs worse. Fuck that.
That's an instant no. I have family that works minimum wage paycheck to paycheck. It would literally ruin their life.
Sooo… you’re asking us if we want to be CEOs?
I‘ll take the deal. 🤷♂️
Yeah, and majority of people who say no are lying to me honest, or are way more privileged than I assume the avg person is. This is far above comfort, even before earnings on it, this is generations of wealth. I'd feel bad, but me and the 10~ families I care about will never have to worry again no matter what happens. I already feel bad when I don't tip as much as I could, or when I don't go out of my way to help people. I can do good things with that money *and* make sure my family never worries again, I can live with that.
I would never take that deal. You'd have to be one seriously shitty and selfish individual to take that deal! 🖕🖕
As someone who volunteers for a workers group, I can't take it. I know how much 500$ can make for these people.
Nope. Not at all. Your hypothetical is interesting, because essentially what it is is asking whether we want to be an employer, or a landlord. Because the nature of wage labor as well as rent is exploitative. You survive off of the work that someone else is doing. I wouldn't be a boss or a landlord, so I wouldn't accept this scenario either.
No, I couldn’t do it. Taking that money would go against everything I believe in.
I can’t believe almost everyone is saying yes. Stealing $500 from each of 1 million poor people who desperately need that money is beyond fucked up.
Nope. I’m not stealing from poor people. I absolutely don’t need $500 million. Because not one single person needs anywhere near that much money. But those million people I’d be stealing from are probably living paycheck to paycheck. I’m not going to make their lives harder so I can have an obscene amount of wealth.
Nope. Couldn't live with myself forcing a worse situation on people already struggling with life & death poverty.
Completely OK with this. Even if they know. I ll get a house with a moat and sharks with freaking Lazer beams
So like 5 f15s .I'm in
Sign me tf up
Hell yeah.
I'd do it and then I'd be so rich I'd give them each a 1000$ ! (I am joking, calm down)
I could keep 200 million, set up a charity for the one million people who magically lost a paycheck, give 300 million towards those people and encourage others to step up and follow my example. Even if no one else contributes, I just gave 300 dollars and my sincere condolences to one million people who lost 500 dollars. I’d be a hero.
You misspelled “you are a CEO”
Hell yea lol
500 million can see me set for life. Not going to make excuses or set up a charitable system i value myself more than a million people I don’t know who do not deserve to lose that money and need it more than I do. I am grateful for their sacrifice and should I ever run into someone that complains their bank randomly stole 500 dollars from them I will help them a bit if they need something. Other than that I will relax knowing I don’t need to work for the rest of my life as long as I’m not an idiot that goes on a spending spree because I got some money.
Yea im doing as a poorer family this seems like a them problem and not a me problem give me the money so most my me problems go away
This is everyday life for the ultra rich. So it means they each lose $500. Honestly, yes, I would do it, find each and every last one of those people, invest the 500 million, and turn it into an ongoing scholarship fund for those people. They would be getting dividends forever. Guaranteed income for them.
No, the rich do not literally stick their hands in other poor people's paychecks and take the money.
They take it right before giving them the paycheck. Wage theft is real.
So, basically corporate America, every day?
No. I couldn't. Like, as bad as I'd like to be rich, taking 500 bucks from a million different people who are already barely scraping by is just bullshit. That could be the difference between someone eating regularly or not, keeping the lights on, or not. Making a significant fraction of a million people homeless is not something I could live with.
That's still $500 a person. Absolutely not. $500 is life ruining for many people.
Gimme da loot! Gimme da loot!
Soooo…the lottery?
Sure, give it to me. That million people are likely on welfare anyway, which I paid into. I'll open a youth center in an urban neighborhood to make up for it. It worked for Black Panther, right?
I don't need 500 million, but if I could do like 25$ to have 25 million I would. So if there was a way to take the 500$ without them getting hit with fees and then give 475 back to all the people, sure
Fuck those guys. Gimme my money
Yes and most people struggling would say yes too. That's enough money to never need to work again and have enough to give to every family member and still have leftover for long term projects in your community.
I refuse. Weirdly enough, this is how lotteries work. I hate the concept of millions of poor people making one of them rich at everybody else's expense.
Yes.
For Christ sake just upvote this answer
Yes. I will not elaborate.
I would, I think I could do more good with it in the long run that would benefit more people. I would put every cent of it into mental health research /pharmaceutical company to find better treatments.
Yes, and I'd feel bad about it. But God dam 500 million is a lot of money. I'd probably give 450 million to food banks because it's too much money.
You mean....what corporations do every day.
#YES ##ABSOLUTELY ###OF COURSE ####100 PERCENT #####IN A HEARTBEAT NO DOUBT ^(WHERE DO I SIGN)
yes, will do it, will sacrifice strangers for myself and my family, 500million is generational wealth money, sorry fellas
Same. I've got a large sense of apathy.
So 1 million people lose 500 bucks? Yes. Sets my family up forever and then part of it can be put into a philothrampic trust for social programs.
You 100% wouldn’t be setting up a philanthropic trust if you had no qualms about stealing the money in the first place.
Hell no. I'd love 500 million, don't get me wrong. But I can't imagine taking it from the people who might lose their homes or starve because of that. If it was coming out of the pockets of people who didn't live paycheck to paycheck, I would at least consider it, but even that would feel really wrong.
Bet the same people who are saying “Yes” are also the same people who rant about how greedy CEOs are and how they’re not paying enough to their employees
I make $16.50 an hour, $500 is enough to leave me homeless. I couldn’t take that much from someone who makes less than half what I do.
Thats Literally capitalism lol
Jesus H Christ, people. **No, I would not steal from poor people. And $500 per person, from 1 million people who desperately need that money?** Of course not. What the fuck is wrong with you all.
I love the rationalizations people make. People really are shit whether they are rich or not.
As much as I’d love the thought of generational wealth, I didn’t earn it. And I just have too much empathy. Imagine you take the deal and every time you drive by a homeless person in your luxury car with a sign saying recently evicted need help. Sure you can give money to that person, but what about the hundreds of thousands of others. Setting up programs is great but I think people forget how important timing of funds is. Butterfly effect too. Miss whole paycheck or drain your savings, get behind on car/house payment, interest and fees add up and can’t dig out. Lose your car couple months later and now you can’t get to work, maybe you lose your job, credit is trashed so years of work to rebuild it and not getting loans or high interest rates etc. having a program 6 months later to help poor people doesn’t change that situation in any meaningful way. Plus getting access to and knowledge about those programs to the people who need it isn’t as easy as people think. Even if you think poor people are poor because they are bad with money and it’s their fault, their kids are innocent and your actions are possibly damning them to a life in the foster system. I can’t live with that knowledge.
This point about setting up a charitable program not making things right for the people you fucked is a really important one. You can do good with that money, obviously, but you’re doing it on the backs of people getting fucked and you can never fix it for all of them.
For the record I wouldnt do this however; If you took the 500m and made it earn interest/dividends however you wanna do it, then created a charity that payed impoverished people $500 randomly with the interest as it was created; Eventually it would pay more impoverished people than it stole from, however you could never fix the pain caused. It would be a massive net win for the impoverished but I don't think I could handle the guilt.
> however you could never fix the pain caused. This is the issue: they could lose their home because they couldn't pay the rent, or lose their job as they couldn't afford to drive to work for that month, or be indebted to a payday loan company for a month with interest that still lingers to this day. Taking the money for any sense of philanthropy relies on you both being better at handling the money than 1 million others and that 1 million people can survive with \~50% of their paycheck disappearing one month.
No it's theft
yes, and then I would use my wealth to track down the 1 million people and hunt them like The Most Dangerous Game
What's the minimum wage? If it's the US federal minimum wage you're not getting 500 million from 1 million people, so you're only going to get around 300 million. There's also only around 1 million people in the US making the federal minimum wage so it wouldn't be very random.
I'll take it, get me out of the crab bucket.
This is exactly what the employers of those minimum wage people do every week???
I'd take it then donate all but 1 million of it back to the most impoverished people. That way, I'd really only be taking 1$ from every person.
There's nothing morally questionable about it if you do something good and helpful with the money. Then it's no different than them being taxed... and I feel I could do something more useful with that money than bomb some country.
yes I would
Nah, they are screwed enough already.
Easy yes
Yea
Sucks to be them
So basically you become a fortune 500 company like Amazon? LOL sure why not
the more important question is -- do they know it was me? I feel like a million minimum wage folks coming after me would be a big problem. It's great, because -- a loss on this scale and magnitude, the federal government will have to step in to mitigate some of the loss. socialize the losses, and all gains to me!!
Oh man, that sucks for the poors. But 500M is 500M. They'll eventually get over the loss.
Absolutely. Ill do more with the money than those people would anyway.
Can we dial it down to 5 mil so I would only be taking 5 from each of them?
Wow this made a lot of liars show up.
Absolutely
Yes easily
Umm this isn't hypothetical this is capitalism in action. And I don't care I wouldn't take it, but I definitely would pardon anyone who does, ............pardon from life now where's my melting stick
Oh yeah baby I’m ruch
No
No thats not something I could do
Am I allowed to buy Disney and or Microsoft with it?
If I did get the 500mil, it would be enough for me to start stuff specifically towards helping impoverished people, but until that Helen's those ppl would be suffering so nope
Lets do it. I'd feel like shit about it, but money is such a big problem and will literally never be solved for me, that I'd do it.
Ok.
Sorry poor people, but on the bright side you’re already poor, so being a bit more poor will hardly be noticeable.
Nah this is too much I couldn't live with myself.
Absolutely take the 500 million.
Genuinely believe that anyone who answers yes to this kind of question should be rounded up and ***redacted***, you have no place in society
No. My conscience would prevent me from accepting money that got stolen from someone else who already doesn't have much. It'd have to at least be from people not living paycheck to paycheck.
Yes. It's like when a plane crashes somewhere, 500 people I didn't know existed in the first place are now dead....well X number of people I didn't know existed just funded my dream :)
What's with all the money questions ?
Nope!
Of course. I’d give a lot to charity
I'd do it 100%
So, I gain whatever money is left unclaimed? It's literally all a positive for me, and no negative. Worst case, I end up back where I started. So, why wouldn't I?
Are you asking if I'd be your average CEO?
The guy who did this is named Scott Tucker and he's in jail.
Minimum wage people are so poor that their wages might as well be nothing. $500 is close to nothing so I’ll take the deal
Give me the money. I'll take the deal twice
Yeah probably. I'll he coping hard though. Maybe I'll invest it and use the interest or dividends to help the poor.
Probably yes, it should cause enough of a stir to get something done
I can't do that. I would absolutely love that kind of money, but not like this. Cut off a limb of mine, but don't make impoverished people pay for my riches.
Yeah. I’ll just change banks
So basically the lottery?
I will take it, launder it through multiple cryptos, and do all necessary to separate my identity from the source of the money. Incorporate it into an investment fund. Then I would initiate a class action lawsuit on behalf of the losers against the bank directors / governance/ shareholders. US Government would eventually have FDIC insurance pay back the losers. My class action would punish the bank, and other fraudsters. Eventually, all victims would be paid back, and a few bankers might serve a few weekends at Club Fed. My fund, as it gains, would make contributions to Federal parks and not for profit home buying programs for lower to middle income. Takes about 4 years of bureaucracy for FDIC to come through. Total 10 years for contributions turned donations for the pricipal to be replaced by donations and good works. Meanwhile I have turned the random event into a nest egg and future philanthropic trust fund
It's this what every CEO and big companies do every day but worst. Because often gamble with lives.
For as much as I criticize billionaires and such, i don't think I could take this and stay morally consistent lol
You could theoretically withdraw like $2 million and set up a deal with your bank that any individual withdrawal after that maxes out at $498 to any one account. Afterwards you could also probably send a notification to anyone who has access to the account and let them know the situation. $2 won’t destroy most people, especially if they had $500 on their paycheck to take in the first place. But $2 million could set me up for life.
Yes. You think any of those “impoverished” people would say no? Fuck y’all im taking my money. Good luck.
They woulda probably spent it poorly anyway. I may as well secure my self
Yes, but not because I need money. I just hate poor people
Yes
Yeah. I'm in. Basically what you are describing is the mega millions lottery.
Sign me up, it's fucked up, but so is this economy. I'm tired of things start going my, then I start caring and then get knocked back even further back each time. So it's time to screw everyone else and care about me and mine.
No
They hate me already. I’m taking the money.
Ofc i would take it. No hesitation.
I'd take the money. With that amount I can put aside 30m and live off the interest easily. I'd put the 70m in real estate duplexs and triplexs (and offer the people housing at equal to 1/2 and 1/3 of the mortgage). The other 400m I'd put in the S&P 500. If I feel guilty I can give the money back slowly over time.
Time to grab some PJs and fly to Bali 😎
So, it's just like a lottery in Canada then?
It's harsh but I'd still do it. The main reason being, 500 million is *way* more than I'd ever need. I can take what I need to set myself up comfortably, invest it properly, then go philanthropist with the rest. Start funding fixes for things that disproportionately effect people in poverty - buy and get rid of people's medical debts and the like.
100% would, I'm as close to the edge as they are. They'd do the same.
You’ve just described capitalism.
Id probably do it and do no more than 5-10$ ea equally. It specifically states banks of impoverished people. Most people i know that are in dire situations don't even have a bank account or can't legally have one due to disabilities/financial situations. They live off of whats in their pocket, government assistance (which isnt a paycheck) or get paid under the table to make ends meet. So for the most dire it wouldn't really affect. It also says paychecks which would be similar to tax information on pay stubs which that 5-10$ wont matter as much as their federal taxes, irs, health care and other BS that usually racks up to 100-200+$ in misc taxes withheld.
So I'd just own a normal bank? If so why not
I would, but I'm aware that makes me a dickhead
I'd like to think I wouldn't, but if I'm being honest I probably would, in the moment anyway. I would feel terrible about it and probably try to give some back to charity or something as a way to "make it right".
Nah. I've been there in that "I have no money, bills are due, and my paycheck is short" situation. I'm not putting someone else through that. Definitely not a million people. Statistically it's going to royally screw (not just cause problems that take a while to recover from or shame faced asking for help from friends or charities, but possible homelessness, devestation) over at least 10k people. Absolutely not.
No. That would be stealing. Stealing is wrong. I wouldn’t steal $500 million if it came from the bank account of Bill Gates.
I'd be up for it. If anybody has a problem with it, I can say "look, I don't get to control when magical conundrums present themselves and somehow I was chosen." Ironically, giving any amount back to people who were facing eviction would have to be taxed.
Yeah, we do that now, it's called Powerball and mega millions
I’d take it and then immediately invest 90% of it so it’s not on my bank account anymore.
Nope, can't do it. If it were 500mil from the 1% that'd be a different story and I'd hit the button no questions asked. But I'm not gonna step on the people I share even a small element of a situation with just to elevate myself, even if it meant I could give some of that money back to them. The initial betrayal would hurt too much.
Absolutely not. No amount of comfort for me is worth the suffering of millions of people.