Comment by craftkiller
14 hours ago
I would in a heartbeat. $400,000,000 is never-work-again-in-your-life money. Not just for me, but for my parents and other members of my family. You could put it into bonds at a mere 2% APY (far lower than current interest rates) and get 8 million dollars per year in interest for doing nothing.
At 16 waking hours per day, we're losing at least half of that with work, so it would only take 1 additional decade before I break even in terms of time, not even considering the vastly improved quality of life having millions of dollars of annual passive income nets you. I could even afford dram.
I might've done it in my 20s. But now that I'm much later in life the time is far more precious than the money.
And I don't think it's a good idea to hand family members never-work money. Their own achievements become meaningless.
Idk I would rather spend 10 years in jail later in life than in my twenties.
Otherwise I agree with you it’s not a trade off that is worth it at any point in life
I was about to comment that there was no amount of money I would take in return for spending time in prison but then I realized that of course that’s not true. It would be fun to create a survey that would show a visualization of where people tend to fall on the time/money axis for this.
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I could have had a whole lot of fun in my thirties and forties with that kind of money. At this point it would just mean iron clad financial security and not much more. Even if I could afford Gabe Newell size yacht I wouldn't buy one.
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I'm sure most people wouldn't mind.
Of course not. But I used to know a group of guys who were born fabulously wealthy. None of them were happy. For them to get a job it would be essentially working for free relative to the wealth they have.
I'm sure there are people out there who would find meaning in creating art of some type, or turning their fortune into an even bigger fortune, but I suspect those people are rare.
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"Their own achievements become meaningless."
You're saying that making money is the sole criteria for "meaningful achievement"?
No, but imagine if every time you did something there was a thought in the back of your mind that said "I could have paid someone else to do this without materially affecting my wealth."
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I think you are discounting the mental, physical and social toll of being locked up for 10 years. Without autonomy, without privacy, without access to your loved ones (some of whom might die, and the rest will likely have irreparably damaged relationship after), treated as a bad person, surrounded by criminals. It's not "you get 400M for aging 10 years", or for dying ten years younger; I might take those deals. It's spending those 10 years in a prison, and dealing with the consequences of that after.
Yeah but it was voluntary. He was locked up on contempt for refusing to give the location of the remaining gold coins for 2 years and only stayed in jail for 10 years because he kept refusing. They let him out after 10 years because he was "unlikely to ever offer an answer". It sounds like his mental process was slightly different than what most people in this thread are arguing.
It's a chance for $400m. Doesn't mean he can get the $400m, since legally it still isnt his and it still can get seized after he gets out if he ever tries to cash it in,
> I would in a heartbeat. $400,000,000 is never-work-again-in-your-life money
I general, as in some rich weirdo like Mr. Beast made that deal and you can have your $400m fair and square at the end? Ok that’s a different scenario to one more plausible here where after 10 years you and your family may never be able a to spend it without being sued or jailed again because it’s disputed.
I think first of all it depends on the jail. It's not like you're just sitting in a room, not living. You're experiencing stuff, and it's prison stuff, and that can be hard to shrug off. How valuable is $8 million if you're too broken to enjoy it?
Second, it depends on if you can keep anybody else who is in jail from knowing that you're sitting on $400 million. Otherwise that info will be beaten out of you long before your sentence ends. Maybe that's OK if it's at the bottom of the sea.
You still get to keep millions, just not the whole $400m if you don't go to jail.
In theory I am with you on the subject. Assuming that jail does not endanger one's life and mental integrity, one still has good chunk of life ahead and the whole thing is a clean trade-off, no further strings attached. But that is not what happens in real life and suddenly your choice might become very iffy.
I think there'd be a big psychological difference between spend the next 10 years in jail, collect 400 million and you're in jail indefinitely, if you get out you may collect 400 million.
I was referring to specific 10 years note. Not playing roulette which from my point if you makes it a no go at all
Come revisit when you are over 60 my friend. I have no doubt there is an endless army of folks who would do much worse for much less, regardless of age, but in normal situation thats not a... smart behavior for the lack of better polite words.
The idea that money will cure all life's ailments and screwups and bring happiness is an idea of a clueless poor man. At that age, priorities are normally elsewhere since everybody feel like they don't know the day and hour when something bad happens.
I like that you're all assuming you'd walk out of their alive.
I have more family members who’ve been to prison than college. The mainstream narrative around how dangerous prison is is extremely overblown and limited to a few prisons and generally to those who engage in organized crime
Most people come out of prison in WAY better shape than they went in
Define "way better shape". Mentally? Physically? Spiritually?
It's not prison, but I know people who spent time in various county jails for weeks to months, and all of them definitely came out worse, and did their best to stay as far away as possible from going back (at least as far as I could tell).
How many of those people had 400 million dollars to their name?
You're discounting the risk of inheriting a large sum of money while surrounded by criminals. Getting sudden access to that sort of money is dangerous at the best of times. I'd be scared enough outside of prison, let alone in the presence of organized crime.
Why are you so sure you'd be left alone?
if this was true and not just anecdotal the number of repeated offenders would be a lot less than there are now (ask your family members how many of their cellmates were there on their first stint…)
Me too. I hate my corporate job. Once I leave jail I'd still have a good chunk of life in front of me.
I'm sure there's an elegant gentleman willing to offer you much more than 400 million in exchange of a bare eternity of imprisonment.