junekaya

There are a fair few interesting people here, so I figured I might as well throw this question out there. Be interesting to see responses and/or arguments.

Hypothetical situation.

You get offered one million dollars but there's a catch - if you take the money, then one person in the world will die immediately.

The person is chosen at random. It could be anyone; a child, an adult, an elderly person, someone who’s about to die of a disease. It could be someone flying a plane full of passengers or someone about to rape and kill someone. It could be you, your mum, dad or someone else here.

Still… about 107 people around the world die in a minute anyway, and no one said you had to keep the money for yourself. You could use it for charity purposes. One million dollars would go a long way.

But then again, the chances that you might take a father or mother away from a child are pretty high. And what if you got someone important – Barack Obama, perhaps? - or someone you knew in real life? Could you live with that guilt?

Would you take the money knowing that it would cost someone their life? Why?

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Iconoclast

I know ~250 people well. Vicariously I know about 2000.
World has 7,000,000,000
7,000,000,000/2000 = 3,500,000 : 1
I feel relaxed.

$1 m spent on condoms for Africa could save about a million humans from a death be starvation. Utilitarian? Yes.
I feel relaxed.

__________________
The individual is hopeless without the group.
The group is hopeless without its individuals.

Axiom

Look ,you're not kidding anyone ...... you would be relaxed if a million humans were culled tomorrow .

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"Sometimes the obligation of the intelligent is to restate the obvious. None more important than emphatically stating that there is a : ' Naked Emperor Elephant in the Room' " Axiom

antichrist

I would be more relaxed if 5.9 billion humans were culled tomorrow = estatic in fact

Axiom

so ecstatic in fact, that you would go first .

__________________
"Sometimes the obligation of the intelligent is to restate the obvious. None more important than emphatically stating that there is a : ' Naked Emperor Elephant in the Room' " Axiom

antichrist

No, coz if not here to witness I could not be estatic - just keep .1 billion of th environmentalists, we may be able to be trusted not to overpopulate the place again, as well as not poisoning it.

Axiom

ah , that's ok then , where do i take the jab ?

__________________
"Sometimes the obligation of the intelligent is to restate the obvious. None more important than emphatically stating that there is a : ' Naked Emperor Elephant in the Room' " Axiom

Jaydon

I say go for it based on the offchance it knocks off someone associated with today tonight.

Iconoclast

The deal was 1 person for $1m)

As for 1 million culled? I personally do nothing now to save about 6 billion, so why would I care about 1 million. The only caveat is that nobody I like is among them.

Ask yourself, "Will I give all my income but survival money to save 1000 people a week? [inoculation]" Answer no?
How about half that and spend half for your surplus on a round the world holiday. No? OK, let's say just 10% or $5k p.a. No?

Remember that actions speak louder than words. The truth is that we, you, me, all of us in the first world, simply do not give a stuff.

__________________
The individual is hopeless without the group.
The group is hopeless without its individuals.