What Would You Do For A Million Dollars?

None of the above.

The human race is too money centric.

I HATE money. I really do. I hate the whole concept of it, but mainly the fact the those that have it, can have pretty much any kind of life they choose, and those that don't, have a hard job having a life period.

I hate the fact that people decide who lives and who dies based on money or lack of it.

We are talking wood pulp with ink on it here...no amount of it, can ever have more value that a living being...ever.

Religion and money are the two most insidious, evil and divisive creations of humanity. If it were not for these two things, we would probably be among the stars by now.

Now...if you asked what would i do for love? Pretty much all of your list, in the right circumstances of course.

reply to post by open_eyeballs


I think the difference is in how much cash we need. Would I do some things? Sure. Is it to get me out of a bad situation? yes.

But to continue to do it to go from millionair to multimillionaire to billionaire? No.

Because a person only needs so much to get by.

To be a rockefeller with half the world's resources in your pocket and strive for more is not who I am.

And if I were to become a multi-millionaire. I would invest the money to make more money.

But then, I would become the worlds biggest philanthropist. Shelters, homes for homeless families. Animal rescues, etc.

reply to post by open_eyeballs


TRY me. Why? It would save lives.
Gold coins only accepted.

Originally posted by chiron613
I've got news for you. Many of us sell ourselves for far less than a million dollars. Many of us - probably the majority of us - compromise ourselves, lie, cheat, steal, bend rules, hurt people, all for their regular pay. The important thing to realize, though, is that people aren't doing these things for the lousy tens of thousands they get; they're doing it for their livelihood. They're doing it so that they can eat, have a roof over their heads. For most of us, it's not about money per se; it's about surviving. And sure, we'll do all sorts of things if we think our survival is at risk.

This is pretty much what I was thinking.

I've worked for some right dipsticks and bullies and only left the jobs when I could find a suitable alternative.

All the time, I've tried to behave with some integrity but always felt it was compromised just because I was prepared to put up with those people. However, I didn't want to find me and my integrity living together in a shop doorway, so I kept working.

Here's a stupid example - I was in my ex-employers kitchen and we found a snail near the draining board. I wanted to put it in the garden, but she hates them and threw the snail into a bowl full of murky water (she was washing vegetables). I went to rescue it and she actually threatened me with the sack if I did. Of course, I waited for her to leave so that I could save the snail but the water was too dark and I couldn't easily see it. So I left it to drown - I didn't have a long enough 'window of opportunity' to fish around for it.

Anyway, I would say that I wouldn't do anything for a million or ten million that I wouldn't voluntarily do for my normal day's pay. I don't know what I could be co-erced into doing, thinking back to that snail.

And I wouldn't do anything dishonest or unsavoury thinking that I could do so much good with the money that I could some how make up for it. If I deliberately and voluntarily did something like that, then I would have lost the battle and no money could make up for that.

reply to post by spikey

Religion and money are the two most insidious, evil and divisive creations of humanity. If it were not for these two things, we would probably be among the stars by now.

This is a common perception by many people.

The only argument is that money and religion have never killed or hurt a thing. It has been humans who have done all the murdering and all the exploiting...

What you have to ask yourself is would there still be the murdering and the exploiting if those concepts were never invented and accpeted? I think our history shows humans would have found ways to get out the evil side one way or another...unfortunately...
.
An idea can sometimes be the most dangerous thing ever devised...

What I want to know is if you get more than you need ... (doesn't matter if you reach that before 1 million or before 1 billion) where do you put the rest, now?

If you just want $ to spend right now - then do what you do and get that out of your system.

If you're passed that and you get sustainable and need to invest the rest wisely - GOOD LUCK

Right now, a lot of people are looking around going, isn't this a weird time. So many people unemployed and worried about money and so many others holding money afraid to put it down any where and watch it burn to dust in the stock market or the housing market or US manufacturing or foreign manufacturing, or subjective investments like art or gold or farm land which can be awkward, confiscated or less easy to offload if necessary.

Just goes to show - It's balance you want. You want the money you need. Not less and not more...

When you're out of balance either way - it's a pain in the ass.

I would ask:

Think of a time when you are / were happy and what was your income % compared to your expenses %? That's the ratio you want.


Sure you could spend on a jet or trips all the time or houses - and guess what - they're stress and work and headaches not happiness and fulfillment.

Sure you could do less, have more than enough time with family, friends, TV, beer, but pile up debt and stress and guilt and that's not happiness either.

It's the balance we all want, but for some reason (commercials I guess) we all think we want more stuff and to spend $ on it that we don't have.

I suggest we only look at what we'd do for $1M after we look at what we'd do WITH $1M and really analyze if that's where we'd find happiness or headaches.

After that, you might find you'd do as much for $1 billion as you would for a bag of dirty diapers.

reply to post by trusername


Its funny you talk about balance. I do agree, but I believe there are multiple studies that show no matter how much you make, the averag eAmerican spends something like 10-20% over their income. Whether it is 20k or 100k...

Most of us cant seem to find that balance...your speaking of...

I know I ignored it when I had money...a few years after attainig it..poof...gone!

it was beyon dpathetic..not knowing how to stay financially stable..my family paid teh price too...i paid the price. But like everything you have tio make th econcentrated effort to mov eone..not dwell on the past.

balance is essential for all aspects of happiness, monetary balance is no different...but i am sure it is much easier to be balanced within a million dollar budget rather than a few thousand per month...

[edit on 31-8-2009 by open_eyeballs]

reply to post by open_eyeballs


Since I have already turned down being an economic hitman when I was recruited by my former employer, I can say with total certainty that I am not for sale.

My boss, at the hospital (I was a Security Officer, it is not security's job to spy) I previously worked at gave me a name and picture of a woman and asked if I knew who she was and I recognized her as a nurse and said so.

I was handed the picture, the only thing given to me (in other words nothing documented), and the manager claimed she was sleeping on the job and that she needed something handled with discretion and that I was to watch her, never ask for assistance, and catch her in the act of sleeping on the job, or it was implied "catch her sleeping" on the job.

I had two weeks in which to do so and I told her I would do what was asked.

I watched and watched and checked and it kicked in about the two weeks, and that the nurses have a union, so in essence my boss was asking me to "find" her sleeping so that she would be fired before her union contract was up for renewal.

The woman was a thirty year veteran, and the whole thing was about money.

I never found nor "found" her sleeping, which is exactly what I reported.

The manager began changing my availibility just to screw with me.

I got someone to replace one shift, once, the second, and third time when I could not find replacements for my shifts because the shift difference conflicted with both my other job and being a Boy Scout adult leader was her reason to terminate my employment.

I have never looked back on my decision with anything but pride that I did the right thing.

What I find both funny and ironic is that now the hospital Administration is going after her because of all the dirty little secrets she was keeping for them because she became a liability.

Harriet Tubman, This Underground Railroad Will Carry Free Men, Trying Not To Become Slaves

My value to myself is more than anyone can place on my integrity, period.


[edit on 31-8-2009 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

Give good advice to those who need it.

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


Good for you for doing the right thing. You wouldnt have done it for even a cool mill huh? I hope not. I would like to think i wouldnt either...

Not that you would do this, but think of how many times people have come into a similar situation and then not "liked" the nurse. Maybe at one time they had words with her or had diffeerning political views...how much easier would it be for someone to say..."ha, sucker... got ya and got me some money"...you could just hear them snickering to there sneaky little selves ..

I find this kind of attitude far to common and especially permeated all through American politics..yet the average man with thier religions, convictions, and patriotisms will do nothing different in their own right...

I find that situation quite sad...

I would do anything as long as no one was hurt. Bump it up to 1 Billion and my answers will be the same.

Would you lie? - Everyone lies, so this isn't a stretch

Would you steal? - Depends on what it is and what the outcome could be. I'm not going to stress about stealing the office stapler.

Would you inflict pain? - On others? No.

Would you manipulate? - Everyone does this to some extend anyways.

Would you cheat? - I cheat at a lot of things, but nothing important

Would you bend the rules? - Same as cheating.

Would you compromise your integrity? - I do that on a daily basis. It's called life.

Would you take someones job? - If it harms them, then no. If it was a situation where they were quitting or getting promoted or something like that, then gladly.

Would you threaten someone? - You never specified to threaten HARM. So, yes. I would threaten to tickle someone in to submission.

Would you kill? - No.

[edit on 31-8-2009 by DemonicAngelZero]

reply to post by open_eyeballs


We couldn't really say for sure could we.

I can say with a degree of certainty that humans will always express a territorial aspect..with or without money or religion, but i can also say that the differences in the scale of violence and suppression of advancement that we, as a species has seen, would be orders of magnitude lower.

It's not only violence we have to consider is it?

How many ideas and methodologies, innovations and improvements have been hushed up, swept under the carpet, or killed swiftly because it didn't fit in with dogma or was considered 'too expensive' or financially unfeasible..or damaging to the interests of huge businesses? We could fill our history books with such examples alone, i'm sure.

People like to talk and speculate on ET contact with humanity, and every time the topic is raised, at least one comment will be along the lines of "Every time a race with superior technology encounters and has protracted contact with a technologically inferior race, the latter usually goes the way of the Dodo, or is culturally wiped out, or just plain wiped out"..This is from a human perspective (obviously), and we are applying human methodologies and track records, to what is literally an alien species.. humanities record of the strong wiping out any other weaker or less sophisticated race that get's in the way is well known, ET's isn't.

Spain...in S. America..,millions dead...societies crumbled..traditions lost...all in the name of religion and money.
The renaissance period, is another example of dogma murdering innovation and scientific reasoning.

Native American Indians...lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years..until Europeans decided that America holds riches beyond the wildest dreams of the average man or woman, and we know the rest.

This happens the world over..in every time period. All down to bringing religion to the heathens and savages, and/or collecting as much gold and wealth as possible while they're at it.

We cannot argue that religion and money have never killed anyone or caused people to starve to death, held back scientific progress, or kept us on this planet, because they are human constructs. Without us, they would not exist either...they exist and are applied, yes by us, but not because of us. Humanity had and still does have a choice.

We can carry on as we have been...i.e. bring your belief systems in line with ours, or die and suffer horribly, and tread on the next man or woman to get your head above the financial parapet..and it's getting us further and further into trouble..or we change, and we must change to survive.

We won't clean up our planet...too expensive. Too expensive??!!! What ARE these people on? Where are they going to spend their money, when there is no habitable planet left? It is beyond the realms of self preservation, never mind logic..

I could go on and on, and usually do, but i've probably bored you and most of the readers rigid by now.

reply to post by open_eyeballs


That's just it for me, no I would not have done it for a million dollars.

Karma is a bitch, especially when it comes to bite on the hairy backside, fully deserving what you gave out.

I knew my intregrity was being tested, and I passed, for myself, and cannot give a rat's fuzzy beubonic plagued behind what anyone else thinks of me.

To me this was the fast track to power, because I would have eventually built up to the hospital Administration after many years of this nonsense, and I believe within twenty years I would have been mid-level management within F.E.M.A., because hospitals fall under the umbrella of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

This to me would have been the equivalent to eventually becoming one of Hitler's henchmen.

I have more ethics than that and I can prove it, I got 100% A's on all of my Ethics assignments for Business Administration/Criminal Justice Adminstration.

I ended up working too much and dropped the course before finishing it though.

I have better things to do than waste my time selling myself out for a fast promotion.

I want my promotion to be on merit, not on the snitch, backstabber, and cut-throat mentality.

Do not get me wrong, if it is my business, I am cut-throat, period, but not for someone else, ever.

Originally posted by open_eyeballs

Would you lie?

No

Would you steal?

No

Would you inflict pain?

No

Would you manipulate?

No, well perhaps I guess depending on the situation. Let's suppose I am on one of those reality shows and I had to "manipulate" others to win. But I hate those shows anyway. So most likely no. I would definitely be willing to discuss my opinions and points of view, and try to sway the other person to my way of thinking. So if that is considered manipulation, then I have to change my answer to yes.

To the poster who said yes cause that is how everybody else does it, why does that make it acceptable to you? If everyone else was shooting their foot off, would you as well? Or would you use your own noggin to make a different choice?

Would you cheat?

No

Would you bend the rules?

Well, which rules? The ones the government uses to control the masses? The ones bankers and wall street uses against us? Well then H E double L L YES. I would use their rules against them if I had the opportunity.

Would you compromise your integrity?

NO

Would you take someones job?

Again, depends on the situation. You mean like some big time banker or government job? Yes, especially if I could help people by doing so.

Would you threaten someone?

No, threats don't work. You gotta mean what you say.

Would you kill?

NO NO NO, only if it was in self defense of my family and myself. But otherwise NO.

Now ask yourself what you would do for 10 million. How about 100 million? And then of course, how a bout 1 billion?

Again the answer to this is NO. It is not in my personality to purposefully harm another person for my own gain.

I would be willing to bet not one human who has made over 10 million dollars has their hands completely dirt and/or blood free.

I would make this bet with you, and we would win.

Well, maybe that is just the problem. For all our differences: democrat... republican. Liberal...conservative. Religious...non religious. We sure all seem to have one thing in common: greed.

Agreed, for most people, I know some of us who do not think with our pocketbooks.

So, I suppose if we want to stop "Global Meltdown" then we must limit greed. So to you I say: How?

Get rid of money, get rid of corporatism, I know many hate the idea and even intensely fear the idea, but socialism (or something along those lines) is the only way to stop greed, everyone, everyone has the same. Running a business? Everyone has a percent ownership in it. That is the only way, by everyone owning a percentage of everything.

Perhaps, I am poor, well middle income and not rich, because of my integrity in life. I have had some opportunities in life, that I passed on, as those opportunities went against my beliefs in how humanity should deal with each other.

I would say part of my financial situation, has to do with the fact that when I see someone who needs help, I help, even to my own financial hardships. Sometimes, ohhh sometimes it sucks having a conscious.

I have left jobs because of certain under the table requirements that went against my integrity.

Originally posted by Republican08
The same I would for a klondike.

or a blond *** lol Kanye.

For a million dollars, i'd work hard for it.

Just family work ethic I suppose, my dad was a very wealthy man and worked at his job well. Although he was an oil tycoonist

ahhh, and now one who fights against health care for all, let's the cat out of the bag. Got his health care through his rich daddy.

Harm None
Peace

reply to post by spikey


Well said. I have no qualms with anything you said.

As you highlighted; religion and money are man made constructs. These inventions were not meant to be used in the destructive ways you mentioned. All good examples to by the way...

It is the human condition to use them as power grabbing and manipulative tools. Even though you are correct, I always try to remind people to look at the big picture. Just as much evil and destruction religion and money have bestowed on humanity there have been those exceptions that have used them in saintly and humanitarian ways for the betterment of mankind.

Mother Teresa comes to mind off the top of my head...

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas

I knew my intregrity was being tested, and I passed, for myself, and cannot give a rat's fuzzy beubonic plagued behind what anyone else thinks of me.

..thats one way to put it! I like it!

you could be very well right..it could have been a wide open door for you to step on into...into a world of corruption...

I see this as an easy metaphor of what American politics have devolved into...if only our politicians could have the gumption you showed...the sad matter of facts are that they dont show it, nor do they practice it...

I thought we are in a deep recession, there's no let up, all goes to hell . . . and some one asks me what i would do for a mill.


How about asking those "desperate, foreclosures ridden, permanently out of work folks" what they would do for five bucks?

I would likely do all of those things... is that million before or after taxes... I probably wouldn't kill if uncle sam gets 80%+ of my million...

reply to post by stander

I thought we are in a deep recession, there's no let up, all goes to hell . . . and some one asks me what i would do for a mill.


How about asking those "desperate, foreclosures ridden, permanently out of work folks" what they would do for five bucks?

Well then I suppose I could ask myself what I would do for 5 bucks...

Since I was out of work and had two houses foreclose.

I did what any head of family would do..set aside my pride and find a job I wasnt thrilled with. Which is where I am at now...doing a job that I am not in love with or really want to be doing...

This somehow negates my point? I dont think so..you didnt even get it anyway...why even post?...

reply to post by open_eyeballs


I am glad you liked my way of expression in the previous post, I believe in expressing myself very emphatically and will use colorful metaphors in order to make my point very clear.

You're going to love my next new thread...

I used to work at a conveniance store and people would always come in buying lottery tickets, and I would tell them if they were to put that same $1 into a Roth I.R.A. they would be billionaires by the time they retired, but alas in America it is the "give me something for nothing" mentality.

$1 million dollars is not really much if you think about it.

It is just to enough to buy a house, and a few cars, and have money left to invest.

It is not enough to retire on permanently, unless you convert it into Peso's, and move South of the border.

Four words of advice if you go and do that.

Don't Drink The Water.



I'm going to invite you over to the thread below.

Harriet Tubman, This Underground Railroad Will Carry Free Men, Trying Not To Become Slaves

On that thread, three people have mentioned me being in politics.

With those three and you, and a few assorted others on ATS, I believe that number is now up to ten, online.

I have now been approached, asked, and suggested 1,001 times out in the real world to run as President of the United States of America.

Also I will invite you as well as anyone over to my thread on the Bully Pulpit to debate me politically, on the thread below, but beware you have to be a member there first before you can post.

Left-Wing, Right-Wing, This Turkey, Knows How To Soar Like An Eagle


[edit on 1-9-2009 by SpartanKingLeonidas]