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Here’s an interesting thought experiment for you - if you could trade 20 years of your life for 10 billion dollars, would you? Just step in a room and walk out

Here’s an interesting thought experiment for you - if you could trade 20 years of your life for 10 billion dollars, would you? Just step in a room and walk out a billionaire. I have yet to meet someone that would accept the offer. So if you do the math, they value their time at a shockingly high rate. I’d argue, trading the best years of your life for an early retirement is the same proposal. Steve Jobs would have given his fortune many times over to have a couple extra years. Why trade the best years of your life for an uncertain future?

chii 5y ago
> if you could trade 20 years of your life for 10 billion dollars, would you? Just step in a room and walk out a billionaire. i think it depends on which 20 years are taken - the old ones, where you're unable to anything anyway, or the young ones, which you'd need to enjoy that 10 billion?
- scotty79 5y ago
  Obviously the 20 years from the moment of asking so their best, healthiest years of all they have.
mensetmanusman 5y ago
I would do that, go from 100 to 80 years is fine by me.
Panzer04 5y ago
I think it's worth playing this out a bit, because I'd claim there's an exponential curve here. Offer someone 500m (hell, even 1m for many) for one year, and I doubt you'd find many who would say no. There's a margin at which you would be losing so much life experience that you wonder what you even live for (20y), while shorter periods (1, 2, 5, even 10y) aren't so defined. Also, I read this as you lose 20y from the point of the deal (eg. 20yold coming back as a 40yold) rather than taking years off the end of your life, which I suspect is a more palatable interpretation for most.
ipiz0618 5y ago
When I have that 10 billion, I might want to extend my life just to enjoy it more, like all the rich people do. But right now? I don’t even need to think twice to accept that offer lol. My time isn’t that precious when 50% of it is spent working for food and shelter, and trying to stay fit so that I don’t stop being capable of working.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- bcrosby95 5y ago
  I'm curious if you have kids? This proposal could be thought of a couple ways. Maybe I prematurely age 20 years? That sounds pretty bad. I'm currently 42. That would make me effectively 62. With twin 3 year olds and a 6 year old. That doesn't sound fun. But what sounds even worse is they won't graduate from high school until I'm 77. Decent odds I would die before then. Even with 10 billion. Fuck that. The other interpretation could be: the world moves on but you "fast forward". Well, I likely get to see my kids as adults, but it all zipped before my eyes. And that sucks too. Things moves so fast at younger ages, and so far from 0-6 each age is unique, different experience. And I would never want to fast forward over that. Maybe if I were still hanging out, playing games, and talking with friends - sure. What's 20 years - maybe I'm a little worse at games. But kids change the whole thing for me.
  - scotty79 5y ago
    That was my thought too. Childhood feels so bad to many kids yhat the would happily jump 20 years ahead especially if that meant turning into billionaires. Some of them hope they'll achieve exactly that with effort and luck, and you'd be giving it to them for free.
  - ipiz0618 5y ago
    No I don't have kids, which is why I'm able to imagine making that choice. I agree different people will have different choices, just that the parent might need to ask a different demographic. Even with kids, parents that aren't well off often sacrifice their wellbeing for their family. For example, people that work two jobs for a total of 16-18 hours a day aren't rare where I live. They are aware this affects their health, shortens their life span and their time with kids, but they make the choice so that their family could survive.
Archien 5y ago
If I knew how much time I have with those 10b, yes for sure. I would stop working today, would create my dream farm etc travel the world etc.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
imtringued 5y ago
If I could use the money to reform all economies to have a land value tax and implement a -5% interest rate on cash then surely the importance of the bottom 95% of humanity's billions of years in aggregate would massively outweigh 20 of mine. Not to mention that I myself would benefit from peace and stability which could be worth 20 years if I were to die in a conflict that cuts my life short, not to mention all the technological progress that would be accelerated and thereby improve the healthcare system.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  A lot of people already sacrifice 20 years of their life to bring benefits to the world. > -5% interest rate on cash You mean a property tax specifically on cash? Why?
ip26 5y ago
It would be more interesting to ask how many people would trade one month for 40 million. Or six months for 250 million. It’s the same exchange rate, but I think you’d get many more takers. I think the real problem is you’ve never met anyone who has any idea what to do with 10 billion dollars.

chii 5y ago

> if you could trade 20 years of your life for 10 billion dollars, would you? Just step in a room and walk out a billionaire. i think it depends on which 20 years are taken - the old ones, where you're unable to anything anyway, or the young ones, which you'd need to enjoy that 10 billion?

scotty79 5y ago
Obviously the 20 years from the moment of asking so their best, healthiest years of all they have.

mensetmanusman 5y ago

I would do that, go from 100 to 80 years is fine by me.

Panzer04 5y ago

I think it's worth playing this out a bit, because I'd claim there's an exponential curve here. Offer someone 500m (hell, even 1m for many) for one year, and I doubt you'd find many who would say no. There's a margin at which you would be losing so much life experience that you wonder what you even live for (20y), while shorter periods (1, 2, 5, even 10y) aren't so defined. Also, I read this as you lose 20y from the point of the deal (eg. 20yold coming back as a 40yold) rather than taking years off the end of your life, which I suspect is a more palatable interpretation for most.

ipiz0618 5y ago

When I have that 10 billion, I might want to extend my life just to enjoy it more, like all the rich people do. But right now? I don’t even need to think twice to accept that offer lol. My time isn’t that precious when 50% of it is spent working for food and shelter, and trying to stay fit so that I don’t stop being capable of working.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bcrosby95 5y ago
I'm curious if you have kids? This proposal could be thought of a couple ways. Maybe I prematurely age 20 years? That sounds pretty bad. I'm currently 42. That would make me effectively 62. With twin 3 year olds and a 6 year old. That doesn't sound fun. But what sounds even worse is they won't graduate from high school until I'm 77. Decent odds I would die before then. Even with 10 billion. Fuck that. The other interpretation could be: the world moves on but you "fast forward". Well, I likely get to see my kids as adults, but it all zipped before my eyes. And that sucks too. Things moves so fast at younger ages, and so far from 0-6 each age is unique, different experience. And I would never want to fast forward over that. Maybe if I were still hanging out, playing games, and talking with friends - sure. What's 20 years - maybe I'm a little worse at games. But kids change the whole thing for me.
- scotty79 5y ago
  That was my thought too. Childhood feels so bad to many kids yhat the would happily jump 20 years ahead especially if that meant turning into billionaires. Some of them hope they'll achieve exactly that with effort and luck, and you'd be giving it to them for free.
- ipiz0618 5y ago
  No I don't have kids, which is why I'm able to imagine making that choice. I agree different people will have different choices, just that the parent might need to ask a different demographic. Even with kids, parents that aren't well off often sacrifice their wellbeing for their family. For example, people that work two jobs for a total of 16-18 hours a day aren't rare where I live. They are aware this affects their health, shortens their life span and their time with kids, but they make the choice so that their family could survive.

Archien 5y ago

If I knew how much time I have with those 10b, yes for sure. I would stop working today, would create my dream farm etc travel the world etc.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

imtringued 5y ago

If I could use the money to reform all economies to have a land value tax and implement a -5% interest rate on cash then surely the importance of the bottom 95% of humanity's billions of years in aggregate would massively outweigh 20 of mine. Not to mention that I myself would benefit from peace and stability which could be worth 20 years if I were to die in a conflict that cuts my life short, not to mention all the technological progress that would be accelerated and thereby improve the healthcare system.

goodpoint 5y ago
A lot of people already sacrifice 20 years of their life to bring benefits to the world. > -5% interest rate on cash You mean a property tax specifically on cash? Why?

ip26 5y ago

It would be more interesting to ask how many people would trade one month for 40 million. Or six months for 250 million. It’s the same exchange rate, but I think you’d get many more takers. I think the real problem is you’ve never met anyone who has any idea what to do with 10 billion dollars.