A magic widget tells you you can have 1 billion dollars right now. The catch? The money is waiting for you in 1911. If you accept you are instantly transported to that time and your life picks up from there (at whatever age you are now). You have 1 minute to accept or deny the deal, so there is no time to get inoculations or buy medication, or anything like that. You are not allowed to take anything whatsoever with you. Your memories of your life up until 2011 will remain.
The alternative is to remain in 2011 and be cursed to never make any more money than the poverty line (USA).
If you say “neither” or refuse to answer you are instantly thrown into a lake of fire where you burn for all eternity. As are everyone you care about. Probably better off answering the question.
What do you choose, and why?
My answer is I would stay in 2011. In the USA even poor people have DVD players, medical care, cable TV, and microwave ovens. Even if I live to be 100 I would die in 1961. Few things and little medical technology up to that point compare to what we have here in 2011.
A billionaire in 1911? That’s some extreme cash. I may miss modern music, but with that kind of scratch and the legends around (and in the making) I would easily cope. Jam with Robert Jordan anyone?
Medical care is an issue, but I’m a freakin’ billionaire. Eccentricities such as mandatory handwashing and facemasks through the flu years will be tolerated. It’s a risk, sure, but the ride would be worth it.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe because I’ve been below the poverty line (and even had a cordless phone!), but being rich through the roaring 20s (and with enough foresight to survive the Great Depression) is going to be an easy choice.
What do I do with the other 58 seconds on the clock?
Nothing in the OP is to suggest you will live to 100. You could get back to 1911 and be dead rather soon of small pox, flu, polio, or World War 1. I’m pretty sure that in 2011 you didn’t get a vaccine for WW1.
I hope Jack really looked like Leo.
Considering you’re from the future, wouldn’t you know about this stuff. It says you keep your memories. Remember watching Titanic.
Also, to my knowledge most of the people who died on the Titanic were poor and staying in the poor sections. Still covered. Money makes a lot of things easier.
But my memories of my life up to 2011 remain, which means I get to remember the history books. I can make sure I book my cruise on the Carpathia, avoid vacationing in Sarajevo in the summer of 1914 and live in a self-contained fortress on top of a mountain during the Spanish Flu pandemic.
Besides, with a billion dollars I can get Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers together to build my flying car!
I’d do it. If there was a chance to have a stash of antibiotics, I’d do it without a second thought.
The real pain of poverty is the social isolation, hopelessness, exposure to crime, and inability to make changes. I’ve been in situations where I was barely making it, and it sucked. All the DVDs and beater cars in the world may seem like luxuries from the outside, but they don’t really make your life better if you are working all the time, unable to do much with your leisure time, far from the people you care about, and without hope that things will get better. You get used to candles and bucket baths real quick, but you never get used to being alone.
Would you want to have an X-Box and a stash of DVDs that you can use during the breaks between your two jobs, or would you want the free time to spend the day having involved conversations with your friends and family?
Would you rather have a car that you basically only use to get to and from your job in McDonalds, or would you rather stay at home spending the day entertaining some attractive celebrity who makes fascinating conversation?
Would you rather microwave up another Mamma Celeste $.99 pizza, or have your maid make you and your friends a healthy meal from your estate’s kitchen garden?
That kind of money can buy you all the adventure, entertainment and comfort you could ever need. That’d beat the heck out of being able to play World of Warcraft.
I’m already 65, and I have some medical procedures coming up that were not available in 1911 . . . like an aortic valve replacement. And the medications I need would be non-existent. Even with a billion bucks, my 1911 life expectancy would be damn short.
It’s a trap!
Panache45, are you already at the poverty line? Reread the OP. Guess what? Pkbites just condemned you to the poorhouse with his sneaky curse. You answered the widget (all hail the widget!), so thanks for playing. Guess who’s waking up poor tomorrow?
So much for the upcoming procedure–it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to afford it now. At least you didn’t damn your family to the fireswim. Maybe the only people who should reply to the thread are those that want to go back to the past, those for whom achieving the poverty level would be an income increase, and those who really really dislike their family. Everyone else–BEWARE!
So my choice is being a billionaire in a time without the medical technologies I need to make my life worth living (or even possible to live) or live in a time where such things are available but I can’t afford them. Those would be the only real choices since the lake of fire thing is obviously a total non-starter.
Your magic widget has given me a death sentence. My only choice is where I want to die. I guess I’d choose to be surrounded by family and friends and stay here.
My only choice is where I want to die. I guess I’d choose to be surrounded by family and friends and stay here.