So the eccentric billionaire from IMHO strikes again. This time, she approaches 20 random people in your office, including you. She lays it out, you can ask for any amount of money between $.01 and $10,000,000,000, and the other 19 have the same choice. She will only give money to one person though, the one who asked for the least.
How much do you ask for?
1c. If I can’t have any money then no other bastard will get it either!
Seriously, $10,000,000,000, as I don’t really need money and that’ll keep the bidding higher for the others.
$800,000.
I abstain.
$20,000,000
That’s a fuckload of money to me, but a small enough percentage of the possible maximum that I’d be in with a chance.
That’s so funny, I’ve thought of this exact hypothetical (Except with strangers, not coworkers.) on several occasions.
My answer would be 4mil. With that much money, I could live off the interest and maintain my current lifestyle while never having to touch the principle.
If they are fellow employees, then I would probably have some sense of their wealth already, which might affect my answer. But assuming I had no idea, I would go with $99,000. It’s not much, but I figure at least one other person would try to lowball the amount to 6 figures to win. I would attempt to lowball that person.
Have you seen interest rates for the past 5 years or so? You probably couldn’t live off just the interest.
I’ve got a few 20 somethings that still live at home with their parents. I can see any one of them thinking 5 thousand is plenty money. I’d have to do 3 thousand.
I’d probably ask for a couple of million. I’d rather dream about (and not get) a potentially life-changing amount, than get a trivial amount of money because I succeeded in asking for nothing.
$10,000,000,000, after writing an email to my work to set up a cartel for all of us to request the max, then agree to split the proceeds evenly.
500k, Combined with what I’ve got that’s easily enough to retire on. Me and my family have modest demands so I can’t think that a shedload of extra cash buys me anything I want that I don’t already have.
I’d probably end up asking for about $2,000. And I probably wouldn’t get it.
What if someone asks for $9,999,999,999?
“A local business worker today was murdered in his home shortly after winning almost 10 million dollars…”
This brings to mind a cigarette company (I think Benson and Hedges) that ran a sweepstakes back in the 70’s, offering 100 different prizes, ranging from a Rolls Royce to a can of tuna or something. When you enter, you choose the prize you are going for and one of each prize was awarded. The fewer people who selected that prize, the better the chance of winning. I would love to know how many entrants went for each prize.
If I’m first I’d ask for the 10 billion. That will keep the bidding high. Who ever wins can toss a million my way if the the others don’t screw it up. That’s the strategy, the lowest bid should be $9,999,999,981.
ETA: Actually their should be 19 requests for $10 billion, and 1 request for $9,999,999,999.
$899,999. In a group of 20 people, there will be at least one or two who don’t understand the difference between 10 million and 10 billion. There will also be some who think that a million dollars still represents an enormous amount of money. So, I would go under $1 million. Thinking that others will think the same way, I’d go under $900,000. And I’d probably lose to someone who said under $100,000.
Conspiracy is the only answer. But I’d go with $9,999,999,999, to look like I was trying.
What if two people ask for the same lowest amount?