Okay, prison reduction’s full of hassles. I’ll go the quick route to fortune: instant weight loss! The mass removed by using Pym Particles goes to the Kosmos Dimension, so the people really will lose weight.
Speaking of Congress and lobbyists, I can think of a less profitable but highly satisfying use of an army of spiders.
I’ll take the bugs. For starters, I will use them to affect the outcome of major sporting events, on which I’ll have placed substantial wagers. Say Julio Jones (WR-Falcons), is wide open for a game winning catch against my Saints. My insect army stings him in the face and hands right as the ball arrives. He drops the ball. Saints win. Tom Benson boogies in the Superdome. Oak goes to the pay window.
Not much. It’d be about as useful s a pocket helicopter–or, as you pointed out above, the tiny tiny star ships.
The shrinking tech is fine for shipping things, but there’s innumerable devices which have to be at their regular sizes to be useful.
:: slips on reading specs, checks specs ::
Says here that our reverse-engineered Pym shrinking tech can only be used on an entire entity. You can zap down the entire body, or nothing. The procedure you suggest was lethal in 100% of the Welshmen upon which it was tested.
I’m not saying you can’t market the [del]PymShrinker [/del] Rhymer Reducer that way, of course. Just thought you’d wanna know.
Odin would approve of this stratagem. Thor would not. But people are gonna start looking funny at you when you come to the stadium wearing the Ant-Man helmet.
Garbage disposal.
What happens if someone shrinks down to itsy-bitsy size, eats until he’s had his fill, and then returns to normal size?
The items he’s eaten grow with him, of course. Seems like there’d be cheaper ways to cut down on grocery expenses, though.
Are you kidding? Have you SEEN the wacky crap people wear to football games?
Actually I have not. The last time I attended a football game was probably 2009, for work, and the last time before that was probably 1988.
Still, isn’t that kinda sorta the embiggening-past-normal trick you don’t trust us with? X shrinks, swallows Y, re-embiggens, disgorges now-giant Y…
Hmm, good point, and I will have take that up with ReverseEngineering.
Hmmm, being a drug mule just got way more profitable. Until illegal drug prices crash of course.
My idea is dirt cheap nuclear waste disposal. Followed in year 2 by hideously expensive not-reexpanding-the-nuclear-waste services.
Shrink tech, if you please. North Korea won’t be a problem when all of it’s military and troublemakers and weapons are ant-sized. Zap them, then send in a touring company of “Riverdance.” Or “Stomp.”
Apply as needed to all Enemies of the People: Syria, Russia, Texas…Texas alone would be fun to pull off. “Everything’s bigger in Texas” my ass! 
Is there a lower limit to the shrinking effect?
Obviously, there has to be since Pym Particles have a size themselves.
Can you become microscopic in size? I just remember Antman becoming… ummm… ant-sized in the comics. If you can become microscopic and then spontaneously return to normal size, you could become the world’s most effective assassin. Breathe in my tiny armored body and then it is all over with.
I see many problems with this plan, several of which could prove hilariously fatal to the assassin.
In post 24 above, Skald mentions that the shrinking effect is 100% fatal to Welshmen. Don’t use Welsh assassins.
No, though that would be very cool.
I’m thinking of tiny star ships full of tiny people. But the ships have regular size engines.
Can you shrink things at a distance? Quickly? Is it an anti-missile defense?
It would be a hell of a missile delivery system. Shrink, drop out of a plane and embiggen just before impact. Boom! No time to defend as you never know it’s coming. Any defense system that could see the tiny bombs would be plagued with constant false alarms from birds or insects.
Hey anyone want to get the bug helmet and we’ll work together? Shrink weapons, deliver with ants, embiggen just before they’re triggered.
What’s the range on these rays Skald?
Since the military applications have come up: The rifle of the future. An assault rifle with a dial on the side and a de-shrinker mounted on the end to return the projectiles to normal size. The ammunition is artillery shells that have been shrunk to miniscule size, allowing a single rifle to carry thousands of rounds. The dial allows you to decide how much of their original size (and therefore the explosive yield) the shells regain as they leave the barrel; anything from about normal bullet size, to full fledged artillery shells. It ought to be spectacular when fired at maximum yield at full auto.
I’ll take the shrink ray, and revolutionize the semiconductor industry. I’ll buy up old, obsolete semiconductor fabs, shrink it, and churn out product a step beyond what my nearest competitor can produce.