auntie em rulz! I really enjoyed his/her thoughtful response to an interesting post.
That got me thinking, and this may be a hijack (am still getting the hang of this whole message board thing) but I guess the real question, or at least the one I want the answer to, is how little will you do X task for? I mean there are things that I would do for 50K, but I would also do them for 10K, like the aforementioned pooh eating (definitely gotta puke after though).
A few years back my then girlfriend, now wife, were talking about how disgusting bloody boogers are (don’t even ask), and I asked her how much she would require to swim across a swimming pool full of them. Needless to say the conversation devolved into how much money would one need to swim through X.
The key here is the way the question is asked. Would you swim across a pool full of fetid diarhea for a million dollars? If Yes, how about $900,000 (and so on until you find out the REAL minimum amount). If No, I don’t believe you, if there was tax free one million dollars in cold cash in front of you, you wouldn’t spend two minutes in shit? Remember if you say No that means that you are turning down the money, you get nothing. You are either a millionaire or you are deluding yourself. If necessary raise the stakes and then go back to the If Yes. Try different tasks, start with a high enough number to ensure a yes answer and then see how low you can get people to go. I found that I would do just about anything for very little as long as it would not be emotionally scarring (I balked at swimming through a pool fileld with bloody shit and the bodies of all my friends and family).
I gues that is a total hijack, so do I start a new thread? I feel like that might be redundant…anyway- peoples (especially auntie em’s) thoughts on how LITTLE money(remember, if you think you would do it for 50k, what about 48K or 40K, etc.) it would take for them to swim through a swimming pool full of strangers semen, or spiders, or human eyes, or HR Directors (kidding!), or whatever…
I’d break laws and risk going to jail, but not to prison, but I wouldn’t break my personal moral/ethical code–I have integrity. I’d have sex with someone I think is revolting, assuming my wife said it was okay and that nobody else would find out about it. I’d submit myself to mild torture (say, an ass-kicking). I’d eat and/or drink really gross things. I’d perform dangerous acts that I could probably succeed at, or try to do dangerous things with a higher failure probability, but lower fatality probability (does that make sense?). I’d fight somebody a lot bigger than me for that much money. I’d sleep with my mother-in-law, but probably not my father-in-law. I’d chop off a finger or a couple toes. I might go to an NSync concert.
Well SteveSteve, that was a pretty disgusting hijack!
On the original track, I think that what I would do, for how much, depends on what my circumstances were. A number of years ago I found myself unemployed for a number of months, out of unemployment funds, unable to pay the rent, and out of friends that would let me sleep on their couch, consequently I was selling my blood to eat and put gas in my piece of crap car, and driving my car around at night in search of a place to park it to sleep without trouble from cops/neighbors/bums, whatever. At this time in my life their wasn’t much I wouldn’t have done for even 20 bucks, including illegal or very gross things.
Now of course I have a good career, an education, own my own house and am in much better shape financially, so the thihgs I would do for that same 20 bucks has drastically changed. 50 grand is a not bad sum, but it is not such a great sum to me either. So the things I might do for it are much more limited than they would have been in my past. I would not eat gross things, or swim in gross things, or even do illegal things for it. I also would not to anything particularly dangerous for it.
Thanks, SteveSteve, but Honey, in my book YOU rule (as does your wife), because I thought I was the only one that has these kind of conversations with the people I love! (I have actually begun to judge people’s characters by how willing they are to actually participate in such discussions. :p)
And you make a valid point.
But would I have to completely submerge my face in the Pool-O-Poo, or could I do the backstroke?
For starters, since the OP is in Calgary I have to ask this:
Are we talking 50 grand in Canadian money, or in real money?
For $50,000 I’d perform fellatio twenty times, or take or give it up the back door (safely) twenty times. And I’m not gay, so this isn’t a “don’t throw me in the briar patch” response.
I don’t think I’d eat poo for any money.
I wouldn’t give up a kidney or other organ, but I might part with my pinky toes.
I would endure all my ex-girlfriends gathered around me to tell me all the reasons they’re glad they aren’t dating me anymore. For five minutes.
Mephisto, you say you’d have sex with someone you find revolting, as long as “nobody else would find out about it.” I’m curious to know why this is important to you.
I knew someone would bring up the Canadian dollar sooner or later. You do know we are artificially deflating our dollar compared to the American dollar on purpose, so we can keep getting the tourist trade, right? Let’s just call it $50 000, whatever you perceive that to be.
I guess one of the major questions here is the issue of consequences. We would all do something that had little consequence, and then there is the whole spectrum of what consequence each person finds too great for the reward.
(Fiver, what if they wanted fellatio 21 times before you got the money?)
I would show up at 9:00 am and stay till 5:00 pm 5 days a week 50 weeks a year. and pretend to work whenever you were around. The rest of the time I’ll be posting to SDMB. So when can I start?:wally
Face down, definitely, in fact, you have to dive in. Also you need to register the Pool-O-Poo trademark, the name is perfect. You could have one of those late night infomercials, I think there would be a big market for people who want to see how little they can pay people to swim across it:)
So now I feel like I am being rude to featherlou, should I start a new thread or just shut up?
This whole Pool-O-Poo thread is putting me in mind of the final scene of “The Magic Christian,” with the businessmen in their bowler hats and umbrellas diving into the crap for pound notes…
“Now getting it ready for you… Not yet ready for YOU…”
Now THERE was a book/movie that explored the soft white underbelly of what people will do for money, and screw this wimpy “Fear Factor” eating bugs crapola…
I’d do a fair amount for fifty grand, but I’m sensible about things…
I’ve got tons of [from dictionary.com–“Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.”].
In fact, I think I have enough integrity to break the law if my moral code demanded it of me. For instance, if I were a German citizen in the Thirties or Forties, and you were a little Jewish girl . . .
The above could be read as kinda sarcastic . . . it isn’t necessarily meant to . . . no body language or tone of voice on message boards and all that . . .
Anyway, this could turn into something too serious for this thread.
As for the rest, well, jail isn’t too awful scary to me, so I’d risk committing a crime that might land me there for fifty grand, just not a crime that was, as far as I’m concerned, immoral. A prison sentence, however, isn’t worth fifty grand (except maybe a year in one of the few cushy Club Feds we here about from time to time–I could do that).
For fifty grand I might let somebody publish naked pictures of me; also, I might eat spinach every day for a year, or cabbage for a month, or lutefisk for a week.
For a mere twenty-five I might admit to my wife that yes, she was in fact correct about that noise the car was making . . .
So when can I start?:wally