# Would you rather lose 5 fingers for $100 million, 4 fingers for $10 million or 3 fingers for $1 million? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 16, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-lose-5-fingers-for-100-million-4-fingers-for-10-million-or-3-fingers-for-1-million/923062 "2020-10-16T00:28:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-lose-5-fingers-for-100-million-4-fingers-for-10-million-or-3-fingers-for-1-million/923062/61 "2020-10-22T19:26:29Z")
The workers’ compensation board in New York State has established a schedule of payments for the loss of a body part or the use thereof. It is based on the workers’ average salary and the payment is for a certain number of weeks wages. | Thumb | 75 | | --- | --- | | First Finger | 46 | | Second Finger | 30 | | Third Finger | 25 | | Fourth Finger | 15 | The entire hand is worth a whopping 244 weeks pay. I worked as a machinist in the days before OSHA, and injuries were pretty common. One guy lost a finger in a horizontal milling machine accident, and years later lost a whole hand in a hydraulic press accident. He was distressed to find out that they deducted the award he’d already received for the finger from the award for the hand, because; as they said; they’d already paid for that finger. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-lose-5-fingers-for-100-million-4-fingers-for-10-million-or-3-fingers-for-1-million/923062/62 "2020-10-23T11:28:14Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > I’m honestly having a really hard time conceptualizing why anyone would pick any number other than 0 or 5. Assuming 0 is off the table, how can losing 5 fingers be so much worse than losing 3 that its worth $99M? Once you’ve already accepted the loss of 3 fingers, the other two feel like small beer. Agreed, the middle answers don’t make sense and I don’t think it’s a well-constructed hypothetical for that reason. Making it flatter would be more interesting. Maybe not perfectly flat - say, 2 million a finger - but something like 1=500k, 2=1.5m, 3=3m, 4=6m 5=10m, 6=15m, 7=21m would be more interesting. Each subsequent decision would significantly increase the value, but not so much that it trivializes the middle choices. In the original, the difference between 4 and 5 fingers is not that significant, but the difference between 10m and 100m is huge. In my revised proposal, the difference between 6m and 3m is significant, but not doubling the amount does not trivialize the previous amount. You’d want to stop at some point, and deciding where is tricky. That’s the fun in a hypothetical. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-lose-5-fingers-for-100-million-4-fingers-for-10-million-or-3-fingers-for-1-million/923062/63 "2020-10-23T11:47:28Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Agreed, the middle answers don’t make sense and I don’t think it’s a well-constructed hypothetical for that reason. Except it evidently is a well constructed hypothetical since a bunch of people _are_ picking 4. I just would like to better understand the logic of anyone who would pick 4, y’all are aliens to me. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-lose-5-fingers-for-100-million-4-fingers-for-10-million-or-3-fingers-for-1-million/923062/64 "2020-10-23T15:10:59Z")
@CookingWithGas This was exactly what I was reminded of when I read the thread title I just could not recall that it was Alfred Hitchcock ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-lose-5-fingers-for-100-million-4-fingers-for-10-million-or-3-fingers-for-1-million/923062/65 "2020-10-23T19:54:05Z")
> [@LH75](#): > > I just could not recall that it was Alfred Hitchcock I was thinking it was Twilight Zone which hampered my ability to find a link. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-lose-5-fingers-for-100-million-4-fingers-for-10-million-or-3-fingers-for-1-million/923062.md?page=3)