Ask Lemmy

Well I'm already acutely aware of the bad shit, so might as well be filthy fucking rich too

What's to even contemplate here? Give me the money and the knowledge. I already know what it's like being poor and stupid.

Here I am, broke and knowledgeable. Worst of both worlds.

Joke's on you, I'm meager and aware so either way would be an improvement!

I’m poor yet i know all the shit going on. Give me my damn money

Already am aware of some of it.
How much worse can it really get?

Sounds like a consequence free hundred million dollars since you should already be acutely informed as to the horrible happenings of the world

What's even the point of option 1 if you can't even do anything with the money to make the world a better place? I mean, you could be aware and still be amorally, sociopathically self-interested like many rich and influential people from policy makers to asset fund managers and CEOs and simply give no fucks, but it's rare to be such a monster and I hope there are none on my Lemmy, lol. Between ignorance and complete awareness but being unable to help whilst being capable of doing so and willing too because you're not a monster, the choice is obvious.

So the real question is, do you want a lot of money, or less money but more than what you've got now, plus a memory wipe?

I'll take the hundreds of millions of dollars ... seems there is not much of a catch.

Nearly all of us are currently experiencing the worst possible compromise of that premise.

I don't get the stipulation. Using it to help community and fix the system would be using it for my own interest. I would be doing that for myself because i selfishly want to live in a better world. Furthermore, that would require i don't pay taxes so it's kind of a liability unless it's permanently locked away in investments.

Maybe i keep that money invested to back debt so i can borrow and give the banks money away. 🤷

I don't understand why anyone would pick the second option it's bad in two ways.

I’d have to go with the money because I can’t see myself remaining blissfully unaware for very long. I’d like to, certainly, but it would require a level of isolation or willful ignoring of things to sustain. Or be literally incapable of noticing things happening around you. And I just don’t see any of that as a long term option without some sort of brain damage.

But I could use my wealth to create things, ostensibly for myself, that benefit other people. Perhaps buy land and make educational farms for the surrounding communities, complete with paid educators leading gardening and cooking classes. Perhaps build and maintain libraries of various sorts or museums or parks for the public to use freely. That’s not giving it away or donating it, because I’d still own all of it, nor is it actively spent to fix the system (unless you count a lack of third spaces as part of the system, which it is technically) but it is using it for social good, which is something I want to do which means I’d be spending it on myself, technically.

Curiosity kills this cat. I'll go with being rich but miserable.

I have always been “pro redpill” in The Matrix way of seeing things: I would rather be swimming in the truth and being miserable for it, than blissfully ignorant.

Now a good chunk of it comes down to my neurodivergent obsession with facts and evidence, in that when I argue it is to dispel misinformation and disinformation rather than arguing against anyone else specifically. I seek to maximize the acceptance of reality. I find ignorance and the rejection of reality to be the greatest of evils, in that it leads people astray from the logically and ethically correct path.

So even ignoring wealth entirely, I would always reach for knowledge and the truth even if it directly harms my mental health. Nothing can be gained from ignoring facts, the danger there is even greater than facing them.

Define donate or give away.

I've mentioned before that I help run a small music festival, and that it's to help my local area. Raising money for that is a lot of work and takes a lot of energy. Pumping some money in would massively help the festival, which would help me. Would that count as donating, or would it be selfish because it helps me?

On a similar note, my area is quite poor. If I set up a factory with offices and other facilities that employed the low and unskilled workers at decent living wages, and included child care and employee training and education, would it still count as giving the money away if I made a profit, even if a small one?

I would be a bit selfish though, I'd build a house and some outbuildings on a large plot of land and soundproof everything completely. I function better at night, but still want to fix up my motorbike and do some woodworking, and I don't want to wake the neighbours.

I'd like to have loads of money and be able to use it to improve the world

This is not even a quandry to me. I want to live in truth as much as possible and I would really like to not have money problems. Even the no charity thing is not that big a thing. Hire people at good wages to do things or have affordable rentals. Run small businesses with very low profit margins.

Money. If I can't use it directly, it still frees me up from labor to use my time as I see fit.

Money. Easy. I'd give away most of the money to charity or something, and keep $10 million and invest it properly. I could happily live off the interest, and it would not change the system at all.

I'd sleep fine.

There are countless alternate timelines where the world is living in the nuclear winter after Cuban Missle Crisis went hot, do you care about those people?

What about the alient planets where the alien dictator is brutally oppressing their planet's people?

"Oh but those are just hypotheticals, they don't actually-"

Let me stop you right there.

If you live in an bubble cut off from everything, its then everything else is just hypotheticals, not real, no different from alt dystopian timelines or alien dictatorships.

So yeah fucking yes gimme the rich life pls.

MY NAME IS HOUOUIN KYOUMA, MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF 300, DICTATOR OF NIPPON!