Here's an interesting question. What if you had the chance to make a billion dollars, by doing something which would make the world a worse place for everyone living on it? For example, maybe you'll get a billion dollars if you invent a technology which lets oppressive governments control their citizens more entirely. Or maybe to get your billion dollars, you do some price controlling which raises the prices of basic food staples around the world. Or maybe you get your billion dollars by lobbying the government to allow factories to pump out more pollution into the air.
Presumably, a billion dollars should be enough that, however much everyone else got hurt, you yourself would live a better life. (Or would you...? See my article, The Relationship Between Happiness And Material Success)
There is no right or wrong answer, and I won't preach to you that there's some answer you should choose. Simply, decide an answer. It's the kind of thing which people don't tend to think about, since the real life situation is rarely so black-and-white and straightforward. Sometimes, by making a simplifying assumption and treating things as black-and-white, we can gain some extra insight. Kind of like turning up the contrast on a photograph might reveal something you missed before, even if it does make the photo less accurate overall.
But whatever your answer, you should be confident and certain about it. If such a situation ever does come up in your life, it might require a very quick decision. For example, maybe you'll be able to get a billion dollars, in a way which will worsen the world for everyone else, but it'll require you to act immediately, you won't have a day or even five minutes to think it over. In that case, you'll thank me for making you ponder the question now, when you do have some time to contemplate the question.
IF YOU ANSWER YES...
So you are willing to worsen the world for everyone else, to make a billion dollars. I won't pronounce any moral judgment on you for that. Well, now that you've made this realization about yourself, it's time to be effective about it. You are a person who puts yourself first, so start putting yourself first consistently. Don't be wishy-washy about it. A billion is an arbitrary number, so you might as well worsen the world for a hundred dollars, or even ten, as long as the net benefit for you ends up being positive.
If you are wishy-washy about it, sometimes acting from pure self-interest, but other times shuffling along doing whatever you feel is somehow morally right, those actions will cancel out and you'll just kind of karmically stagnate and live a pretty mediocre, uninspired life.
IF YOU ANSWER NO...
So you are not willing to worsen the world, even for a billion dollars. You are a person with a desire for everyone to be well-off. You might even want to leave a positive mark on the world when all's said and done. Again, I won't judge this morally, since that would be unfair to the people who answered yes.
The same advice goes to you, as went to the people who answered yes. You've just discovered a profound new aspect of yourself, a desire to act in the greater good. So allow this to shine through consistently. You wouldn't worsen the world even for a billion dollars! So, surely, you wouldn't worsen the world for, say, $10 an hour, right? ....right?
AS FOR ME?
For what it's worth, I choose no, I would not worsen the world for a billion dollars. But that's not to imply that that's the "correct" choice. That would be like trying to dictate what the "correct" favorite color is. Different people are different.
When I first considered this question, my default answer was "no", but it wasn't really from my heart. It was just a kind of socially conditioned, Hollywood-movies-say-it-should-be-no, "no". It's taken some time for me to really come to the decision on my own. Make sure you aren't just answering the way you did out of social conditioning. Ayn Rand might tell you you should answer "yes". Mother Teresa might tell you you should answer "no". Only you can really find the answer in your heart.
Here are some articles I wrote, hopefully they will better the world.
Some Things I'm Ashamed Of
The Solution To The Money Game
Is There Randomness In Real Life?
Training Self-Discipline
Presumably, a billion dollars should be enough that, however much everyone else got hurt, you yourself would live a better life. (Or would you...? See my article, The Relationship Between Happiness And Material Success)
There is no right or wrong answer, and I won't preach to you that there's some answer you should choose. Simply, decide an answer. It's the kind of thing which people don't tend to think about, since the real life situation is rarely so black-and-white and straightforward. Sometimes, by making a simplifying assumption and treating things as black-and-white, we can gain some extra insight. Kind of like turning up the contrast on a photograph might reveal something you missed before, even if it does make the photo less accurate overall.
But whatever your answer, you should be confident and certain about it. If such a situation ever does come up in your life, it might require a very quick decision. For example, maybe you'll be able to get a billion dollars, in a way which will worsen the world for everyone else, but it'll require you to act immediately, you won't have a day or even five minutes to think it over. In that case, you'll thank me for making you ponder the question now, when you do have some time to contemplate the question.
IF YOU ANSWER YES...
So you are willing to worsen the world for everyone else, to make a billion dollars. I won't pronounce any moral judgment on you for that. Well, now that you've made this realization about yourself, it's time to be effective about it. You are a person who puts yourself first, so start putting yourself first consistently. Don't be wishy-washy about it. A billion is an arbitrary number, so you might as well worsen the world for a hundred dollars, or even ten, as long as the net benefit for you ends up being positive.
If you are wishy-washy about it, sometimes acting from pure self-interest, but other times shuffling along doing whatever you feel is somehow morally right, those actions will cancel out and you'll just kind of karmically stagnate and live a pretty mediocre, uninspired life.
IF YOU ANSWER NO...
So you are not willing to worsen the world, even for a billion dollars. You are a person with a desire for everyone to be well-off. You might even want to leave a positive mark on the world when all's said and done. Again, I won't judge this morally, since that would be unfair to the people who answered yes.
The same advice goes to you, as went to the people who answered yes. You've just discovered a profound new aspect of yourself, a desire to act in the greater good. So allow this to shine through consistently. You wouldn't worsen the world even for a billion dollars! So, surely, you wouldn't worsen the world for, say, $10 an hour, right? ....right?
AS FOR ME?
For what it's worth, I choose no, I would not worsen the world for a billion dollars. But that's not to imply that that's the "correct" choice. That would be like trying to dictate what the "correct" favorite color is. Different people are different.
When I first considered this question, my default answer was "no", but it wasn't really from my heart. It was just a kind of socially conditioned, Hollywood-movies-say-it-should-be-no, "no". It's taken some time for me to really come to the decision on my own. Make sure you aren't just answering the way you did out of social conditioning. Ayn Rand might tell you you should answer "yes". Mother Teresa might tell you you should answer "no". Only you can really find the answer in your heart.
Here are some articles I wrote, hopefully they will better the world.
Some Things I'm Ashamed Of
The Solution To The Money Game
Is There Randomness In Real Life?
Training Self-Discipline
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1 comments:
It's a bit of a false dichotomy isn't it? I mean you could worsen it a small bit or a large bit. I would worsen the world for a billion dollars if it was only a small bit, a small reversible bit. Then I would use some money to make it better in another way more than it was worse in the first way. Then I would be morally obliged to take the billion dollars, surely.
An example, I get a billion dollars from polluting with my factories, but then I work towards building cheap solar power, thus freeing the world from air pollution for evermore.
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