Hello, my fellow escapists. Today I come to you with a little hypothetical game. I'm curious to see how you'd play it.
One day, you are anonymously offered a cutting-edge cell phone. It has all of the functions of a regular phone, but with one unusual addition: a button that directly connects you to a concierge.
You are told that you are being given $120,000,000 (US), or the equivalent of such in your country's currency. It can only be spent through making requests of the concierge, and can be conceivably be spent on anything, much like a credit card. Not just goods and items, but more abstract requests (such as "Make the President say "uncle"), which will be carried out and then charged appropriately based on the ultimate costs. For the sake of the simplicity, essentially any request that falls within the price range of 120 million dollars can be requested and carried out.
But there is a catch. There are nine other people who have also been given these phones, with the same sum of money. All of you are also given the same objective: use this money to improve the state of your nation in any way you see fit. If you misappropriate these funds and use them for selfish reasons without contributing towards the greater good, an eleventh person, a trained assassin, will be sent after you with orders to kill. Additionally, if you use up the entirety of your money before the end of the game, you will also be terminated. In the end, each of the remainder of the ten participants is judged on how big a difference they have made in the country with their funds. Whoever has done the most is the winner. The losers are also killed.
Were you offered a chance to play in this game, what would you do? Would you decline to play? How would you spend the money? What would your plan be to use these 120 million to help your nation, if you decided to do so? Do you think you could possibly win?
One day, you are anonymously offered a cutting-edge cell phone. It has all of the functions of a regular phone, but with one unusual addition: a button that directly connects you to a concierge.
You are told that you are being given $120,000,000 (US), or the equivalent of such in your country's currency. It can only be spent through making requests of the concierge, and can be conceivably be spent on anything, much like a credit card. Not just goods and items, but more abstract requests (such as "Make the President say "uncle"), which will be carried out and then charged appropriately based on the ultimate costs. For the sake of the simplicity, essentially any request that falls within the price range of 120 million dollars can be requested and carried out.
But there is a catch. There are nine other people who have also been given these phones, with the same sum of money. All of you are also given the same objective: use this money to improve the state of your nation in any way you see fit. If you misappropriate these funds and use them for selfish reasons without contributing towards the greater good, an eleventh person, a trained assassin, will be sent after you with orders to kill. Additionally, if you use up the entirety of your money before the end of the game, you will also be terminated. In the end, each of the remainder of the ten participants is judged on how big a difference they have made in the country with their funds. Whoever has done the most is the winner. The losers are also killed.
Were you offered a chance to play in this game, what would you do? Would you decline to play? How would you spend the money? What would your plan be to use these 120 million to help your nation, if you decided to do so? Do you think you could possibly win?
