If you spent $1000 a day, one million dollars would last about 3 years (2 years and 9 months, actually). What kind of effect would living in that sort of opulence have on a person? This seems to be a reality show waiting to happen.
The rules would be something like this. The person who is the object of the show is given $1,000,000.00 and has 1000 days to spend it in whatever way they wish. At the end of the 1000 days, anything left over is thrown away. Items purchased may be kept, but if sold off later on, the money must be returned to the foundation that finances the show (i.e. you can't just sink the money into investments, then sell them off to get the cash after the show ends). This person's live is documented for a brief time (one month? two months?) before the money is disbursed, the entire period of wealth, and then 6 months or so afterwards. Other rules include no advice from financial advisors.
Initially I thought that it would be best to just give someone a million dollars and see what happens, but then realized that many people wouldn't make for interesting watching if they just used it in investments.
I don't know if I'm being sadistic here or what. Think about the possibilities. It seems like the chances of watching people self-destruct are high. But then I suppose the odds of people being smart about such an opportunity are just as good. But even with the rules, there are bound to be serious effects on how people view the world after living opulently for three years. How difficult would it be to readjust to live as a working stiff? Would friends have been lost and made? Would contestants feel better off because of the experience or not? Something in me tells me that it would be a curse in disguise...
Posted by Nutrimentia at November 3, 2003 04:40 PM | TrackBack