cross-posted from: https://jlai.lu/post/37546528
[blue]
If you could push a button that gives you a hundred thousand dollars but a random person dies, would you do it?
[yellow, cautious]
Interesting thought experiment… intuitively, I'd say no, but it's worth thinking about… it's a genuine moral dilemma in a capitalist world: there's a dialectic between our desires and the common good…
MEANWHILE, BILLIONAIRES
[an orange guy in a suit is shown with a terrifying grin pushing as many buttons as possible at once on a table, slamming one of the buttons, and even using their foot to press an extra one]https://thebad.website/comic/the_totally_hypothetical_button_thought_experiment
9 Comments
IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com · 14 pts · 59d
And Americans are basically funding the guy to do it while complaining about it at the same time.
sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 59d
When you say a "random person would die" well that random person could be me or someone I am close with.
Its should've been: "but a random person - who isn't you nor any of your close family and friends - dies" then yes, billionaires would absolutely smash that button
wurstgulasch3000@feddit.org · 7 pts · 59d
Does Elon have friends or non-estranged family?
trougnouf@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 59d
There is that kid he used as a human shield who doesn't have a say in anything.
Venator@lemmy.nz · 5 pts · 58d
"a random poor person would die"
ReptilianCleric@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 58d
You overestimate the capacity of billionaires to feel empathy, which is actually zero. Somebody who is going to amass that amount of wealth, I don't believe there's anything that would stop them so I disagree. A billionaire would hit that button with absolutely no hesitation.
JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 58d
Nobel had his brother exploded by the nitroglycerine
formula he created, so for certain disgustingly wealthy folks, it really do be just 'a random person dies' matter.EDIT: sorry, not one of Nobel's later formulations, it was actually just straight nitroglycerine. Alfred Nobel would later stabilize it with diatomaceous earth and then, much later, with cotton.
aarch0x40@piefed.social · 5 pts · 59d
If I could just round up all the billionaires and put them on an island somewhere…..oh wait.
nitroemdash@lemmy.wtf · 3 pts · 58d
A good charity can save a dozen lives with a 100k donation. It would take a few million button pushes until well-being of the global poorest gets so good that the cost of saving one life rises to 100k and you are no longer morally obligated to press.