Hypothetical challenge proposal

[DaveBrown74]

Someone proposed this random hypothetical to me, and I thought it was interesting (albeit a touch unsettling).

Imagine the following proposal were made to you:

You will be paid $1mm in tax-free cash per day for every day that you agree to not eat anything. Should you agree to this challenge for any number of days, you can drink as much water as you like, but you cannot eat anything (or drink anything besides water) during the agreed period. You can be in any setting you want to be in, and you can sleep as much as you want or or are able to. You can do any activities you wish, including nothing at all. You can also take whatever medication you're currently prescribed, of course. However you cannot eat anything at all under any circumstances. This includes if you end up in the hospital somehow. You cannot be fed intravenously either.

The important part of this challenge is to understand that once you sign up for any number of days of fasting, there is no way out. You MUST complete all the days you agreed to, and you cannot change your mind, including if your life depends on it. So if you were to sign up for let's say five days, and at the end of day two you were really suffering and begged to be let out of the challenge and begged for food, even if you agreed to forego the $2mm you already earned at that point, you would not get any food until the full five days where completed. It's not important how this would be enforced, but for the sake of this challenge just imagine that there were a way for you to be 100% unable to acquire any food once you agreed to the deal.

So, given all of the above, how many days (if any at all) would you sign up for?

[LennG]

Interesting premiss Dave.

Since I am of more advanced years than several here there would be no way I would do anything to endanger my health
. i always fast on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippor so one day is a breeze so 1 million in the bank. I believe with water i could easily
do 2 more days. I might be able to do more but with the stipulations i would quit then take my 3 mil and be perfectly satisfied.

[DaveBrown74]

Interesting premiss Dave.

Since I am of more advanced years than several here there would be no way I would do anything to endanger my health
. i always fast on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippor so one day is a breeze so 1 million in the bank. I believe with water i could easily
do 2 more days. I might be able to do more but with the stipulations i would quit then take my 3 mil and be perfectly satisfied.

You would not be able to get any such stipulation in this challenge. You could not quit, even if you were willing to forego the $3 million already earned. You would be forced to continue to fast for the duration of the agreed upon time period regardless of whether or not you wanted to quit. There is no "see how it goes" provision with this.

I think a three day time period is a reasonable choice. What's interesting is that answers to this question range all over the place. There are folks who claim they would sign up for as much as 3-4 weeks or more, claiming that (with water) human beings can last for 50-plus days without food.

Then there are those who scoff at the whole premise in the first place and state that they would not agree to even one day of this. I find that answer a bit odd for anyone other than the mega-rich, to whom a few million dollars is of zero significance.

I would probably try to talk myself into something like 5-7 days. There is no question that you can do that without doing any real damage to your body, so it's really a question of mind over matter. The inability to bail out though is tough. If I could accept the challenge at any time, I would consider "practicing" with a few days of no food to see how it went and then doing the challenge later on down the road based on that experience.

72 hours with no food (at minimum) for $3 million tax-free seems like a no-brainer though. I'm pretty sure I have had multiple time in my life where I didn't eat for at least 36-48 hours. I don't recall it ever being that big of a deal. And I think you probably need to shoot for more than that, as $1 mil per day with no tax obligation is pretty serious money. Even if you're crazy rich, that's a lot of money to earn for a short time period and if you didn't need it there are obviously plenty of worthy charities who do.

[ozzie]

I would sign up for one day and then live quite comfortably with my million dollars.

[T200]

I love food. I love to eat. It's a miracle (and a blessing) I don't weigh more than I do. In fact, I'm eating a couple of donuts as I'm typing this!

The most I'd do is three days. Three million (straight cash, homie) would serve my wife and me very well.

I'll be hella hangry at the end of the three days but it would definitely be worth it.

I'd actually be more interested in a weekly challenge - one day, one million, every week!

[LennG]

I love food. I love to eat. It's a miracle (and a blessing) I don't weigh more than I do. In fact, I'm eating a couple of donuts as I'm typing this!

The most I'd do is three days. Three million (straight cash, homie) would serve my wife and me very well.

I'll be hella hangry at the end of the three days but it would definitely be worth it.

I'd actually be more interested in a weekly challenge - one day, one million, every week!

I could go for that.

[LennG]

You would not be able to get any such stipulation in this challenge. You could not quit, even if you were willing to forego the $3 million already earned. You would be forced to continue to fast for the duration of the agreed upon time period regardless of whether or not you wanted to quit. There is no "see how it goes" provision with this.

I think a three day time period is a reasonable choice. What's interesting is that answers to this question range all over the place. There are folks who claim they would sign up for as much as 3-4 weeks or more, claiming that (with water) human beings can last for 50-plus days without food.

Then there are those who scoff at the whole premise in the first place and state that they would not agree to even one day of this. I find that answer a bit odd for anyone other than the mega-rich, to whom a few million dollars is of zero significance.

I would probably try to talk myself into something like 5-7 days. There is no question that you can do that without doing any real damage to your body, so it's really a question of mind over matter. The inability to bail out though is tough. If I could accept the challenge at any time, I would consider "practicing" with a few days of no food to see how it went and then doing the challenge later on down the road based on that experience.

72 hours with no food (at minimum) for $3 million tax-free seems like a no-brainer though. I'm pretty sure I have had multiple time in my life where I didn't eat for at least 36-48 hours. I don't recall it ever being that big of a deal. And I think you probably need to shoot for more than that, as $1 mil per day with no tax obligation is pretty serious money. Even if you're crazy rich, that's a lot of money to earn for a short time period and if you didn't need it there are obviously plenty of worthy charities who do.

Hey, we can make you an honorary Jew and you could then practice for Yom Kippur. If you don't know, it is a day fast, usually about 25 hours with no water, no food, no nothing, so it should be good practice. 

Maybe the next challenge for Squid Games   

[DaveBrown74]

Hey, we can make you an honorary Jew and you could then practice for Yom Kippur. If you don't know, it is a day fast, usually about 25 hours with no water, no food, no nothing, so it should be good practice. 

Maybe the next challenge for Squid Games   

Haha.

Actually, I never knew that the Yom Kippur fast meant no water as well. No food for a day is hard enough, but no water is even harder. I would struggle with that. I drink tons of water.

[MagicRat]

Three days, three million.
Job's a good un!