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You can guarantee a random 10% of the world population all basic human needs, but you have to sacrifice a finger every time you make that deal; how many people will you help? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The 10% stacks additively, each time you do the deal, this status is applied to a different 10%. If you sacrifice 10 fingers, the entire world is guaranteed basic human needs (food, water, shelter, clothing, healthcate, etc...)

Nobody knows you saved them. Would you do it?

If everyone knows about the fact that you can do this deal, would that change your mind?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

If those 10% were picked completely at random, then it’s not obvious to me that this would be a good thing. It would effectively increase wealth inequality in the world, where 10% of any population is given something the rest don’t have. That kind of disparity builds resentment and could, in the long run, end up causing more harm than good. If there’s a poor village where nearly everyone is struggling, and suddenly 10% of the population has their basic needs guaranteed, they’d instantly become the “rich guys” of that village. You’d need to do it for the whole village - but then the same issue arises when people in the next village start resenting yours, and so on.

Either way, I’d give 0–2 fingers. I could probably live a perfectly normal life without my pinkies, but I’m not going to pretend I’d definitely go through with it - even if, from a strictly rational perspective, it’s kind of a no-brainer.