100k....thats it? No TV spot on a morning show or Letterman? This is why kids look up to sports stars and reality show stars, incentives are all wrong. Kim Kardashian just got married and divorced within 60 days and made 18 million! Yes I understand this form of career is not about fame and notoriety but kids don't know that until there older. The only thing they know is Kim Kardashian just made a boat a load of money for marketing her wedding and selling tv spots and not for studying hard and curing a diseases.
They should of given her 1 million, so she doesn't ever have to think about money. Frees her to try riskier projects and ideas.
Tell that to someone on $2 a day and see what they say. Tell that to kids who have to literally wade through garbage looking for plastic to earn a living. Tell that to those who are starving in Somalia. Doesn't a little alarm bell go off in your head at all when you something like that is on the tip of your tongue?
No, not really. A million dollars in the United States isn't enough if you have multiple people depending on you, like children or elderly parents, or siblings in trouble, or if you yourself develop a debilitating disease, or get into a car accident. I'm sure it's more than enough for someone in Somalia, but I don't think the OP lives in Somalia.
Want to add any more conditions? The original poster said, "$1M is not enough to never have to think about money." and I think that statement given the levels of poverty, inequality and injustice on this globe is frankly disgusting. Vote me down all you want, it's a cliche that the truth is a bitter pill but there you go. In the normal course of events one million dollars would be riches beyond their wildest dreams for most people on this planet and would let anybody in normal circumstances live out the rest of their days very very comfortably. Unless, they are greedy. In which case, nothing would be enough.
My family used to be pretty poor. By "poor," I mean, "not enough to eat." So yes, I know a bit about injustice, and I'm still going to stand by my statement that a million dollars, in the United States, is not enough to never have to think about money again. I can't throw away the conditions of not wanting to help out my elderly parents, or wanting to afford the best treatment for myself if I get cancer, by the way, without turning into one of those greedy heartless bastards you dislike so much.
How about this. Do you think a single mother working at minimum wage in Detroit is well-off? She's making what, $50 per day, which is 25 times as much as your hypothetical Somali, but I think someone as concerned about social justice as you are ought to realize that with her "exorbitant" wage comes a shitty standard of living. Using currency as a metric of well-being is not enough.
I think we're talking at cross purposes here my friend. This single Mum in Detroit, say she is making $50 a day, ok? But then I give her a million bucks. She can buy a cheap house, invest the bulk of it and practically live off the interest even after insurance and bills so long as she didn't decide that all of a sudden she wanted nice cars, nice holidays, nice clothes, whatever. I'm not arguing that there are poor all over the world. I'm arguing that a million dollars is enough to set anyone up for life anywhere in the world. If you are telling me with a straight face that in normal circumstances in the States that you don't think a windfall like this is not enough then I am startled.
That said, how the hell much is health insurance in the States. Maybe it really is a lot more than I realize. I guess I'm used to universal health care but all the same - get the million, buy a small house outright, keep your expenses down, and invest the rest (like 800,000) and live off the interest. That's got to be doable :)
If you're not from the States, then you have no right to say how much is enough, or is not enough. I've done the math. If I want to be able to take care of my parents, any children I ever have, and myself, then a million dollars is not enough. If your hypothetical single mother has a child with cancer, or gives birth to a child with a disability, she's utterly fucked in the United States.
It's never nice to have a light shone on your greed, is it?
Give me a break. It's not an "appeal to pity" fallacy. This is _exactly_ the time when someone should point out the less well off in the world. When my parents told me not to waste food because others were starving in the world I kind of took that reasoning to heart. When someone moans that a measly millions dollars wouldn't do it for them, I'm going to call them out. In the context of global hardship anyone telling me that one million dollars is not enough to set you up for life, even in the wealthiest countries in the world, is just plain deluded and greedy. Oh, and voting me down for pointing this out is pathetic. Whoever did that should be ashamed of themselves.
They're calling you out for being stupid. The problems of people in Somalia have very little to do with any American's day to day life.
When my parents told me not to waste food because others were starving in the world I kind of took that reasoning to heart.
You should have thought before just mindlessly agreeing with your parents. The food that you don't eat isn't suddenly going to be magically transported to places where people don't have food. The real reason why you shouldn't waste food is because it's wasteful and implies needlessly inefficiency. By reducing inefficiency it may be possible to actually free up resources to help people.
That entirely depends on the rule of the contest. Remember previous discussions on hacker news where the school (company) that the kid is trained in actually get rights to the patent and the money there-related? I wouldn't be surprised if this was a case where the school gets the money. Boils my blood, frankly. But... we'll have to wait. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
They should of given her 1 million, so she doesn't ever have to think about money. Frees her to try riskier projects and ideas.