In a hypothetical situation, a government official knock on your door telling you, "You will have limitless supply of money and wealth at your disposal, but you must revert to your sex DNA. You can no longer can speak, act, look, hint to the gender you want to be," he pauses, "Nor in any virtual reality, fictional, or any matter besides your mind, after six months of re-conditioning. Once you break that rule, you will no longer have the money, can never be hired, no health insurance, and will be given a life-threatening disease."
"All you must do is sign the contract here.... also you can only be attracted or date in a heterosexual manner for your sex DNA"
"If you already done hormones, surgeries, and all that, we will reverse it all by our highly trained medical professionals". He then holds the contract, "We will also have highly trained mental conditioning therapy and psychiatry to help your retransition, but only for the first 6 months... after that you can longer speak of it."
"You can be wealthier than the wealthiest person in the world, all you must do is sign the contract". Then he holds a FaceTime camera, proving it is all real.
---------
What would you do?
What if there were no hypothetical questions? :D
Definitely not. Money can only buy happiness to a point- on average $72k/year. Since transitioning I have found I care much more about my life, career, etc. the added motivation and decreased dysphoria more than makes up for any money lost in the short term.
For all we know we only have this one life. We may be able to fool everyone else, but I doubt I could fool myself forever.
-The man in the glass-
Dale Wimbrow
When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn't your father, or mother, or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.
He's the fellow to please – never mind all the rest
For he's with you, clear to the end
And you've passed your most difficult, dangerous test
If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I would rather be poor then not pursue my dream... if I gave it up for money then it probably wasn't my real dream anyway.
Thankfully, I've been living comfortably for a while. Still, I decided to go through a path that may lead to some uncertainty for my future... So although not as radical a scenario as the one you suggest, I chose to transition over the security of my comfortable life. So, for me, thank you but no, thank you! [emoji4]
Sarah
Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk
Tell him to go knock on someone else is door.
I already made that decision. The money I earned could have been stashed away in savings or used for my medical treatment. I think I have posted enough about me for you to know how I decided.
Quote from: AnneK on July 23, 2017, 12:22:38 PM
What if there were no hypothetical questions? :D
Bam! :)
Sell my soul to the devil? Hell, no, literally!
Interesting. :)
It would probably be terrible for my own happiness but with limitless money and wealth I could help save countless lifes, change a lot of things for the better etc. It would be a noble act if you think like that. Would I be able to do that kind of sacrifice I don't know.
Absolutely not.
I was once in a tiny similar predicament. I had just lost my job and was mowing people's lawns while looking for a new job. I went to an interview. It went brilliantly, the manager of the section said that the engineering team were really happy with me and wanted me to start, but then he pointed out their dress code. Women to wear dresses or skirts. :o :o :o
I said nothing to that. Went home and agonized about it all weekend trying to imagine myself in a dress. Me, who had not worn ever a dress in my living memory ( other than as a very small child when my mum made the choices and I was too small to fight against it, or wasn't aware of genders rather).
In the end, as much as I was really desperate for the money, I decided that the person in the dress would not be me, and there was no way I could go through that. I turned down the job. Clearly it was a stupid company to work for anyway who insisted on women wearing dresses ( granted, the men had to wear shirts and ties).
To remain human and true to myself, I know I would not be able to accept the conditions for that money.
Quote from: Brooke on July 23, 2017, 12:24:33 PM
...
For all we know we only have this one life. We may be able to fool everyone else, but I doubt I could fool myself forever.
-The man in the glass-
Dale Wimbrow
When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn't your father, or mother, or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.
He's the fellow to please – never mind all the rest
For he's with you, clear to the end
And you've passed your most difficult, dangerous test
If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.
...
I love this because it is true. Thank you for sharing this.
Quote from: Dan on July 23, 2017, 03:25:47 PM
I love this because it is true. Thank you for sharing this.
You're most welcome. It's one of my favorites.
Quote from: Brooke on July 23, 2017, 03:36:08 PM
You're most welcome. It's one of my favorites.
I want to thank you also Brooke. I just posted it on my FB page with a video of a girl dancing in the rain with it being read in the background.
Hugs,
Laurie
I grew up amidst a lot of abuse, suffering and hardship. I used to be a leader in a church who dealt with a lot of troubled people. It was a part of my ministry and life purpose. I learned that a lot of the problems could be "solved" if there could be money injected into various situations (re-house/locate abuse victims, mortgage payoffs, bankruptcies, drug/alcohol treatments, etc.). However many of these people lacked enough wisdom to ultimately fix themselves if they had the money. If I had control of a large sum of money, I like to think I could help. But the problem is, people change when a ton of money is suddenly dropped into their lives. I have seen it. So money often creates more problems than it fixes.
This is an interesting question, though. I just don't know if I have the "right stuff" to do all the right things. Also, once people discover you are "loaded" they begin treating you differently. They are no longer honest with you as they should be. You can never know if they are your friend for you or your new money...
I'd be dead so the money would be of no use in that scenario.
Money is a resource that can be replaced, authenticity cannot.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Quote from: Shellie Hart on July 23, 2017, 04:18:32 PM
This is an interesting question, though. I just don't know if I have the "right stuff" to do all the right things. Also, once people discover you are "loaded" they begin treating you differently. They are no longer honest with you as they should be. You can never know if they are your friend for you or your new money...
With all that wealth, you can make Paris Hilton look like a poor-poverty broken woman... not her in sake, but even Bill Gates. Limitless money.
Definitely not.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This sounds like a bad sci-fi movie. But no, I wouldn't go back for any amount of money.
Julia
Nah, because I'd be miserable as hell regardless of the money.
The proposed deal poses no bounds on what I'm allowed to do with the limitless funds provided I kept my part of the deal. Money equates to power. Limitless equates to infinite. So yes, I would.
With infinite power guaranteed by the government I could single-handedly and lawfully override even the government itself. Should they cut a program or budget I want I could provide it myself. Should they start something I disagree with I could privately run an alternative program that has an infinitely larger budget. Resistance would be futile.
I could start or stop wars. I could eliminate all poverty not through handouts but by changing society itself. I could eliminate fraud. I could hire the best brains in the world to help me analyze and make decisions. If I found I need to adjust any decision I could admit and do it without worrying about the consequences.
A portion of a single person's happiness is a small price to pay for lawful, government-backed and guaranteed power and freedom that no-one else in the history of the world has ever held.