[Fargren]

At no point in my life would I choose to spend 10 years in jail for $400m. Only if my current living situation was very poor and this was my only way out of it. I can sort of imagine why one would... but it seems like an awful decision to me.

It seems more plausible to me he actually doesn't have the gold.

[craftkiller]

I would in a heartbeat. $400,000,000 is never-work-again-in-your-life money. Not just for me, but for my parents and other members of my family. You could put it into bonds at a mere 2% APY (far lower than current interest rates) and get 8 million dollars per year in interest for doing nothing.

At 16 waking hours per day, we're losing at least half of that with work, so it would only take 1 additional decade before I break even in terms of time, not even considering the vastly improved quality of life having millions of dollars of annual passive income nets you. I could even afford dram.

[laughing_man]

I might've done it in my 20s. But now that I'm much later in life the time is far more precious than the money.

And I don't think it's a good idea to hand family members never-work money. Their own achievements become meaningless.

[MidnightRider39]

Idk I would rather spend 10 years in jail later in life than in my twenties.

Otherwise I agree with you it’s not a trade off that is worth it at any point in life

[adriand]

I was about to comment that there was no amount of money I would take in return for spending time in prison but then I realized that of course that’s not true. It would be fun to create a survey that would show a visualization of where people tend to fall on the time/money axis for this.

[ryandrake]

It logically should track closely to the person's age and life expectancy and "legit job" earning potential. I would spend my years 20-29 in jail for $400M, wealth that I'd enjoy for the rest of my life, without hesitation. Heck, I'd have been willing to spend my twenties in prison for $40M. That's still life-changing never-have-to-work-again money. 30-39? I'd probably do it for $400M. 40-49? Hmm, now that's getting kind of tough. Maybe I'd do it for $1B. 50-59? I don't think I could physically do it, and given the number of years I had left, I probably wouldn't even be able to enjoy whatever sum we are talking about.

[adriand]

> I would spend my years 20-29 in jail for $400M

This is kind of why I want to make this survey now because there’s no way I’d spend a decade of my life in prison for any amount of money. I would do six months for $3M. I’d maybe do 12 for $10M. But beyond that…I don’t know, even a year seems like too long to be behind bars.

[laughing_man]

I could have had a whole lot of fun in my thirties and forties with that kind of money. At this point it would just mean iron clad financial security and not much more. Even if I could afford Gabe Newell size yacht I wouldn't buy one.

[simondotau]

And meanwhile you can spend that time in jail working on fitness, instead of being addicted to social media and scrolling tik-tok.

[MidnightRider39]

You can already do that now? It’s actually much harder to “better” yourself when in jail than outside. The conditions range from pretty bad to horrible. Of course if you go to jail in like Sweden it might not be so bad. But everywhere else hell naw

People in this thread seem to think that jail is something like vacation.

[spicyusername]

    Their own achievements become meaningless.

I'm sure most people wouldn't mind.

[laughing_man]

Of course not. But I used to know a group of guys who were born fabulously wealthy. None of them were happy. For them to get a job it would be essentially working for free relative to the wealth they have.

I'm sure there are people out there who would find meaning in creating art of some type, or turning their fortune into an even bigger fortune, but I suspect those people are rare.

[lotsofpulp]

The people I know who do not have to work to ensure healthcare for their kids seem happier than the ones who do have to work. Being able to go on vacations for extended durations or at convenient times is also heavily utilized.

[thunky]

> None of them were happy

That's because they're human, not because they're filthy rich and have all the privileges in the world.

If it were that simple they could give all their money away and get a job at Walmart to find perfect happiness.

[lazide]

I’d argue it’s more an attribute of being a driven, difficult to satisfy, competitive, human.

Which correlates strongly with ‘success’ in any system where there is a clear metric for success, which is certainly true for our current economic system eh? If there was a system they wanted to compete in where the metric was ‘happiness’ measured by some concrete metric, I bet those same people would be as aggressively ‘happy’ with however it was measured too - and just as actually miserable.

That those people are rarely (if ever) happy is a side effect of those attributes, and a core part of what makes them the way they are.

After all, if they were able to be happy with anything less…. They’d have stopped already? And hence have less/a lower ‘score’ on that particular metric? And probably actually be happier.

Notably, I know plenty of people who are very happy with nothing - dirt poor - and plenty of people who are also miserable with nothing too.

The difference is, it’s a lot less competitive being dirt poor eh?

[chrisweekly]

"Their own achievements become meaningless."

You're saying that making money is the sole criteria for "meaningful achievement"?

[laughing_man]

No, but imagine if every time you did something there was a thought in the back of your mind that said "I could have paid someone else to do this without materially affecting my wealth."

[permo-w]

But having that thought is not a given. I value my own work significantly more than work I paid for, even if it is of the same quality.

[chrisweekly]

Huh? How does that even relate to the ability to find meaning in things unrelated to money?

[laughing_man]

I watch a lot of sailing channels on YouTube. The most interesting part is when you get a couple buying an old sailboat and refitting it on a tight budget. It always takes longer and costs more than they anticipated, but watching the struggle is really interesting. And when they finally set sail for Hawaii or whatever they have a huge sense of accomplishment.

But imagine if they were fabulously wealthy. Sure, they could set themselves a budget, but even for them that would feel... contrived. The whole thing would feel like LARPing as someone without so much money. So that sense of accomplishment is going to be out of reach, even assuming they didn't just buy a brand new boat.

[Fargren]

I think you are discounting the mental, physical and social toll of being locked up for 10 years. Without autonomy, without privacy, without access to your loved ones (some of whom might die, and the rest will likely have irreparably damaged relationship after), treated as a bad person, surrounded by criminals. It's not "you get 400M for aging 10 years", or for dying ten years younger; I might take those deals. It's spending those 10 years in a prison, and dealing with the consequences of that after.

[lossyalgo]

Yeah but it was voluntary. He was locked up on contempt for refusing to give the location of the remaining gold coins for 2 years and only stayed in jail for 10 years because he kept refusing. They let him out after 10 years because he was "unlikely to ever offer an answer". It sounds like his mental process was slightly different than what most people in this thread are arguing.

[rdtsc]

> I would in a heartbeat. $400,000,000 is never-work-again-in-your-life money

I general, as in some rich weirdo like Mr. Beast made that deal and you can have your $400m fair and square at the end? Ok that’s a different scenario to one more plausible here where after 10 years you and your family may never be able a to spend it without being sued or jailed again because it’s disputed.

[adrr]

It's a chance for $400m. Doesn't mean he can get the $400m, since legally it still isnt his and it still can get seized after he gets out if he ever tries to cash it in,

[FpUser]

In theory I am with you on the subject. Assuming that jail does not endanger one's life and mental integrity, one still has good chunk of life ahead and the whole thing is a clean trade-off, no further strings attached. But that is not what happens in real life and suddenly your choice might become very iffy.

[c22]

I think there'd be a big psychological difference between spend the next 10 years in jail, collect 400 million and you're in jail indefinitely, if you get out you may collect 400 million.

[FpUser]

I was referring to specific 10 years note. Not playing roulette which from my point if you makes it a no go at all

[kakacik]

Come revisit when you are over 60 my friend. I have no doubt there is an endless army of folks who would do much worse for much less, regardless of age, but in normal situation thats not a... smart behavior for the lack of better polite words.

The idea that money will cure all life's ailments and screwups and bring happiness is an idea of a clueless poor man. At that age, priorities are normally elsewhere since everybody feel like they don't know the day and hour when something bad happens.

[troyvit]

I think first of all it depends on the jail. It's not like you're just sitting in a room, not living. You're experiencing stuff, and it's prison stuff, and that can be hard to shrug off. How valuable is $8 million if you're too broken to enjoy it?

Second, it depends on if you can keep anybody else who is in jail from knowing that you're sitting on $400 million. Otherwise that info will be beaten out of you long before your sentence ends. Maybe that's OK if it's at the bottom of the sea.

[anal_reactor]

Me too. I hate my corporate job. Once I leave jail I'd still have a good chunk of life in front of me.

[gzread]

You still get to keep millions, just not the whole $400m if you don't go to jail.

[maplethorpe]

I like that you're all assuming you'd walk out of their alive.

[edgyquant]

I have more family members who’ve been to prison than college. The mainstream narrative around how dangerous prison is is extremely overblown and limited to a few prisons and generally to those who engage in organized crime

Most people come out of prison in WAY better shape than they went in

[lossyalgo]

Define "way better shape". Mentally? Physically? Spiritually?

It's not prison, but I know people who spent time in various county jails for weeks to months, and all of them definitely came out worse, and did their best to stay as far away as possible from going back (at least as far as I could tell).

[bdangubic]

if this was true and not just anecdotal the number of repeated offenders would be a lot less than there are now (ask your family members how many of their cellmates were there on their first stint…)

[maplethorpe]

How many of those people had 400 million dollars to their name?

You're discounting the risk of inheriting a large sum of money while surrounded by criminals. Getting sudden access to that sort of money is dangerous at the best of times. I'd be scared enough outside of prison, let alone in the presence of organized crime.

Why are you so sure you'd be left alone?

[carlosjobim]

I'm sure there's an elegant gentleman willing to offer you much more than 400 million in exchange of a bare eternity of imprisonment.

[3rodents]

Could it be the sunk cost fallacy? He started out thinking he’d spend a few weeks, then a few months… and before long, he has been in there for years and so he must continue with the lie lest he have wasted years of his life.

[rhyperior]

I’m amused but I guess not shocked or surprised that some people below this comment have different limits on what they’ll do for money than I do. I 100% would not spend any significant time restricting my freedom in jail for ANY amount of money. You can extend my principle to doing other things for money, also. I think my principle might come down to: I won’t trade myself (me, I don’t mean my time or my knowledge) for money. I won’t relinquish my autonomy or control for your money. Yet some will.

[Mars008]

> At no point in my life would I choose to spend 10 years in jail for $400m.

I can assure you more than a billion people gladly would...

[ugh123]

He could have just give the investors say 80% of what he found and hid the rest without them even knowing the true amount

[functionmouse]

you can save hundreds, maybe thousands, from poverty and hunger with that kind of money

10 years is nothing compared to 400m

[IAmBroom]

An internet theorist.

Ever spent even a week in county lockup?

[lazide]

Definitely not. But 40m a year is a pretty hefty paycheck.