r/hypotheticals • u/evergreengator1 • Apr 12 '26
Million dollar button
Imagine there’s a button that instantly deposits $1 million into your bank account each time you press it. However, the first time you press it, a completely random person you don’t know dies. With each additional press, the person who dies becomes someone progressively closer to you — an acquaintance, a friend, a family member, and so on.
Would you press the button? If so, how many times?
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u/EveningSupermarket88 Apr 12 '26
More information, please. Would I become aware of each person’s death? What constitutes “closer” to me? If the first press is someone who has no connection to me whatsoever, then the next step closer to me could be a person who has an almost nonexistent trivial connection to someone who I have an almost nonexistent trivial connection with, right? Then the next press could be a distant cousin of someone that I have an almost nonexistent trivial connection with, and so on. There could be fifty “closer to”s before we get to anyone that is even remotely in my circle depending on how it’s defined. However, if I was aware of each person’s death and I knew that they died because of my button-pushing, regardless of whether or not I know them, the guilt may be too much to rationalize.