Would you be incarcerated for ten years if you could earn £100,000 per year afterwards?

elmarko said:
I disagree, the fact that 10 years of youth is being trading off means the return requirement would need to be vastly higher than simply living very comfortably for a while.

The family element is indeed another aspect - but just the time/money conversion alone ins't great to begin with, really it's all dependant on how much you value your time & youth.

Personally, the reward is significantly too low to even consider (that's ignoring the other aspects which would put me off).

Nobody is talking absolutes or objectively here - it's all based on how the individual values time making the entire thing subjective.
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Freefaller said:
Cost / benefit ratio is skewed negatively - yes £100k is a good salary fro the rest of your life without having to work, however you lose out on 10 years of your life. That's a significant amount of time. It's not worth it for any kind of money - I wouldn't want to miss out on 10 year's worth of experiences, life, and so on. Sure, one could argue that without having to work you could recover some of that lost time - but it's too much of a sacrifice, and I enjoy my life too much to want to do that sacrifice.
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Taking the following assumptions:
  • 20 year old going in, coming out at 31.
  • Retiring at 65,
  • living to 100
  • Awake 15 hours/day (7am - 10pm)
  • Working 5 days a week for 8 hours
  • 26 days holiday/year
  • Not working after you come out

Overall, you'd actually still end up positive for free time if you chose to be incarcerated...

Free awake hours in a year if you're working: 3,595
Free awake hours in a year while not working: 5,475

45 years of working gives: 161,775 free awake hours
35 years of not working gives: 191,625 free awake hours

Going in to incarceration and not having to work after you get out, gives you 29,850 hours extra time to yourself (or 3 years, 148 days, and 18 hours ;))

(Yes, I'm bored at work since we've pretty much wound up for Christmas :p)
 
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Yes overall the sums sound compelling, but 100 years old? :p Seriously though although the net balance is more time despite being incarcerated I wouldn't want to lose out on 10 years. Sure I have to work, but I can still go away on weekends, can still travel on my holidays, meet new people, do new experiences - I also particularly enjoy living life, and doing things.

I guess if you're reclusive, introverted this is a great way to live. For me, it would be torture. Yes I could go to the gym, and have lots of good healthy food etc... However, I'd get cabin fever, and 10 years in one go is a tremendous amount of time.

Hand on heart, I wouldn't do it. However, I'm probably not the right sort of candidate for this sort of experiment.
 
Freefaller said:
But at the same time it could make you even more withdrawn from society?
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I'm not fussed about that. Coming out with the potential skills I could would be enough to keep me going. As well as that, it's not like you would be cut off from humanity. You would still be able to communicate on the internet, so you would have a congniscence of what is appropriate and inappropriate. It's not like the Fritzl kids had that much wrong with them [OK, they had vitamin D deficiency, walked with a stoop and had invented their own language, but apart from that]. Actually, how was Natacha Kampusch after her incarceration? Wasn't she still relatively normal?
 
Nope.

I'm not well off but don't struggle either. The main reason I wouldn't is I have a 15 month old son and I would miss most of his childhood
 
Freefaller said:
Yes overall the sums sound compelling, but 100 years old? :p
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Well the time gained would actually be up to retirement at 65 (since after that you wouldn't be working so the free time would be the same).

I can see the argument against wanting to lose 10 years of your youth, but at the gain of full freedom for the rest of your life?

Even if you've got evenings and weekends free while you're working, you couldn't e.g. just up and leave to travel the world for a year if you fancied it one day...

Guaranteed £100k income with no ties/commitments? "Hey, I fancy going to Australia for a month" *jump on a plane and do it* :D
 
elmarko said:
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You and I obviously have significantly different views on financial wealth. As I said, if you can't live extremely comfortably (including family) with £100k a year, there's something very wrong with you (IMHO).

I'd have to try really hard to spend that much money a year, and while I'm sure I could do it if I put my mind to it, I don't go about frittering my money away just for the sake of it.
 
No chance. Time's the most valuable thing we have. 10 good years (let's face it, the last ones usually suck balls) I wouldn't swap for any amount of cash.
 
Haggisman said:
Well the time gained would actually be up to retirement at 65 (since after that you wouldn't be working so the free time would be the same).

I can see the argument against wanting to lose 10 years of your youth, but at the gain of full freedom for the rest of your life?

Even if you've got evenings and weekends free while you're working, you couldn't e.g. just up and leave to travel the world for a year if you fancied it one day...

Guaranteed £100k income with no ties/commitments? "Hey, I fancy going to Australia for a month" *jump on a plane and do it* :D
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I quite enjoy working though. I feel free though, I don't feel like I'm in a hell hole. It also allows me to enjoy my life.

I understand the pure stats of it... but being completely the opposite to Lysander, i.e. outgoing, gregarious and enjoy people's company it would be too much of a punishment, as in my life I have experienced so much, that the sacrifice would be too great.

Had I had a pretty poor life, and if I were half my age, I'd probably think about it, especially if I was in the doldrums with little prospects.

Don't get me wrong as much as I enjoy work, I'd love not to work ever again but being realistic I've learned to embrace life with the pros and cons it throws at you. However this is not at the expense of my freedom as it stands. I'd be well into my 40s and am currently "at my prime" so to speak. It would seem like such a waste.
 
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