Would u rather live a long dull life or short explosive one?

No.
It has to be one or the other.

It was really meant to be a 'Would you trade your life for the life of one of these stars?'--only since this is open to the public and anybody could be reading it, I had to specify that the average life would be dull and uneventful, and not crushingly, achingly painful or deliriously happy. (In reality, obviously lots of ordinary, unfamous people also have serious difficulties with depression and drug addiction--or can have wonderfully fulfilling lives.)

I mean lower-middle-class from an American or Canadian perspective. As in you have enough to eat, but often have to do without when it comes to things like nice clothes, new late-model cars, new smartphones. Living "paycheck-to-paycheck," with just a few hundred dollars in the bank.

If you're American, you (or your kids) might struggle to afford college, or have to give up on that idea completely. Eating out at a restaurant is an infrequent luxury. You probably have lots of credit card debt (assuming you even qualify for credit card accounts.) You put off going to the doctor or dentist because you can't afford it. You don't own your own home (or if you do, it's horribly run down and in need of repairs that you can't afford.) Things like paying for private schools, having a housekeeper, or taking an overseas vacation trip are totally out of the question.

$20,000 USD a year to just play with is waay over the range I am talking about.

Given the choices and their wording, the following is the safer choice... Be poor, unknown, of average happiness & die at 90 ; which is what I voted for.

because for those of us who believe in God it's just that much easier to choose the 'poor etc and live til 90' thing because when you check out you got a good chance for heaven where as the one who's rich/famous etc and dies a bit younger, especially the 'despair' thing you might have a bit of a problem when you check out especially because it seems some once they are rich go off the rails and live a sinful life (especially many rock stars and the like who get into drugs etc) and that's not good for your eternal soul. plus, most of those listed seem to have problems that are simply not worth it.

moviemouth

We agree on this as having enough money to have a decent house, car, and to pay your general bills with a bit of spending money left is 'good enough'. but that $20k (about $1600-1700 a month in your pocket) is probably more for a single person as with a small family I would imagine your probably going to need in the ball park of $30k a year (about $2500 a month in your pocket) to get by decently with having bills paid with a bit of spending money left. but anyways...

sure, having money to burn would be nice but after a certain point it just becomes major excess. in my opinion it's usually those who are really young who are obsessed with having many material things but having family who's close etc is far more valuable in the long term and when things get rough having people close to you becomes far more important than $$$.

but in terms of general $$$ for someone... say a person is 20 years old and lives to about 80 (i.e. 60 years of life). they would not need more than about $5mil (maybe $10mil max if one wanted to be extra safe) as that should easily be enough to last them a lifetime if they are used to middle-class-ish level of spending as even with this you could basically have it made for average-ish person level standards because that $5mil into 60 years comes out to a bit over $83k one could spend a year, so unless inflation gets out of control, I would imagine even half of that amount (so about $2.5mil total or about $41.5k a year for the rest of your life) one could still live comfortable enough even with a smaller family.

also, I completely agree with you on the fame thing as I would not like that at all as your privacy is gone and not only that you could not even go down to the store and buy groceries etc without everyone all up in your face. it's like life would become too restrictive if you had too much fame and not only that everyone would be out to get your $$$ etc as there are a lot of snakes out there once you become rich/famous it seems. come to think of it, once someone knows you got a boatload of $$$ (or your too famous) it would simply be difficult to truly trust them because you could not be sure that they are not after your $$$ (or with you because they crave the fame/limelight they are getting because of your fame) because I am sure there are plenty of girls out there who would throw themselves on a guy just because of the $$$ (or general fame) alone and I would want to avoid them like the plague as they obviously don't care about you as I would rather have a real relationship with someone than having it based on a lie with the whole money/sex stuff as that whole money/sex thing probably looks appealing to a 20 year old but once you get older they are going to start realizing that they are alone/empty etc. plus, I am sure when your rich there can be plenty of temptations to that will end up being detrimental for you overall if your not careful.

like those really young people who are practically born into $$$/fame... I kind of feel sorry for them because when your young that's going to have a negative effect on most I would assume over the long term especially if they where not raised properly it's going to probably be that much easier for them to go off the rails and take things to a extreme and then eventually crash and burn.

just some random thoughts

moviemouth

I understand. I was just giving a example as that whole relationship thing I would imagine would apply to most people which is why I brought it up.

p.s. even for myself... while I like being alone in many ways, at times, it's kind of a conflicting thing (because I think pretty much everyone needs at least someone else they are close to as when stuff gets rough they make a world of difference in getting you through rough times etc). I think it's mostly a selfish thing in why I generally don't want kids (even though I am not hardcore against them or nothing like that(my sister has a couple of kids(4 year old boy and a 5.5 year old girl))) because then, it seems like, your general free time is pretty much shot. who knows, maybe with kids ones views would change but since I am not there it's hard to say for sure but it just seems the way I described it even though it may not be. but I guess one positive of having kids, or a general larger family, is that when things get rough you got quite a few others to fall back on instead of just being alone etc.

Yeah, I would not really be worried about the temptation thing too much given the way I am as I am who I am at this point given I am out of that really young stage as you tend to make better decisions in your 30's vs your 20's and younger. but who knows what would have happened if someone was a quite young when they first run into a boatload of cash(?).

I think I understand what your saying here...

like your basically saying that those who can't even resist some temptations and let it pretty much run their lives as they have no self control at all which is a bad thing. like bad things end up running the person instead of the other way around like it should be.

but then again... some temptations are much more powerful than others are and I can't imagine most people being able to resist these too well on their own even though it might not be to the point it's really damaging to their lives.