CAN I BUY YOU FOR 500 DOLLARS?

________ (2004) “Anything for money?” BUSINESS WEEK, 8/2, p.9

In the 50’s, there was a program called THE MILLIONAIRE. In it billionaire, John Beresford Tipton gave a million dollars each week to an individual to see what would happen to them. Would it ruin them? Would they squander the money? Or would they become better persons? That was the crux of the story. Today, with reality programming, we can see how low some people will go for a buck. BUSINESS WEEK reports on a survey done by the Progressive Policy Auto Insurance Company. Here are some of the questions and responses. There was a national random sample of 1000 people which means that there was a 3.5 % sample error. The percentage is also reported on the basis of the USA composed of roughly 300 million people.

STOP GOING TO MOVIES FOR 6 MONTHS?  62% (186 MILLION PEOPLE)

GET A TATOO? 39% (117 MILLION PEOPLE)

SWITCH POLITICAL PARTIES 35% (105 MILLION PEOPLE)

CHEAT ON INCOME TAX 9 % (27 MILLION PEOPLE)

CHEAT ON SPOUSE 4% (12 MILLION PEOPLE)

There your are folks. I wish you well. Please remember all those individuals who could not be bought at 500 dollars. What would be interesting is how those figures MIGHT change if it was $5,000 or $500,000 or 5 million.

Are you like a rolling stone? Without direction or a home? You can finish the rest.