You become President of the United States. A wealthy person attempts to bribe you to do what they tell you to do for one million US Dollars per year (paid weekly). Do you take this offer?
If not, how much would you counteroffer?
(If you aren't an American, assume for this hypothetical that you were suddenly granted citizenship and all other requirements are waived.)
That's a seriously low amount of money for this. Most Presidents will make much more than this out of office in just speaking fees and the normal grifting and graft that happens around them. You'd be endangering your ability to make so much more money in the future if that was your goal.
They know it's a low amount and are trying to see if their potential new puppet is dumb enough to accept it.
So, it's a decoy snail?
if i'm president, didn't i almost certainly take such a deal already?
Maybe you got a cabinet position for.. um idk... Secretary of Agriculture because the president knew you and decided to appoint you for some reason? And then he/she and the VP both got involved in a huge scandal or something and everyone else in the line of succession were fired by the president for snitching on him/her regarding the scandal, then you are now the next in line?
(Don't think too hard, it's a hypothetical 😉)
This prompt hurts my brain.
You are the President of the United States.
You are the leader of a nation. Hundreds of millions of people are depending on you.
How many tootsie rolls would it take you to sell out to a rich fuck who has that many tootsie rolls?
Fuck you. I have 4 years. We need to kick our fossil fuel addiction. People deserve privacy. Domestic terrorists need to feel fear again. The government needs to be reminded it serves the people...
Let me drive the bargaining up to 100 million, then let me shove a red hot fire poker up your ass and leave you in a dank cell to die aching.
Then let me live a decent life where I might not feel the excess of being rich, but my diner tabs are paid for, my bar tabs are covered, and I have friends who make sure my home is safe.
Soooo... that's a "no", I take it?
Even Senators are worth like fifteen times that in spite of a 200k/year salary.
You assume they’re bribed but I’ll bet it’s both death threats AND bribes.
Dealing with death threats to the president is what the black ops teams with no judicial oversight are for. 😉
But seriously, if some billionaire feels safe enough to threaten the president, they’ll probably start a coup if they don’t cooperate. How many people’s loyalty can they buy?
If I'm the president of the United States, I won't have any need for bribes because former presidents can make a ton of money by selling books, giving lectures, and things like that. A million dollars is not that difficult for a former president to make completely legally, so it will not be life-changing at all. And any amount of money that is significantly larger won't matter anyway, because once you pass the 5-10 million dollars mark, your quality of life won't change much anyway. This is why I would easily turn down even a billion dollar bribe without hesitation.
Even if I were the type of person who doesn't care for ethics and morals, accepting a bribe would be unnecessary and risky.
And for the people saying that this money can do a lot of good, the president of the US has a lot more resources to manipulate to make this bribe a drop in the bucket.
Don't know if you know this, but most bribes most politicians (not the president) take are really small. Like 2k-maybe 20k to fuck over your country and the people you represent. Shit is wild, I thought it would be so much more.
People don't become president because they want to get rich; most of them are already rich, and could make more money if they were working in the private sector. (Although being an elected national politician has great benefits, like pensions, security details, health benefits that are far better than almost anything you'd get privately, etc.) In most cases, they want power. So you're going to need to offer some kind of equivalency.
At a certain point, money becomes raw power, but it's not when it's just a million here or there, not anymore. After all. the president may not have huge amounts of money, but he has the ability to suggest that the DoJ to start investigating you.
If i became president then the world is already a lost cause and money is worthless.
I laugh in their face and tell them it takes waaaaaaaaaay more than that to buy me. Like at least a hundred times that.
I don't think you understand what the position of president can really do. If someone is bribing the president they aren't looking to get a permit or pass a law. They are looking for top classified information like military projects, CIA agents, nuclear infrastructure or nuclear activation codes. No amount of money would change my mind.
Presidents aren't typically bribed. I can only think of 1 in the last 30 years that probably accepted a bribe. That was probably to eat beans in the white house.
I'm thinking of like a scenario where Congress doesn't lean either side, and a good law narrowly passed congress, and they want you to veto it. Also appoint their list of nominees for executive departments, courts. Using your position to push their propaganda, basically selling your self to be their puppet. Would you just ignore morals and get rich being a corrupt politician?
Bribing an extra congress person is a lot cheaper and you have a lot more options. They would have bribed congress a lot more before it got to bribing the president.
Bribing a congress person is only 1 of many votes. Bribing the president give you control over 1/3 of government, all nominations to executive departments, judicial nominations, and executive orders. I mean obviously 1 million isn't even a lot, I'm just trying to see how desparate are Lemmy users for money. I mean you can up the offer to 100 million per year for the president and still cheaper than 1 million per year per congress person for at least 51 senators, and 218 representatives. Even a 200 million offer is still cheaper than bribing congress. And 1 million isn't gonna be acceptable to some of the congress members who aren't that in need of money.
you only need 51 senators. You don't need to control the House if you control the Senate, only if you want to pass bills but if you want to block them then the 51 senators will do. The president can't enact laws, only veto them, which technically the Senate can override. So overall bribing 67 senators is the way to go. That said senators cost around 350 thousand a month. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-arkansas-state-senator-sentenced-role-bribery-scheme
You can earn a million dollars a year being on the board of a few companies and doing some speaking engagements as a former president. They also get I believe 200k a year, for the rest of their lives. I'm not sure what amount of money it'd take to make me give up my ethics as the president but it'd definitely need to be at least double digit millions a year, probably in perpetuaty before I was even tempted.
Former presidents/politicians on general normally fall into easy money gigs for whoever they were kind to during their term(s). Goldman Sachs routinely gives six figure single event speaking fees to former and presidential hopefuls. Sometimes they don't even have to show up and give the speech... Bribery is just strait up legal in America and a lot of the time you don't even explicitly have to do anything for them. They're just happy if you don't rock the boat.
No I would not take that. The rich life of being a 4-to-8-millionaire would not be worth the self disgust and guilt I’d feel over knowing I’d sold out my country.
What about 9-to-12 mil?
No. First your going to be somewhat wealthy to begin. Secondly the pay is fairly good and third it just is not worth the headache.
I am a well of person and there is no amount of money that would interest me to do something that illegal much less immoral. Few wealthy people need to take illegal money when they can generate it legally.
I think the majority of people who would take money in this position would do it out of ego over any other motive.
This is assuming you just become president with your current status of wealth. Maybe the internet made a meme and decided elect you "for the lulz", maybe the electors just don't care, maybe mass hysteria, divine intervention, doesn't matter. In this hypothetical; You suddently become president, this is a question of whether you give a shit about ethics (or if you even have a moral compass at all).
Yeah nah, the US president makes 400k USD a year + benefits. That should be more than enough for any person.
If someone attempted to bribe me I would automatically assume their proposal was a bad idea.
Why get only 400k when you can have more? 😈
Only one million. Apparently the IRL answer is come talk to me when your company makes the fortune 500.
If I was president, something went horribly wrong as I'm Canadian
Don't worry, the 28th amendment was passed officially annexing canada, and grants "Natural Born Citizen" status to all former citizens and residents of Canada, age restrictions were also waived. Everything is fine.
I dunno why you're implying this is something outlandish when this already happens. They just call it "campaign donations" if they're in office and "speaking fees" when they're out of it.
I take it. Sign it.
Then tell the American people.
Fuck rich people
1m sounds like an amazing deal to buy a president
Only if you are not such a bright person and accepted it.
Depends what they want me to do. If I'm on board with whatever it is they want me to do I might do it for a lot less. If its something that goes strongly against my beliefs and values though, no amount of money is going to get me to do it
Something highly unethical, but no direct killings or anything. (Think de-regulating oil industry, directing IRS to not audit their taxes even if there's high suspicion, etc.)
That's a no from me then
"Only one million? Man, this economy is really bad, getting someone should do something about it."
I would ask for 1.25 but I would accept 1 million a year
No. If you need to pay for legislation, it is obviously shit.
President makes 400,000 a year for a min of 4 years (1,600,000) and a max of 8 years (3,200,000) so I'd probably ask for 5,000,000 a year for them to call the shots and an extra 1,000,000 for anything I don't think will get me reelected.
4 years of 5mil nets me 20mil and 8 nets me 40mil. I stash that away in a moderate dividend spread and I'll be just fine for the overwhelming majority of my life.
Remember Trump shilling canned beans in the oval office? Doubt he got paid much
He wasn't a typical prsident in anyway. He didn't want to be president, he wanted to win and people to fill his need for approval. He needs to get what he wants so he shills out for unbelivably cheep.
Likely gonna make at least that much from speaking deals and being on think tank boards and the like anyway. Doing your best to improve the nation, thus improving your image, could very easily sharply increase the money you make from those gigs. Even at that level I wouldn't have the slightest clue as to what to do with the money, so I sure as hell wouldn't really want more.
365 million is pennies, has to be 10 times that amount.
How did you get to 365 million?
Maybe it's the true amount and they just publicly state weekly. :D
I'll do it as long as they pay me in XMR
Why not make it Bitcoin? Worth much more 😈
You the kind of person that believes a ton of bricks is heavier than a ton of feathers...
1 million in BTC not 1 million USD converted to BTC, is what I meant
Thats not how it works
Lol the person I replied to said it as in 1 million in whatever currency they proposed. Not as in 1 million USD converted to that currency. Unless I misread that?
I wouldn't take a direct bribe unless it was for something I already wanted or had thought about doing. I would definitely leverage inside information to make money for my family and friends.
No. I don't need that money.
I cost more than $1m . It would need to be closer to $5Mif not $10m for me to sell out and do as they expect. being president pulls a $400k salary as it is...that is over 4 times what i make already so if someone want s to buy my presidency, it is going to be as close ot fuck you money as I can get
cereal7802 for president
I’d put it to a vote.
If the answer is no you probably won't make it in high level politics.