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.

  •  Melkath   ( @Melkath@kbin.social ) 
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    11 months ago

    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.

    • 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 😉)

  • Lmao fuck no. If I’m president I’m already making wayyy more money than I ever aimed for, legally. After I retire I can just make money selling book or w/e.

    I can barely even stand taking orders at my normal, chill job. Imagine how fuckung aweful it would be if it wasn’t just “fix this bug while making this feature and write a presentation about it” but “enact bad public policy while managing the unknown political landscape in our favor and attending to all other expected duties”. Once again I say “fuck no.”

  • 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.

  •  vegai   ( @vegai@suppo.fi ) 
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    11 months ago

    In practice, what would stop me from taking the money and not doing what they want? Assassination risk?

    Take 1000 million in bribes and distribute it to poor people, lol.

    • They stop giving you money, spend it on helping your opponent win. Manipulate congress to impeach you. Also they can blackmail you since you technically took a bribe, you just didn’t honor your end of the deal. Realistically, it wouldn’t be the rich person himself/herself talking to you about it, but someone that works for them. They can have one of their goons admit bribing you and they can exchange their testimoney against you for their immunity against prosecution. They might’ve made a secret recording of the conversation, but conviently left out the part of which wealthy billionaire they’re working for. You might not even know the identity of which billionaire, all of the interaction could be through messengers.

  • Yeah nah, the US president makes 400k USD a year + benefits. That should be more than enough for any person.

    If not, how much would you counteroffer?

    If someone attempted to bribe me I would automatically assume their proposal was a bad idea.