A Million Dollars

We were having a talk, over a game of Settlers of Catan, what we would or would not do for a million dollars, and in this way I discovered how pragmatic I am. As long as the action wouldn't a lasting physical or psychological effect, I was mostly okay with it. The conversation included talk about moral stances. It's the principle of the thing. Money isn't everything. But I didn't have that principled moral stance anymore, for some things. And money, money may not be everything, but a million dollars after tax is nothing to sneeze at. Think of all the good you can do with that! 

I know that rings out like the famous last words of some well-meaning philanthropist before the robots he created take over the world, but a million dollars is a dangerous amount. It's enough to change an individual life, or a family's life, but it's not going to rock an industry or a school system or a political campaign. The budgets are too high. A million dollars wouldn't last the lifetime of the projects you want to fund. But it could last my lifetime. I could make it work. And it would change things. 

So that might be my new bar question, if I decide to discard the perennial astronaut versus caveman discussion. What wouldn't you do for a million dollars? What good would outweigh the bad? How malleable is that line? 

I have my own answers, of course, but for that, you'd have to buy me a drink.