$10,000 Ransom Experiment

[lycan]

You have been kidnapped. You are locked in a room with a computer, internet access and a credit card with a credit limit of $50. The kidnapper will only release you once you earn $10,000. For every week you spend locked up, he will add $500 to your "ransom bill". He doesn't have a very good temper so if you take too long, he might just decide to stop feeding you. What do you do?

[Sandstone]

LOL. This should be an interesting thread.

[Sypyres]

I would log on the computer.
Got to this site: Personal Development for Smart People Forums
Post Thread 1: HELP! Been Kidnapped by Cheap Kidnapper
Post Thread 2: How to live off in a room with a computer, internet access and a credit card with a credit limit of $50.
Post Thread 3: How to earn 10K in a Short Time Period
Post Thread 4: How NOT to Piss-Off Your Kidnapper
Post Thread 5: FASTING with only Water Diet

Or
I would go on the internet and order all kinds of (Cheap) explosive devices, how to kits etc. Then wait for FBI to show up.

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by Sypyres

I would log on the computer.
Got to this site: Personal Development for Smart People Forums
Post Thread 1: HELP! Been Kidnapped by Cheap Kidnapper
Post Thread 2: How to live off in a room with a computer, internet access and a credit card with a credit limit of $50.
Post Thread 3: How to earn 10K in a Short Time Period
Post Thread 4: How NOT to Piss-Off Your Kidnapper
Post Thread 5: FASTING with only Water Diet

Or
I would go on the internet and order all kinds of (Cheap) explosive devices, how to kits etc. Then wait for FBI to show up.

Well, those are all too logical

And ASK to be given more water; because depending
on
1. how small the room is, & how obese one is,
2. in case there's no working toilet, you could end up
drowning in your own ****.

[lycan]

Originally Posted by sk8joyful

2. in case there's no working toilet, you could end up drowning in your own ****.

That's just mean...

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by lycan

That's just mean...

So there IS a working-toilet then? - Goody, no problem.

[Bradman]

Use the internet to call the police, duh!

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by lycan

You have been kidnapped. You are locked in a room with a computer, internet access and a credit card with a credit limit of $50. The kidnapper will only release you once you earn $10,000. For every week you spend locked up, he will add $500 to your "ransom bill". He doesn't have a very good temper so if you take too long, he might just decide to stop feeding you. What do you do?

Go on computer > Get on Skype > Dial 911 > Get rescued by police.

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Go on computer > Get on Skype > Dial 911 > Get rescued by police.

You cannot dial 911 on Skype...

(but you can call your friends who can dial it for you ).

[lycan]

He is monitoring you and you don't know where you are (for all you know, you could be on an island in the middle of the pacific). I think calling the cops falls under the "get him upset and end up dead" category of plans.

[Brutha]

You have absolutely no way to force him to release you in the case of making $10,000. Therefore any plan that goes that road is inherently flawed.

[lycan]

Originally Posted by Brutha

You have absolutely no way to force him to release you in the case of making $10,000. Therefore any plan that goes that road is inherently flawed.

He is a serial kidnapper with an outstanding reputation.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by ssandra

You cannot dial 911 on Skype...

(but you can call your friends who can dial it for you ).

Hmm... maybe I could dial the non-emergency police number, which I think is usually a full number and not just three digits.

[Mynder]

Order some surveillance/tracking bug that you can pay off in installments, pay a max. of $50 up front.

Send out a loan proposal on private loan websites: Will pay 12 grand to the person bailing me out for the 10 grand my kidnapper demands.

Get out, track that bastard down, get the 10 grand back. Sue the kidnapper for at least the remaining 2 grand.

[lycan]

Originally Posted by Mynder

Send out a loan proposal on private loan websites: Will pay 12 grand to the person bailing me out for the 10 grand my kidnapper demands.

I had never heard of peer to peer lending websites before. The closest thing to it was one of those charity lending sites. I checked this out. Are there any international (non-US, non-UK) sites out there? Now that I think about I remember seeing Zopa a while ago.

[SnerpGoodWord]

Lame scenario. Certainly this doesn't qualify as business & financial.

[Mynder]

Okay, I suggest a slight change of scenario:

You're an IT nerd, and your boss requires you to get that web business up to speed. Basically same financial groundwork, but you get to be locked in your office with bread and water but no pizza, OR coffee, until you make those 50 bucks into ten grand.

Us IT nerds never get the idea to just jump out of the window, anyway (since we never look beyond the computer screen).

[Harmonium]

I would offer him my $50 for a klondike bar, if he refused I would strike

[SnerpGoodWord]

Originally Posted by Mynder

Okay, I suggest a slight change of scenario:

You're an IT nerd, and your boss requires you to get that web business up to speed. Basically same financial groundwork, but you get to be locked in your office with bread and water but no pizza, OR coffee, until you make those 50 bucks into ten grand.

Us IT nerds never get the idea to just jump out of the window, anyway (since we never look beyond the computer screen).

The problem with all these scenarios is that they assume an abundance of labor and essentially no capital, which isn't how economic production works. Both are required, and in general capital is far more scarce than labor (when the opposite is true, you usually get a rare 90's-eqsue fake production situation).

Point being, it generally doesn't make sense to start a business with $50. You'd be better off working 40 hours of McJob and starting your business with $300. And you'd be better off still accumulating sufficient capital that the scope of the business you're starting is worth the value of your labor.

Another way to think about it is that any time there IS a business opportunity where you can make good money without substantial capital, it will quickly be flooded with competition since there's no barrier to entry into the market and money to be made. That's what we've seen with the internet - there are now literally millions of 3rd world people running "income generating" websites and doing "internet marketing". And they can out-complete the 1st world because their labor is so much cheaper.

The advantage that 1st world countries have is that we DO have all the capital. That's very good - it means we can make much higher incomes. But it also sort of perversely implies that we typically have to use that capital in order to be successful.

[Johnny Metal]

I really like this thread, this is how you make the $10000, not by struggling and getting frustrated. This is how you make the money manifestation process interesting.

I would start my own website www.JohnnyMetal.org and write about the experience. In my case, I would be providing the insights on how to cope with (perceived) lack of freedom; the limiting beliefs I eliminated to feel good in captivity; how to effectively build an online business from scratch; how to create the inner sanctuary through meditation and have loads of fun there. I would be doing exactly what I am doing now, except I would be in captivity of (hopefully) some gorgeous nymphomaniac.

If I needed more that $50 for the tools or learning material, while my online business isn't making money yet, I would also register on freelance jobs websites and offer my awesome writing skills there.

[Brutha]

Another way to think about it is that any time there IS a business opportunity where you can make good money without substantial capital, it will quickly be flooded with competition since there's no barrier to entry into the market and money to be made.

The barrier to entry could still exist.
You might have skills that other people don't have.

[Andrew Gubb]

Originally Posted by Sypyres

Or
I would go on the internet and order all kinds of (Cheap) explosive devices, how to kits etc. Then wait for FBI to show up.

Nice one but I don't think you'd get much for 50$...

[Andrew Gubb]

As for the OP, I think I'd sell web content. It's not such a hard way to earn money if you put your back into it.

[WarrenG]

Originally Posted by Johnny Metal

www.JohnnyMetal.org

(And the earth becomes my throne)

The first thing you should do is check your website in Firefox through Linux, because it's not formatting correctly and the content is outside the main white area a bit.

(I adapt to the unknown)

Lycan,

First thing I'd do is log in to my Demand Studios account and start writing. Theoretically, I could make $10,000 in less than two months, although in reality I probably couldn't sustain that level of output for that long, but certainly in 3 months I'd be out. I hope random demands are tax-deductable!

If the kidnapper blocked that website for some reason, I'd sign up at anything that allows me to make money online. I'd look into doing surveys (which I don't know anything about), sign up at eLance and other freelancer sites, and so on. As Snerpy said a business is easier to set up with more capital. If the freelancing etc goes well I might as well just put more time into it.

If it doesn't, then a content based site with ads and information products is the only option I can think of, if you have no capital but a lot of time.

[SnerpGoodWord]

Originally Posted by Brutha

The barrier to entry could still exist.
You might have skills that other people don't have.

That's true, but even then you typically need to mate your skill up with someone's capital. For example, my success as an engineer stems largely from having an in-demand skill that about 9 people in the world have. But that skill is useless without an engineering firm around it.

Now, one could argue that there are other skills with a high barrier to entry that don't require much capital - being a painter or author for example. But even there I would argue there's more capital behind the scenes than you would think - the difference between a $1M painting and a $1000 painting is frequently not a matter of quality, but rather than the guy who sold the $1M painting managed to tap into a major art market like New Your or Hong Kong and create interest. And that requires gallery access, subtle PR campaigns, going to the right parties etc. All of which are in some way associated with capital.

The author is a bit of a more subtle case with modern publishing, and might serve as a counterexample. But thus far success in that field seems rare - there don't seem to be many e-book millionaires.

[Shift]

Originally Posted by SnerpGoodWord

The problem with all these scenarios is that they assume an abundance of labor and essentially no capital, which isn't how economic production works. Both are required, and in general capital is far more scarce than labor (when the opposite is true, you usually get a rare 90's-eqsue fake production situation).

Point being, it generally doesn't make sense to start a business with $50. You'd be better off working 40 hours of McJob and starting your business with $300. And you'd be better off still accumulating sufficient capital that the scope of the business you're starting is worth the value of your labor.

Another way to think about it is that any time there IS a business opportunity where you can make good money without substantial capital, it will quickly be flooded with competition since there's no barrier to entry into the market and money to be made. That's what we've seen with the internet - there are now literally millions of 3rd world people running "income generating" websites and doing "internet marketing". And they can out-complete the 1st world because their labor is so much cheaper.

The advantage that 1st world countries have is that we DO have all the capital. That's very good - it means we can make much higher incomes. But it also sort of perversely implies that we typically have to use that capital in order to be successful.

I never actually believed this until I experienced it myself.

There are certain markets where you can out-compete dirt cheap labour with your skills. Freelance writing is a good example. When it comes to most other internet ventures, have fun!

I can go either way on bootstrapping (starting with $50). If you had $50 to start a business, I think you're more likely to spend it on something that will provide immediate return (Ex. Buy 200 bottles of water at $0.20 each and sell them for $1 each at the park). If I had, say, $2000, I'd probably spend a lot on things I might or might not need. (Ex. A stand. If it flops, I'm stuck with it).

Anyhow, good discussion.

[Shift]

Originally Posted by SnerpGoodWord

The author is a bit of a more subtle case with modern publishing, and might serve as a counterexample. But thus far success in that field seems rare - there don't seem to be many e-book millionaires.

I think there's five or six Kindle millionaires now...

The truth is that most people just can't write. Many of the "articles" you run across on the web are written by people in the Phillipines for $1/500 words. They'll even ghost write books for a low cost.

[Acidify]

I would cry like a big baby

[ChrisGinsburg]

Find lists of senior citizens and send fraudulent e-mails phishing for bank info. Then proceed to empty accounts and leave room.

[Andrew Gubb]

Or you could do that scam which XKCD proposed in one of their comics (don't make me try and search for it): make a website that asked for an email address and password. Then proceed to try and log in to each email account with the password given. Many people who use standard passwords would fall that way.

It sounds like a seriously dangerous idea, I'm shocked that no one's ever tried this (or maybe they've just always gotten away with it).