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.)
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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?
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?
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 😉)
Even Senators are worth like fifteen times that in spite of a 200k/year salary.
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.
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?
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.
We’ll talk. Come to my office. Maybe we’ll get it in writing first.
Make that 100 million. We’ll find the poorest neighborhood with the poorest schools and fund them, hospitals, housing. A new cause of my choosing every week.
You however will get nothing in return.
The only favor you get, is me not blowing the whistle on you. Remember we have it in writing that you tried to bribe me. So long.
Wouldn’t happen
But… you took the bribe.
No. I never took any money. It’s their money, they are giving it to charity.
I mean, technically you could call it blackmail. Either they do that or I call them out publicly. Shrug
I laugh in their face and tell them it takes waaaaaaaaaay more than that to buy me. Like at least a hundred times that.
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?
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
If i became president then the world is already a lost cause and money is worthless.
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.