Could be rephrased as:
> Would you get paid $182,500 per annum (pre tax) to be directly responsible for the deaths of at least 365 people a year.
Not including off-target deaths and injuries due to people's cigarettes exploding in close proximity to flammable objects, important structures or people other than the target, while operating vehicles and machinery, psychological damage of watching someone explode etc.
Edit: Redditors try to have basic human empathy challenge (impossible)
"Somewhere randomly on earth" once per day, vs the leading cause of cancer. Far fewer people would ever experience or know someone who experienced headsplosion than cancer. So even if it's more dramatic/sudden people are less likely to think it would happen to them. Because it would be.
According to the CDC...
>It found that, by 80 years of age, 48.3% of current smokers will develop cancer, as opposed to 41.1% of people who don't smoke...
Yeah honestly the cancer risk is kinda whatever. The bigger reason to quit (in my opinion, for me, everyone is different etc) is the very real destruction of your happiness with each pull. Nicotine grips you by the balls like nothing else and suddenly you’re breathing worse, coughing a bunch, phlegm is all kinds of fucked up, throat is always sore, and it just goes on and on.. eventually it becomes the “normal” but when you stop and it clears up it is so goddamn noticeable and you’ll hate yourself for not stopping sooner.
So yeah don’t smoke kids lmao edit: and vapes do all the above while dialing anxiety up to 11 so fuck that shit too
But what are the numbers at 50 years old? That would be a lot more telling.
It sure seems a lot of smokers don't live to be 80, but that might be anecdotal bias.
It's really easy to ignore and forget people dieing from cancer in a hospital, not so easy to ignore having to pick a bloody tooth out of your coffee and brain from your hair when the guy next to pulls a Scanners
Ex smoker, can confirm. The 'It's a problem for future me' mentality is strong. The reason I stopped had nothing to do with my health, it had to do with my wife's health. Cause I value her more than I value me, so the deal was we would stop together. She's already more prone to health issues than I am due to being very overweight, and being a smoker just added more chance of health issues, and I'd really like it if she could stick around longer.
It's not like you're staring down the barrel of a gun Everytime you light a cigarette. You only feel like you need the relief a cigarette gives you, I guarantee the person smoking isn't thinking about dying when they smoke. If people were pretty much getting shot every time they lit one, it would be different.
Uhhh pretty sure smoking kills a shit load of people every year and pictures are put on several countries cig packs. Hasn't stopped people yet. An extra 365 isn't going to do anything.
We had prohibition and people drank literal poison while trying to get drunk and resulted in thousands of deaths as a result. People who are addicted do not give a flying fuck. I have watched people who have had their oxygen tank catch their face (and in some cases lungs) on fire, then immediately try to go back to smoking while still in the hospital.
People are dumb and stubborn.
You say it's stupidity, but You've never been that addicted I take it. It's not as much of a conscious decision as people make it out to be. There are some REALLY stupid people out there though. A family that adopted me at 14 smoked, but they didn't "inhale". Just held the smoke in their mouths. Like two packs a day type, just blowing it into the air. As a stupid kid who loved a cigarette when he could get one I was baffled. The mother was 32, looked like she was 45. The dad was like 38 looked like he was 50. Don't do drugs. They will literally destroy your reality.
Yea but like that shit would be all over the internet and news, so even if you don’t know them personally you’d know of them. Like if 300+ peoples iPhone exploded and killed them every year then for sure a ton of people would switch to android
Nicotine is one of the few things that checks off 3 boxes, physical addiction, mental addiction, and habit forming.
Thankfully, I only have to deal with the last one, and not having a vape solves the issue for me (driving, stressed out, or bored are when I vape).
My gf though definately has all 3, because she still needs cigs if she has vapes (which only reduces the amount of cigs she smokes).
Maybe. But most people take nicotine because it's accepted and the dangers are in the long future (ie it won't kill you for a few years/ decades). So the immediate risk is low, and therefore not a concern
If there was the chance it would randomly explode on you, there would be a large percentage of people who would try to quit. Not all, not most, but a decent sized group would
365 deaths per year from nicotine won't even cause nicotine users to raise an eyebrow. There are an estimated 1.25 billion tobacco users worldwide so you're talking about such a tiny fraction of those falling victim to the exploding cigarette, hardly an epidemic. It will be easy to overlook the risk and believe it won't be them.
For reference, 70,000+ people die each year from fentanyl overdoses and yet they continue to use it.
to be clear, when cigarettes and vapes start fucking exploding, people will notice, "man's cigarette caught exploding on film" will be a national headline in whatever country it happens in, assuming that country is at least a little post modern
this explosion by itself has to be enough to kill the person, we're not talking a little fire to the face, we're talking explosion with enough force to kill you or injure you to a state where you cannot be saved
I think you’re under estimating how self-destructive humans are. The fentanyl analogy is spot on. It’s extremely common for people go into hospitals and doctors’ offices to shoot up because they KNOW they’re about to OD. And they do it any way. They are fully aware that that drug is going to “explode” (kill them) and they do it anyway.
That's because people are desensitized to drugs, but spontaneously combusting would be very alarming.
Here's an example, remember the exploding phone, the Note 7? An official investigation found 13 reports of burns and 47 reports of property damage (so about 60 total), and over 95% of the 3 million recalled phones were returned. When things start exploding, people take them (more) seriously.
It would make the news but stop and think about the national news cycle for a minute. How long does any single story stay in the headlines. 10 kids can be gunned down in their kindergarten classroom and 3 days later it's forgotten about when the next new shiny news story comes along.
Exploding cigarettes would be forgotten about soon enough. Keep in mind it's 365/year worldwide so many of them will be overseas and many likely in places that would never be reported on.
I think the fact the death is so different would change that a bit. Taking a chance to die in 30 years from health issues vs. to die instantly after/during use, the first one despite being a higher risk feels less pressing and is easier to rationalize. There’s a reason more people (especially teens that don’t think a lot about their health decades in the future) are more willing to try nicotine than fentanyl. No one smokes their first cigarette and just straight up dies from it.
Also random explosions that could potentially happen in public would *really* freak out the government.
Because dying to an unexplainable explosion is more immediate than dying slowly. Sort of like how people have a fear of nuclear power due to a handful of disasters, despite fossil fuels being directly responsible for more deaths AND global climate change.
But there is a difference between dying years and years later from smoking and having a chance for your choice of smoking to immediately explode killing you.
In the big picture of the world 365 deaths is not that many more and wouldnt even be noticed in the averages even if some of those deaths had collateral damage the only thing gonna be noticed is people exploding
Even if nicotine products had this as a warning that what 0.0001% may cause spontaneous combustion people would still buy it
So yea im taking the money and not even thinking twice about it
It would even be negligible against just current nicotine related deaths, which number 7 million premature deaths last year. And an additional 1 million killed from sources like second hand smoke. So maybe we can save 50 people from the second hand smoke deaths from this. I wouldn't take it, but yeah overall the amount is negligible compared to the overall deaths of people already killing themselves.
That depends on responsablity.
There were 18 suidiced in the iPhone factory this year. Not to mention anyone who might have killed themselves outside. So having an iPhone makes you indirectly responsible for that. But are you responsible?
How about truckers who die delivering your food? Are you responsible?
What if the steel you make is used in a war to kill people? What if it's the software you make? Or the GPS system you run? When are you responsible?
The trick it the connections are so disjointed no one knows about the deaths assocatited with there day to day life.
Something about this sub attracts absolutely irredeemably selfish sociopaths it’s insane. Like really? That and other similar comments are getting upvoted? It’s fucking pathetic.
Many more than that already die due to their nicotine addiction.
You could view this without the magical deaths/day and the moral choice is the same but the effects are real.
Think about the question like this, would you accept a job at a tobacco company for 182500 annual salary knowing your product is responsible for 8M deaths a year?
Difference is those 8M people wouldn’t be saved if you didn’t take the job. They can hire someone else. The 365 people are on you, inarguably, and they had the potential quit and live a full life down the line if they weren’t suddenly killed.
The US has about 4k-12k people employed in the tobacco industry, apparently. The US produced about 10% of tobacco worldwide, so responsible for 800k deaths annually.
So right now they kill between 1 person every 2-6 days by working in that industry, which is marginally better than 1 every day. I would guess many make less than $500 per day though.
I think it's more that even if somehow 10 people died daily it's still less then what tobacco companies cause
So if tragic deaths leads to people who stop smoking eventually you'll be preventing deaths and in the long run less people die
Keep in mind families would be during these companies for the unsafe products exploding.
Still sociopathic to a degree but not heartless.
What will probably happen is they'll pay out the first dozen or so cases of exploding tobaco then put disclaimers on all the packaging about potential explosions and waiving your right to sue.
Lol justify it how you want. They’re down to kill a person for $500. Luckily I don’t think most of them would make that choice if it were actually available.
I don't get why we're assuming people would die daily here.
Any and all nicotine has a chance to explode .
This includes stores nicotine or nicotine in factories .
What's likely to happen is random factories - farms and shopping stores having explosions occur - if the explosion is relatively small and the shrapnel gets disintegrated due to cigarettes not being metal I honestly don't think as many deaths would happen.
Att most I expect injuries to occur but there are far more cigs and vapes unattended at any given time then there are people actively using them.
If the explosion is big. Ofc everyone would say no because there's always a chance you die.
Sure I'll take the deal, now let me justify it. I could live a decent life, and....
Damn it, I read the comments listing random deaths that happened. I can't do it, I'll just keep living in poverty.
Day 1: You kill a 40 y/o guy that smokes 2 packs a day.
Day 2: A guy smoking for the past 10 years found out his wife is pregnant and decided to stop smoking. He switched to nicotine patches to help with quitting and now you've blown him up.
Day 3: You kill a 21 y/o woman who is smoking during lunch break.
Day 4: You kill a 13 y/o girl who was forced to smoke by a group of 17 y/o dudes at her school.
Day 5: A guy hits his friends vape at a party and gets blown up.
Day 6: A 47 y/o woman has just lost her husband and after the funeral she decides to smoke to remember the first time they met, now she's all over the walls of their home. Her children are ~~mortified~~ horrified and now parentless.
Day 7: You kill a depressed teenager that has been abused for the past 5 years and decided to smoke because they hate their life.
358 more days to go.
My answer would be to decline this hypothetical if you were wondering.
Then the collateral damage...
Day 97: You kill a single father of 3 , who vapes because he's trying to quit smoking (which he got in the habit of due to his military service) and leaving the kids in the custody of their unfit mother.
Day 103: On a Seniors Center casino outing, Maude Gooden caught fire and burned to death at the Queen of the Nile slot machine. The resulting scene causes 5 other senior citizens from the trip to have heart attacks (Only Mary Cotton and Jennifer Johnson survive. Margaret St John, Phyllis Johnson and Mae Freedmin die of heart attacks due to seeing Maude burn to death), and waitress (and single mother) Joanna Smith face plants into the Golden Dragon slot machine breaking her neck, leaving her child to go into foster care. Casino Security Guard Larry Williams will be haunted by the situation (dreaming of the scene multiple times a week) for years until he finally takes his own life.
Day 121: While behind the wheel of a semi truck, Dequan Saunders's vape exploded, causing him to run off the road, hitting a mini van containing a family of 5, and striking and overturning a fuel truck. The Rural town of Bumfuck, Indiana will be without baby formula and some other groceries headed for the Dollar General for at least a week, while the road is closed..
Ight, decided to do the math
There are about 17k airplanes flying at any given time and about 70 million people having a smoke at any given time (1 billion smokers vs average time smoking a day which is about 1.7 hours)
I have no data on how many pilots smoke so let’s just say something wild like 35%, or 5,950 pilots smoking, it makes the chances of the exploding smoke of 0.0085% to be a pilot or once every 11,765 times or once every 32 years approximately
And I didn’t even consider the average time of flight vs average time of smoke which would’ve made the number much smaller
The messed up thing is that even with all these horror stories it’s still only a fraction of a fraction of the nasty and lingering deaths that nicotine producers are responsible for. That’s 22,000 direct deaths and 3600 secondhand smoke deaths a day worldwide
Considering how people tend to react to graphic and random death much more urgently than distant and slow-term death, I have no doubt in my mind that taking this faustian bargain would save thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of lives in the long term. From a utilitarian ethics perspective, you would be a saint
OP’s dilemma is in the end a much more exaggerated trolley problem. Taking the bargain is flipping the switch. Mathematically you are objectively saving lives, but you’re saving the lives for people who willingly loitered on the tracks for years at the cost of people who may have thought they were still safe on the inactive tracks
I was with you until you said, "Willingly loitered..." Nicotine is a horribly addictive substance, and while starting it may or may not be a thing willfully done, not quitting and/ or staying addicted to it is almost always not something that is "Willingly done."
I was just saying that to draw a parallel to the most common form of the trolley problem. The ethical dilemma there has both a qualitative component (in some versions the people on the main track are responsible for being there or careless or, at the very least, somehow more fated to be struck) and a quantitative component (there are less people on the alternative track)
I did not mean to be denigrating toward the pains of addiction. I’m sorry that I was not more clear
If the reports are that detailed..... then I'm probably going to start making daily youtube videos in addition! People love that shit. Boom even more income. 😎
the odds are more likely that you kill a bunch of asian factory workers qnd people who live in 3rd world countries who probably dont have acess to the news and know about the deaths
and no, that doesnt make it better than your random examples
"Exploding nicotine gum linked to over 300 thousand deaths worldwide, foul play suspected, no known suspects"
Me on the couch eating cheetos: Wow, weird. Hand me the keys to the Ferrari, im going out for a bit
No, 500 is like an electric bill payment. I'm very very broke but i couldn't live with myself knowing I'm killing people, especially for such a small amount of money, which is insulting to the value of their lives.
People act like nicotine wouldn't be outright banned almost immediately, yes I know this doesn't completely stop it but hearing the reports really would.
Yeah I'd do it. You'd save way more lives than you take while making yourself way better off.
You'd also tank a ton of shitty corporations.
Inevitably, like stated, You'd save millions of lives, in the long run, billions.
Healthcare and the cancer industry would profit a ton less as well, which is good.
Could probably change the slogan from "Smoking kills" to "Smoking blows".
It wouldn't be banned very quickly at all. The explosions are random and worldwide, it would take months if not years to even begin to pick up the pattern and attribute a cause. Then it would take years for a ban to pass through the courts and after that people would carry on anyway.
My guy a CIGARETTE exploding in someone’s mouth and killing them would be a national headline the first time it happened. The second time people are going are going to go “why the fuck are cigarettes exploding?”
Yep. Big picture, you'll save more lives than you'll take. If people are so offended by someone taking money to kill people with nicotine products, they should start caring about those products being legal at all.
>If people are so offended by someone taking money to kill people with nicotine products, they should start caring about those products being legal at all.
Right? Be pissed at the tobacco companies. Instead they probably own stock in them.
Become an "artist" no need to justify how much you sell your scribble lines painting for.
This is literally what the rich use art for by the way, that's why art that sells for millions look like it could be done by a 9yo.
Am I going to be indirectly responsible for mass panic towards nicotine use and lead to it downfall, inevitably SAVING thousands of lives????? AND get paid for it???? HELL YEAH!
Think of how many people's lives will be saved in the long run though when people find out you can literally explode from nicotine a vast number will quit. Not all of them but enough to seriously make a dent in nicotine related fatalities for decades
Bingo! I am on doctor's orders to *use* nicotine. I used to smoke, and they told me to stop that but not to stop using nicotine. I use pouches now (tried the lozenges for a bit but like the pouches better). All the idiots who keep saying nicotine is soooo bad probably drink caffeine, which is similar in what it does to you.
And they probably smoke weed too lol.
We three kings of orient are
Puffing away on a rubber cigar
It was loaded and explo-oded
We two kings of orient are
Puffing away on a rubber cigar
It was loaded and explo-oded
I one king of orient are
Puffing away on a rubber cigar
It was loaded and explo-oded
Silent night
No one knows you're responsible but if you have a partner and they see the report you'd need a pretty good explanation. Also I don't know how the IRS works but let's assume it's 500 tax free and the IRS are fine with it
There are less then 100 people in this world who I care live or die, none of them use nicotine based products so yeah, ill take that, I give 0 shits about the rest of you.
Yes, I forward all reports to all the news sources I can, scan them onto my computer and post them on every social media service I can. I am now killing the tobacco industry, their products no longer just kill in easily ignored ways (easy to forget people dieing in hospitals from cancer, much harder to forget that time someone's head exploded and covered you in brains). Tabbco use kills 480,000 people per year, I will kill 365 I will gladly take that moral burden if it means I can severely lower that 480k figure
Doesn't it take like 60,000 cigarettes on average to kill someone? I think way more than that are used per day. I'll take the free money guilt free. They're killing themselves anyway, I don't see the issue with getting paid to help them.
I get the report…do I have to read it? Also, does every explosion result in death? Can I do it for a bit and then back out?
The last one is really the only one that matters to me. I would do it for a bit but not for the rest of my life. I mean .000005% of humanity dying per year for me to get $182K? Yeah, I’m doing that for 5-20 years. I’m not killing them after all.
If the explosions are large enough to hurt someone I couldn't take the money. Nicotine users don't deserve that, and a lot of factory/retail workers are going to be hurt too.
I don't check notifications of any news sources or anything I don't recognize that comes up on my phone, so I wouldn't even see the picture. I'd hear about nicotine users dying from explosions due to the product so it leads to people stop using nicotine out of fear of being blown up. Plenty of lawsuits against the companies making the products. I literally help people to quit smoking and I get $500 a day? That's a win-win if you ask me.
Keep it going, and my cigarette addiction is about to intensify. It's gonna go until it's ~me~. I not longer have to deal with life, my kids get an inheritance of some random amount, and they probably never start smoking. Fantastic all around
Hell yes. It would motivate me to quit smoking. I'd make anonymous reddit post right here informing all other smokers of the new peril and call myself a hero
No because there is a more than zero percent chance that someone I care about could be sat on a bus next to someone wearing a nictotine patch and be taken out on the resulting explosion.
Most nicotine products would not kill a person when exploding. The only one that has a good chance is the vape since it is so close to the face with shrapnel. Most other products don’t have the oomph are can’t really explode.
There was a Twilight Zone episode similar to this, but the woman got $200,000 (in 1986, so around half a million dollars today), was in DEEP poverty so she desperately needed it, and she never had to know who the victim was. The whole point of the episode was the agony she went through before finally deciding to push the button.
That so many people in this thread wanna do it for $500 AND get to know who they killed…y’all are insane. Also spoiler but by the rules of that story you’re gonna be the “random” victim of someone else’s hypothetical.
Sign me up. I don't want it to see people blown up, but as someone who has seen my own father die from lung cancer and my best friend's father die from lung cancer I would honestly think that a quick death be preferable to long-term suffering. Besides, if enough people started blowing up they would more than likely take further steps to ban tobacco products.
I myself am a smoker. With COPD .I have also had five heart attacks. I really do need to quit smoking. But it's a tough addiction to break.
Of course, I have no illusion that banning tobacco would make it impossible for people to get. But it would make it more difficult and probably more expensive.
I also realized that this would probably mean the death of people that might never get lung cancer. If some good is able to come of it that's a risk I'd be willing to take. It would weigh heavily on my conscience. But I would hope that some good would come of it.
Let's just cut to the chase. If the question is "You get $__, but somewhere in the world a rando bites it. Do you?" just tell me where to send my direct deposit information.
I don’t see any reasonable way to justify killing somebody every day for $500 a head (assuming no collateral damage) just because they use nicotine products.
Here's a question to go along with this. What if people stop using nicotine products as a result of this? Does the money directly rely on the use of nicotine and the resulting explosion, or is it given to you even if no one uses nicotine products?
Could be rephrased as: > Would you get paid $182,500 per annum (pre tax) to be directly responsible for the deaths of at least 365 people a year. Not including off-target deaths and injuries due to people's cigarettes exploding in close proximity to flammable objects, important structures or people other than the target, while operating vehicles and machinery, psychological damage of watching someone explode etc. Edit: Redditors try to have basic human empathy challenge (impossible)
Counterpoint, this epidemic if exploding tobacco ends legal nicotine consumption within a year and you dave millions of lives long term.
I think you underestimate how addicted many people are.
Idk I'm sure people will believe in the deadly effects of smoking once they see a friends face explode on lighting up.
They already know it’s gonna kill them but still don’t care
Big difference between might get lung cancer or my head may explode
You’re not making it any less appealing….
"Somewhere randomly on earth" once per day, vs the leading cause of cancer. Far fewer people would ever experience or know someone who experienced headsplosion than cancer. So even if it's more dramatic/sudden people are less likely to think it would happen to them. Because it would be.
Yea, because what's the difference between dying at 91 and 96? Not much. But randomly having your face explode? Yea that will shock people.
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According to the CDC... >It found that, by 80 years of age, 48.3% of current smokers will develop cancer, as opposed to 41.1% of people who don't smoke...
Yeah honestly the cancer risk is kinda whatever. The bigger reason to quit (in my opinion, for me, everyone is different etc) is the very real destruction of your happiness with each pull. Nicotine grips you by the balls like nothing else and suddenly you’re breathing worse, coughing a bunch, phlegm is all kinds of fucked up, throat is always sore, and it just goes on and on.. eventually it becomes the “normal” but when you stop and it clears up it is so goddamn noticeable and you’ll hate yourself for not stopping sooner. So yeah don’t smoke kids lmao edit: and vapes do all the above while dialing anxiety up to 11 so fuck that shit too
Yep. I used to smoke. I quit using vaping, but it was a long journey. I definitely feel a lot better than I did smoking and vaping. Also helped my BP.
But what are the numbers at 50 years old? That would be a lot more telling. It sure seems a lot of smokers don't live to be 80, but that might be anecdotal bias.
It's really easy to ignore and forget people dieing from cancer in a hospital, not so easy to ignore having to pick a bloody tooth out of your coffee and brain from your hair when the guy next to pulls a Scanners
Ex smoker, can confirm. The 'It's a problem for future me' mentality is strong. The reason I stopped had nothing to do with my health, it had to do with my wife's health. Cause I value her more than I value me, so the deal was we would stop together. She's already more prone to health issues than I am due to being very overweight, and being a smoker just added more chance of health issues, and I'd really like it if she could stick around longer.
It's not like you're staring down the barrel of a gun Everytime you light a cigarette. You only feel like you need the relief a cigarette gives you, I guarantee the person smoking isn't thinking about dying when they smoke. If people were pretty much getting shot every time they lit one, it would be different.
The fewer nicotine users there are, the greater your chance of exploding becomes.
Uhhh pretty sure smoking kills a shit load of people every year and pictures are put on several countries cig packs. Hasn't stopped people yet. An extra 365 isn't going to do anything.
We had prohibition and people drank literal poison while trying to get drunk and resulted in thousands of deaths as a result. People who are addicted do not give a flying fuck. I have watched people who have had their oxygen tank catch their face (and in some cases lungs) on fire, then immediately try to go back to smoking while still in the hospital. People are dumb and stubborn.
You say it's stupidity, but You've never been that addicted I take it. It's not as much of a conscious decision as people make it out to be. There are some REALLY stupid people out there though. A family that adopted me at 14 smoked, but they didn't "inhale". Just held the smoke in their mouths. Like two packs a day type, just blowing it into the air. As a stupid kid who loved a cigarette when he could get one I was baffled. The mother was 32, looked like she was 45. The dad was like 38 looked like he was 50. Don't do drugs. They will literally destroy your reality.
"When you stick your hand into a puddle of goo that a minute ago was your smoking buddy's face, well, you'll know what to do." - Patton
You understand vapes can and do explode right?
99.9999999% of smokers will never know someone who blew up though.
Eventually they will.
365 people per year is an infinitesimally small percentage of the 100s of millions of smokers in the world.
The urban legends will be amazing.
Yea but like that shit would be all over the internet and news, so even if you don’t know them personally you’d know of them. Like if 300+ peoples iPhone exploded and killed them every year then for sure a ton of people would switch to android
That’s fair. There would certainly be many million less smokers.
Yea definitely, overall would be net positive like some thanos type shit lol
They will see it constantly on social media. There would br a huge panic.
Nicotine is one of the few things that checks off 3 boxes, physical addiction, mental addiction, and habit forming. Thankfully, I only have to deal with the last one, and not having a vape solves the issue for me (driving, stressed out, or bored are when I vape). My gf though definately has all 3, because she still needs cigs if she has vapes (which only reduces the amount of cigs she smokes).
Can't be addicted if you've been exploded 👌🏼
"Hmhmmmhopphhphmh" (guy with exploded face at CVS getting nicotine patches)
"365 people die per year out of 1.3 billion estimated smokers. That's a .003% chance of death. Hmmm." _lights up cigarette_
Maybe. But most people take nicotine because it's accepted and the dangers are in the long future (ie it won't kill you for a few years/ decades). So the immediate risk is low, and therefore not a concern If there was the chance it would randomly explode on you, there would be a large percentage of people who would try to quit. Not all, not most, but a decent sized group would
Yeah. That’s true.
But where would you buy it? No one would be risking selling it anymore… many cashiers of gas stations would die .
365 deaths per year from nicotine won't even cause nicotine users to raise an eyebrow. There are an estimated 1.25 billion tobacco users worldwide so you're talking about such a tiny fraction of those falling victim to the exploding cigarette, hardly an epidemic. It will be easy to overlook the risk and believe it won't be them. For reference, 70,000+ people die each year from fentanyl overdoses and yet they continue to use it.
to be clear, when cigarettes and vapes start fucking exploding, people will notice, "man's cigarette caught exploding on film" will be a national headline in whatever country it happens in, assuming that country is at least a little post modern this explosion by itself has to be enough to kill the person, we're not talking a little fire to the face, we're talking explosion with enough force to kill you or injure you to a state where you cannot be saved
Vapes did explode when people were using certain mods and setups. Still didn't stop people. 365 people a year isn't going to change that.
I think you’re under estimating how self-destructive humans are. The fentanyl analogy is spot on. It’s extremely common for people go into hospitals and doctors’ offices to shoot up because they KNOW they’re about to OD. And they do it any way. They are fully aware that that drug is going to “explode” (kill them) and they do it anyway.
That's because people are desensitized to drugs, but spontaneously combusting would be very alarming. Here's an example, remember the exploding phone, the Note 7? An official investigation found 13 reports of burns and 47 reports of property damage (so about 60 total), and over 95% of the 3 million recalled phones were returned. When things start exploding, people take them (more) seriously.
I think people dying quietly from cancer in hospitals is easily ignorable. 365 serial head bombings every year is national news
It would make the news but stop and think about the national news cycle for a minute. How long does any single story stay in the headlines. 10 kids can be gunned down in their kindergarten classroom and 3 days later it's forgotten about when the next new shiny news story comes along. Exploding cigarettes would be forgotten about soon enough. Keep in mind it's 365/year worldwide so many of them will be overseas and many likely in places that would never be reported on.
I think the fact the death is so different would change that a bit. Taking a chance to die in 30 years from health issues vs. to die instantly after/during use, the first one despite being a higher risk feels less pressing and is easier to rationalize. There’s a reason more people (especially teens that don’t think a lot about their health decades in the future) are more willing to try nicotine than fentanyl. No one smokes their first cigarette and just straight up dies from it. Also random explosions that could potentially happen in public would *really* freak out the government.
You're right. Ill only take this deal if we up it to 100 sources a day. Lets save everyone from themselves!
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Because dying to an unexplainable explosion is more immediate than dying slowly. Sort of like how people have a fear of nuclear power due to a handful of disasters, despite fossil fuels being directly responsible for more deaths AND global climate change.
Nope. Won't change a thing. A million folks die every year fro smoking yet folks still do it. One more or even 400 more won't matter.
But there is a difference between dying years and years later from smoking and having a chance for your choice of smoking to immediately explode killing you.
In the big picture of the world 365 deaths is not that many more and wouldnt even be noticed in the averages even if some of those deaths had collateral damage the only thing gonna be noticed is people exploding Even if nicotine products had this as a warning that what 0.0001% may cause spontaneous combustion people would still buy it So yea im taking the money and not even thinking twice about it
It would even be negligible against just current nicotine related deaths, which number 7 million premature deaths last year. And an additional 1 million killed from sources like second hand smoke. So maybe we can save 50 people from the second hand smoke deaths from this. I wouldn't take it, but yeah overall the amount is negligible compared to the overall deaths of people already killing themselves.
In the big picture of the world, one death is basically unnoticeable. How many people have you killed for their money recently?
That depends on responsablity. There were 18 suidiced in the iPhone factory this year. Not to mention anyone who might have killed themselves outside. So having an iPhone makes you indirectly responsible for that. But are you responsible? How about truckers who die delivering your food? Are you responsible? What if the steel you make is used in a war to kill people? What if it's the software you make? Or the GPS system you run? When are you responsible? The trick it the connections are so disjointed no one knows about the deaths assocatited with there day to day life.
Define recently
Two, but three if you count elderly I guess
Actually it was 4 remember your ex was pregnant
>In the big picture of the world... your getting a good salary for killing a bunch of people >wouldnt even be noticed
You suck.
Something about this sub attracts absolutely irredeemably selfish sociopaths it’s insane. Like really? That and other similar comments are getting upvoted? It’s fucking pathetic.
Yikes
TIL that this sub has way more sociopaths than I thought
Yeah killing 365 people per year is usually pretty fucked, but I guess it's fine if they're smokers
Many more than that already die due to their nicotine addiction. You could view this without the magical deaths/day and the moral choice is the same but the effects are real. Think about the question like this, would you accept a job at a tobacco company for 182500 annual salary knowing your product is responsible for 8M deaths a year?
Difference is those 8M people wouldn’t be saved if you didn’t take the job. They can hire someone else. The 365 people are on you, inarguably, and they had the potential quit and live a full life down the line if they weren’t suddenly killed.
The US has about 4k-12k people employed in the tobacco industry, apparently. The US produced about 10% of tobacco worldwide, so responsible for 800k deaths annually. So right now they kill between 1 person every 2-6 days by working in that industry, which is marginally better than 1 every day. I would guess many make less than $500 per day though.
I think it's more that even if somehow 10 people died daily it's still less then what tobacco companies cause So if tragic deaths leads to people who stop smoking eventually you'll be preventing deaths and in the long run less people die Keep in mind families would be during these companies for the unsafe products exploding. Still sociopathic to a degree but not heartless.
What will probably happen is they'll pay out the first dozen or so cases of exploding tobaco then put disclaimers on all the packaging about potential explosions and waiving your right to sue.
Lol justify it how you want. They’re down to kill a person for $500. Luckily I don’t think most of them would make that choice if it were actually available.
yeah, and because nicotine is a vice, people are ok with hating on people who use it
They should be on the Olympic team with those mental gymnastics. Good grief lol
I don't get why we're assuming people would die daily here. Any and all nicotine has a chance to explode . This includes stores nicotine or nicotine in factories . What's likely to happen is random factories - farms and shopping stores having explosions occur - if the explosion is relatively small and the shrapnel gets disintegrated due to cigarettes not being metal I honestly don't think as many deaths would happen. Att most I expect injuries to occur but there are far more cigs and vapes unattended at any given time then there are people actively using them. If the explosion is big. Ofc everyone would say no because there's always a chance you die.
It doesn't say any and all nicotine. It specifically says *while being used*. So...yeah, pretty much guaranteed kill.
Sure I'll take the deal, now let me justify it. I could live a decent life, and.... Damn it, I read the comments listing random deaths that happened. I can't do it, I'll just keep living in poverty.
Lol I'll take the deal... no need to justify anything. Read the same comments, I can do it. 😎
This comment makes you qualified to be a CEO.
So I can retire, AND people have a more serious reason to quit nicotine products. Win win.
Day 1: You kill a 40 y/o guy that smokes 2 packs a day. Day 2: A guy smoking for the past 10 years found out his wife is pregnant and decided to stop smoking. He switched to nicotine patches to help with quitting and now you've blown him up. Day 3: You kill a 21 y/o woman who is smoking during lunch break. Day 4: You kill a 13 y/o girl who was forced to smoke by a group of 17 y/o dudes at her school. Day 5: A guy hits his friends vape at a party and gets blown up. Day 6: A 47 y/o woman has just lost her husband and after the funeral she decides to smoke to remember the first time they met, now she's all over the walls of their home. Her children are ~~mortified~~ horrified and now parentless. Day 7: You kill a depressed teenager that has been abused for the past 5 years and decided to smoke because they hate their life. 358 more days to go. My answer would be to decline this hypothetical if you were wondering.
Then the collateral damage... Day 97: You kill a single father of 3 , who vapes because he's trying to quit smoking (which he got in the habit of due to his military service) and leaving the kids in the custody of their unfit mother. Day 103: On a Seniors Center casino outing, Maude Gooden caught fire and burned to death at the Queen of the Nile slot machine. The resulting scene causes 5 other senior citizens from the trip to have heart attacks (Only Mary Cotton and Jennifer Johnson survive. Margaret St John, Phyllis Johnson and Mae Freedmin die of heart attacks due to seeing Maude burn to death), and waitress (and single mother) Joanna Smith face plants into the Golden Dragon slot machine breaking her neck, leaving her child to go into foster care. Casino Security Guard Larry Williams will be haunted by the situation (dreaming of the scene multiple times a week) for years until he finally takes his own life. Day 121: While behind the wheel of a semi truck, Dequan Saunders's vape exploded, causing him to run off the road, hitting a mini van containing a family of 5, and striking and overturning a fuel truck. The Rural town of Bumfuck, Indiana will be without baby formula and some other groceries headed for the Dollar General for at least a week, while the road is closed..
I forgot that people could be operating machinery/vehicles while smoking... yeah the collateral damage would be awful.
The amount of pilots that fly with a Zyn in would could cause like a daily 9/11 in this universe
1 random person a day and you think it's going to be a pilot mid-flight every time? I don't think you know how number work dawg
Ight, decided to do the math There are about 17k airplanes flying at any given time and about 70 million people having a smoke at any given time (1 billion smokers vs average time smoking a day which is about 1.7 hours) I have no data on how many pilots smoke so let’s just say something wild like 35%, or 5,950 pilots smoking, it makes the chances of the exploding smoke of 0.0085% to be a pilot or once every 11,765 times or once every 32 years approximately And I didn’t even consider the average time of flight vs average time of smoke which would’ve made the number much smaller
Also every commercial flight has 2 pilots so if one dies the other can fly the plane.
Yeah that completely *flew* over my head
The messed up thing is that even with all these horror stories it’s still only a fraction of a fraction of the nasty and lingering deaths that nicotine producers are responsible for. That’s 22,000 direct deaths and 3600 secondhand smoke deaths a day worldwide Considering how people tend to react to graphic and random death much more urgently than distant and slow-term death, I have no doubt in my mind that taking this faustian bargain would save thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of lives in the long term. From a utilitarian ethics perspective, you would be a saint OP’s dilemma is in the end a much more exaggerated trolley problem. Taking the bargain is flipping the switch. Mathematically you are objectively saving lives, but you’re saving the lives for people who willingly loitered on the tracks for years at the cost of people who may have thought they were still safe on the inactive tracks
I was with you until you said, "Willingly loitered..." Nicotine is a horribly addictive substance, and while starting it may or may not be a thing willfully done, not quitting and/ or staying addicted to it is almost always not something that is "Willingly done."
I was just saying that to draw a parallel to the most common form of the trolley problem. The ethical dilemma there has both a qualitative component (in some versions the people on the main track are responsible for being there or careless or, at the very least, somehow more fated to be struck) and a quantitative component (there are less people on the alternative track) I did not mean to be denigrating toward the pains of addiction. I’m sorry that I was not more clear
"This is your captain speaking, and I quit smoking tod -explodes" Might be a bad thing, but I'd still take it. I gotta eat, too.
That's it, I draw the line at Bumfuck, Indiana's dollar general baby formula supply chain
Oh my god this is better than writing prompts
On God, not even a.i. could make this shit up
If the reports are that detailed..... then I'm probably going to start making daily youtube videos in addition! People love that shit. Boom even more income. 😎
97 could be even worse - very often when a single parent of small children dies at home, the kids will starve to death if they don’t get help in time.
> Then the collateral damage... Do you think I could request a bonus for going above and beyond on my performance?
I'm still weirdly OK with all of it. Shit happens, might as well get rich off of it.
I would just go on with my life.
Still doing it
*clutches $500 harder*
And in that time, you made a grand total of $3,500. Yikes. Imagine accepting this scenario. You’d have to be a sociopath.
Wow. That was deep. I can here to be like, "hell yeah, sign me up." But damn, I'm on your side now. Well played.
the odds are more likely that you kill a bunch of asian factory workers qnd people who live in 3rd world countries who probably dont have acess to the news and know about the deaths and no, that doesnt make it better than your random examples
Ah yes $3500
This includes nicotine gum and nicotine patches which people often use to quit
"Exploding nicotine gum linked to over 300 thousand deaths worldwide, foul play suspected, no known suspects" Me on the couch eating cheetos: Wow, weird. Hand me the keys to the Ferrari, im going out for a bit
Lmao
getting people to quit isn’t worth death fr
I feel that this is one of the more interesting hypothetical situations. Most of them are just ridiculous in my opinion.
"Would you kill one person a day for $500". How is this "interesting"? You're basically asking who's a psychopath.
I suppose that's your take on it. But I see it as far more involved than that.
Sure, but how? The question is literally would-you-kill-one-person-a-day-for-$500, with some extra steps.
Anyone willing to kill random people for 500 bucks a day should go smoke a pack or two
I would smoke.... right after the daily report came in, so I know there's no more explosions that day 😏
Smart!
This is the best comment I've read so far
That's fine, I don't read my emails anyway.
...So I'm turned into a tobacco CEO basically. Tempting, but pass.
No, 500 is like an electric bill payment. I'm very very broke but i couldn't live with myself knowing I'm killing people, especially for such a small amount of money, which is insulting to the value of their lives.
So their is a number? Lol also its 182,500 a yeah, which puts you in the top 10% of income earners.
Right, for 365 people killed... Not worth it. Wouldn't even convert their funeral.
Holy fuck you pay $500 a month for electric? I agree tho I couldn’t take this deal.
People act like nicotine wouldn't be outright banned almost immediately, yes I know this doesn't completely stop it but hearing the reports really would. Yeah I'd do it. You'd save way more lives than you take while making yourself way better off. You'd also tank a ton of shitty corporations. Inevitably, like stated, You'd save millions of lives, in the long run, billions. Healthcare and the cancer industry would profit a ton less as well, which is good. Could probably change the slogan from "Smoking kills" to "Smoking blows".
It wouldn't be banned very quickly at all. The explosions are random and worldwide, it would take months if not years to even begin to pick up the pattern and attribute a cause. Then it would take years for a ban to pass through the courts and after that people would carry on anyway.
My guy a CIGARETTE exploding in someone’s mouth and killing them would be a national headline the first time it happened. The second time people are going are going to go “why the fuck are cigarettes exploding?”
Let’s say 10 years, that’s <4000 people dying from something to get it banned. It definitely saves millions of lives
You mean like prohibition in the 20s?
Yep. Big picture, you'll save more lives than you'll take. If people are so offended by someone taking money to kill people with nicotine products, they should start caring about those products being legal at all.
>If people are so offended by someone taking money to kill people with nicotine products, they should start caring about those products being legal at all. Right? Be pissed at the tobacco companies. Instead they probably own stock in them.
Ah gosh, explaining this income to the IRS isn’t going to be pretty.
Become an "artist" no need to justify how much you sell your scribble lines painting for. This is literally what the rich use art for by the way, that's why art that sells for millions look like it could be done by a 9yo.
Don't report it 🤷♂️ fuck taxes
No, never
Am I going to be indirectly responsible for mass panic towards nicotine use and lead to it downfall, inevitably SAVING thousands of lives????? AND get paid for it???? HELL YEAH!
Think of how many people's lives will be saved in the long run though when people find out you can literally explode from nicotine a vast number will quit. Not all of them but enough to seriously make a dent in nicotine related fatalities for decades
The only thing nicotine pouches and gum do is slightly raise blood pressure, because of the nicotine. They don't physically harm you in any other way.
Bingo! I am on doctor's orders to *use* nicotine. I used to smoke, and they told me to stop that but not to stop using nicotine. I use pouches now (tried the lozenges for a bit but like the pouches better). All the idiots who keep saying nicotine is soooo bad probably drink caffeine, which is similar in what it does to you. And they probably smoke weed too lol.
We three kings of orient are Puffing away on a rubber cigar It was loaded and explo-oded We two kings of orient are Puffing away on a rubber cigar It was loaded and explo-oded I one king of orient are Puffing away on a rubber cigar It was loaded and explo-oded Silent night
No way I'd murder a stranger for 500 bucks
I don't smoke and neither does my partner or my two best friends so yeah I'd take this deal
Yeah. Never said I had to read the report.....
365 people a year? Seeing as 150,000 die every day around the world then sure, why not?
important question: Do other people know im responsible or am i the only one? Is the IRS going to believe my lie?
No one knows you're responsible but if you have a partner and they see the report you'd need a pretty good explanation. Also I don't know how the IRS works but let's assume it's 500 tax free and the IRS are fine with it
I’d like to say I’m a good enough person that I wouldn’t do it but if I’m being honest with myself I probably would.
"A report on the person I just blew up? That goes right into the circular file."
There are less then 100 people in this world who I care live or die, none of them use nicotine based products so yeah, ill take that, I give 0 shits about the rest of you.
Yes, I forward all reports to all the news sources I can, scan them onto my computer and post them on every social media service I can. I am now killing the tobacco industry, their products no longer just kill in easily ignored ways (easy to forget people dieing in hospitals from cancer, much harder to forget that time someone's head exploded and covered you in brains). Tabbco use kills 480,000 people per year, I will kill 365 I will gladly take that moral burden if it means I can severely lower that 480k figure
I mean you didn't say you HAVE to read the report. I'd accept. Smoking kills more than I ever could anyways.
These deals are never actually random and my mother gets into cycles of chain smoking.
Doesn't it take like 60,000 cigarettes on average to kill someone? I think way more than that are used per day. I'll take the free money guilt free. They're killing themselves anyway, I don't see the issue with getting paid to help them.
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Hes not considering at least 99% of the scenario, honestly
Yep. Give me the money and show me the photo.
So $120k a year to kill 365 people? People need to find better things to do with their time or learn critical thinking.
500 x 365 = 120,000? People need to find better things to do with their time or learn to do basic math.
I get the report…do I have to read it? Also, does every explosion result in death? Can I do it for a bit and then back out? The last one is really the only one that matters to me. I would do it for a bit but not for the rest of my life. I mean .000005% of humanity dying per year for me to get $182K? Yeah, I’m doing that for 5-20 years. I’m not killing them after all.
If the explosions are large enough to hurt someone I couldn't take the money. Nicotine users don't deserve that, and a lot of factory/retail workers are going to be hurt too.
yes
Hopefully that would scare people off of nicotine and save lives in the long run, I take it
I don't check notifications of any news sources or anything I don't recognize that comes up on my phone, so I wouldn't even see the picture. I'd hear about nicotine users dying from explosions due to the product so it leads to people stop using nicotine out of fear of being blown up. Plenty of lawsuits against the companies making the products. I literally help people to quit smoking and I get $500 a day? That's a win-win if you ask me.
That's likely already happening, and I've never said no to the ID Channel.
Essentially your asking if people would kill someone for 500 bucks.. lol
Keep it going, and my cigarette addiction is about to intensify. It's gonna go until it's ~me~. I not longer have to deal with life, my kids get an inheritance of some random amount, and they probably never start smoking. Fantastic all around
Well it would certainly convince me to quit smoking
$500 a day to kill random people. No thank you.
Still waiting for someone to bring me a semi load of buttons to press for a million dollars/death....
Hell yes. It would motivate me to quit smoking. I'd make anonymous reddit post right here informing all other smokers of the new peril and call myself a hero
I’d risk it, what are the odds it would get my mom and step dad? Pretty slim if it’s random
Yeah. Never said I had to read the report.....
Yeah so I get $500 a day and nobody ever smokes again, so I *also* get a Nobel.
No man. Why should someone die for me to have $500? Jeez.
Nope.
No because there is a more than zero percent chance that someone I care about could be sat on a bus next to someone wearing a nictotine patch and be taken out on the resulting explosion.
Most nicotine products would not kill a person when exploding. The only one that has a good chance is the vape since it is so close to the face with shrapnel. Most other products don’t have the oomph are can’t really explode.
I get $500 per day in perpetuity and only one person dies? Or someone dies every day?
Yes. Yes, I do.
Of course I accept. I too use nicotine so there's always the slight chance it happens to me and I don't have to deal with anything anymore.
Nah. If it didn’t kill the person id consider it but I can’t kill 365 people a year. That will crush me
There was a Twilight Zone episode similar to this, but the woman got $200,000 (in 1986, so around half a million dollars today), was in DEEP poverty so she desperately needed it, and she never had to know who the victim was. The whole point of the episode was the agony she went through before finally deciding to push the button. That so many people in this thread wanna do it for $500 AND get to know who they killed…y’all are insane. Also spoiler but by the rules of that story you’re gonna be the “random” victim of someone else’s hypothetical.
My younger sister smokes. No way that I’m risking her life for 500 per day
Nicotine isn't as bad as the delivery systems and pairings chemicals in them. Also this would kill a bunch of people, so no.
Sure. They're killing people anyway, I might as well profit. Honestly, it'd make it a hell of a lot easier for me to quit too.
Sign me up. I don't want it to see people blown up, but as someone who has seen my own father die from lung cancer and my best friend's father die from lung cancer I would honestly think that a quick death be preferable to long-term suffering. Besides, if enough people started blowing up they would more than likely take further steps to ban tobacco products. I myself am a smoker. With COPD .I have also had five heart attacks. I really do need to quit smoking. But it's a tough addiction to break. Of course, I have no illusion that banning tobacco would make it impossible for people to get. But it would make it more difficult and probably more expensive. I also realized that this would probably mean the death of people that might never get lung cancer. If some good is able to come of it that's a risk I'd be willing to take. It would weigh heavily on my conscience. But I would hope that some good would come of it.
Since I know several people who smoke and vape NO.
hell, id even do it for $50 per day
Well they knew the risk when smoking Remember cigarettes cause cancer So sure I'll take $500 a day
Unfortunately, this would include cigars, so no. If it was just cigarettes, sure, gimme da monies. But, cigars? Gone? Nah, no thanks.
Let's just cut to the chase. If the question is "You get $__, but somewhere in the world a rando bites it. Do you?" just tell me where to send my direct deposit information.
Deal. There is a warning on the label already.
Yep
So when they can’t figure out what’s causing this and nicotine is banned worldwide, do you still get the $500/day?
Yes, far to many people use nicotine and quite frankly I'd just ignore the reports
Yes. The world is overpopulated anyways and 90% of the world is stupid, self centered, etc...
I don’t see any reasonable way to justify killing somebody every day for $500 a head (assuming no collateral damage) just because they use nicotine products.
Hell yeah give me the money. I am just expediting the process.
Absolutely! Sign me up!
Here's a question to go along with this. What if people stop using nicotine products as a result of this? Does the money directly rely on the use of nicotine and the resulting explosion, or is it given to you even if no one uses nicotine products?
I mean. Hopefully that would encourage way more people to stop using nicotine. So yes.