30 Million

...Dollars, that is. What would you do if you unexpectedly received $30 million, tax-free?

I brought up this question among my lab chums. The answers tended to stay in the sensible range (buy a house, live off the interest, invest...). One friend said she would go on holiday, then decide what to do with the rest later.

That much money is a degree of responsibility, isn't it? People will watch how you spend it, even if it's all yours fair and square. If you have a windfall, you're expected to give at least a proportion of it to charity, never mind that charity is meant to be an act of altruism.

Which leads me to another point - if you're expected to behave in an altruistic manner, and you do so, are you really acting in a morally upright manner, or are you really being selfish because your actions are engineered to make others think well of you? Should we be judged on what we do or on what we'd rather be doing?

Hmm.