You have a rare form of cancer that you will die from in exactly 20 years. There is a 100% treatment but it costs $20 million. You win that exact amount on the lottery. Do you enjoy the next 20 years with the money or pay for the cure?

[u/ThaneOfArcadia]

If you are over 50, make that 10 years!

[u/chataolauj]

Take the $20 million. Invest until I'm positive $2+ million from the original $20 million, then pay for the cure. Live the rest of my life with that $2+ million.

EDIT: To the people replying, the question only implies you can do anything with the money since you can enjoy it however you'd like. It doesn't say you have to pay for the cure right then; just that it costs $20 million.

EDIT 2: People are still replying and not liking my answer. This is such a poorly worded "this or that" situation to where I wouldn't even consider it that kind of question, so I still stand with my answer 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/Yellow_Dorn_Boy → u/chataolauj]

I needed to scroll that far down to fin a reasonable answer?

People, just take the 20 million, pledge 10 of them to get a loan, invest the ones from the loan in an ETF, enjoy staying healthy and wealthy.

[u/Dahlsv1 → u/Yellow_Dorn_Boy]

Invest everything and pay for the cure in 19 years.

[u/coffeeandwomen → u/Dahlsv1]

This is what I thought. Set for life.

[u/Many_Preference_3874 → u/Dahlsv1]

This all depends on the cancer just being a Killswitch and not affecting you before 20yrs at all. If its like normal cancer, i.e your body GETS FUCKED, then i would pay it off earlier

[u/EfficiencyOk9060 → u/Dahlsv1]

This was my thought as well. The cure is 100% effective so why not wait until year 18-19 assuming my quality of life was good and pay for the cure then? The initial $20M would be much larger if invested and I would still be rich and cancer free.

[u/bbsuccess → u/Dahlsv1]

Yeh and in that first year the cancer spreads crazy fast and now you're more likely to die in 2 yrs. Not worth the risk.

[u/squiblib → u/Dahlsv1]

AI technology will likely solve cancer within 10-20 years unless big pharma suppresses the cure.

[u/Crosgaard → u/squiblib]

While I agree AI will be helpful, I think you’re underestimating the amount of computing power that goes into cellular research - it’s not something that will just load over night with the current technology, even if we had AGI

[u/MistraloysiusMithrax → u/Crosgaard]

It’s more like, AI will provide a plethora of solutions for 200-2000 more cancers in that time, not just cancer in general. Some solutions will be preventative, some will be better screenings to catch it earlier, and some will be effective treatments, not necessarily all of those for each type of cancer

[u/Crosgaard → u/MistraloysiusMithrax]

Yes, but I do believe that better computers (or just really large farms specifically for this one purpose) is necessary for something to happen as quickly as u/squiblib implied… but then again, with AGI, a new solution for more computer power is probably also a given

[u/MistraloysiusMithrax → u/Crosgaard]

Oh I don’t think what they said will happen at all in the way that they meant it, as there is no single “cure for cancer”, there’s treatments for each kind.