1y ago

Which option lads?

213 comments

This is a question of passive income vs active.
Passive is king. You breath when you sleep. When you get too old to walk, you still breath.
- The average human takes 20000 breaths per day. For comparison, the average American take 4700 steps a day so steps actually win since the break even point is around 4000 steps.
  
  Good point, but when you run the numbers that works out to $1000/day for breathing and $1175/day for walking. With $1000 a day you won't need to take those steps anymore. Bonus, as you gain weight you'll presumably need to breathe more so you'll gradually make more and more money right up until the heart attack. Truly a passive income at its finest.
  
  Break a leg? Get sick? Get old? Breathing still has you covered.
  
  Jesus, I range anywhere from 9-15k steps every day. I guess I'll take steps.
- For anyone curious (1000000/50)/12 is 1666.66 which is how many years you would have to live to make a million dollars.
- When you get too old to walk, you still breath.
  But you should already be filthy rich at that point, so who cares 🤷‍♂️ the choice is largely irrelevant after a few years and, regardless of which option you choose, you should be well into the millions after a decade.
  Steps let me build up actual wealth over the course of just a year or two. Breathing keeps me comfy my whole life, but I can't be really wasteful for a few years.
- But you will live longer by keeping yourself healthy by walking :D

I don't really care what makes more money, id just take the walking one to incentivise me to walk more. id rather be healthy than slightly richer
- You only need 4-5k steps a day for it to be more money, which is pretty doable for most people. Of course, that would make getting your 10k steps in per day worth about $300k excess, which is a pretty compelling incentive
  
  How are we even defining steps? If I shuffle around my living room like a penguin for a minute, do I earn $20?
  
  As you accumulate more money the personal value decreases and the incentive is gone. Which is the root of money addition. Once you make decent money you need more money to get your dopamine hit.
  With the passive breathing income you can just automatically give to charity when you get to a certain amount. Stop caring and thinking about money and do whatever you feel like. Do the sport you like because you like doing it. Its the best kind of incentive.

I have tthe benefit of a smart watch, so I know my stats quite well. Over the long term, I average 13 breaths per minute, or 18,720 breaths per day. That translates into $936 per day. When not injured, I average 22,000 steps per day, which would get me $5500 per day (currently injured, so no running, so I'm down to 12,000 steps or $3000 per day). Breathing would win only if I averaged fewer than 3744 steps per day. I think I get more just walking to my corner newsagent and back.
- You would also have an incentive to walk more so even if you're normally very sedentary, you wouldn't be after taking the deal.
  
  It's unfortunate that it's steps and not based on calories or something, I do cardio but mostly resistance training. Can't afford to lose gains or have to increase my food intake.
- 13k steps.
  If im getting 2500 a day, 1800 after tax im good.
  More time to walk to get junk food too.
- Averaging 22k? Damn. I consider 15k a busy day at work, 25k was a full day of work plus an hour and a half walk. I respect it.
  
  Walking the kids to school, walking to the shop, and an average of 70-80 km of running per week. Life is good when you permanently work from home.

Breathing is at least 150k a year, that's more than enough, even after taxes and has me covered when I'm old and can't go for a walk anymore.
I don't need more, I'd rather enjoy my quiet time and taking an walk and standing still for a while at a nice vista, enjoying the view. I don't need the constant chase for money and even more money in my life and the stress of having to keep moving to get even more. When I walk at the beach with my better half, I'd rather think of how nice this is rather than how much this earns me.
- Consider this: you can become a multimillionaire within a year of the step option, and have even less stress as you become able to live off investments for the rest of your life. You can even run for charity to have a more fulfilling life if you so choose, it stops being a constant chase for money.
  Winning Capitalism is all about investing enough to take care of your needs indefinitely. With the step option, you win, and retain the ability to gain more money if you wish. With breath, you deprive yourself of that option.
  
  I don't care about "winning capitalism", I care about living a comfortable life and being able to pursue my hobbies. $150k a year is more than enough, and I don't have to worry about investment bullshit, it's just guaranteed constant income. As long as I'm alive, I'll be breathing, that's 100% guaranteed. Winning the stock market is not guaranteed, and being able to use my legs for the rest of my life is also not guaranteed.
  
  Also keeps you in shape!
- Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_year 525,600 minutes per year
  Per https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537306/ 12 breaths per minute for an adult (which you should be for the mind cesspool that is the internet)
  525,600 minutes by 12 by $0.05 is $315,360.00 per year.
  Breathing is at least 150k a year
  I decry you as needs improvement at maths.
  
  I am old enough (and was a theatre geek as a kid) to know the number of minutes in a year without needing Wiki...
  ...Thanks, Rent.
  
  mf just OFSTED inspected my dude
  
  is at least

Cashier: You are 5 dollars short
You: starts hyperventilating

I doubt you average less than five breaths per step considering all the time one spends not walking, so this is really a no-brainer
- Personally id still choose the per step so I stay active. Although the amount of time I spend on video games would make a dent in my profits.
  
  Standing desk with treadmill
  
  Exercise would still increase your respiration rate. So you would be incentivized to get more steps either way.
- I do, easily. But I'm a walky type
- You would have to be bedridden, the average step count for most people outweighs their breaths.

I looked at my rates. At 17 breaths a minute, I would make $1,224 per day. At around 7725 steps per day, I would make $1,931 per day. I have to go back years to find a month that averaged a step income below my breath income. Hands down (or feet down), I’d choose making money through steps. I would be making over $700k a year. The added benefit is that I can also increase my step count per day and it would make me healthier. Increasing my breath rate generally wouldn’t.
- I had a small leg injury before Xmas, so I averaged 1-2k steps per day for a few weeks. Given this choice I would not want to risk losing my income due to an accident, so I would choose money for breathing, meaning I get payed as long as I’m alive. Also, not like you cannot make a good living with ~1k per day.
  
  That was a thought that went through my head. In reality, as long as I was able to walk for a few years, I could invest that money and make passive income with the 4% rule. Assuming I could walk just a few years longer, I could retire very early. But yes, theoretically I’ll be breathing longer than I’m walking. And breathing income is safer in that way.
  
  Same here. Also, if you exert yourself in any way, your breathing quickens. It's bonus pay for exercise. A win-win either way.
- The more you walk or run, the more breaths you make. What's your pulse/breath while walking? What about "any other form of activity" that could introduce sweat? Skimming, cycling, skiing, fucking.. hell even hopping wood and lifting weights make you breathe faster if you strain yourself.
  I'll be take breaths
  
  You're not taking 5+ breaths per step even when running, and as your cardiovascular health increases you take fewer breaths.
  
  walking doesn't increase your breath count, maybe by 1 or 2 per minute, so it's rather insignifacnt, if it does more then you really, really need to walk more and get into better shape.
- I’m in the same situation, but you also have to consider that your situation may change. I for one after getting money like this would probably quit my job and just stay at home and in general walk less.
  
  Good point. To me it would be the opposite though. I would travel way more if I didn’t work.

so average person takes 20K breaths a day, that's $1000/day every day for no effort.
Steps obviously vary a lot more. If you get the recommended minimum of 10K steps a day then that's $2.5K/day.
I feel like were I given this sort of earning potential I would probably seek to get in shape as a first step, which would make the step choice the overall better choice.
- But breathing is a prerequisite of living, so while you may not be able to walk every day you are alive (you become disabled or elderly) you will always breath. Over the course of a life, breathing is likely the better income.
  
  The steps option has a way higher ceiling and can give you significantly more money when you need it most (i.e. early in this scenario). The breathing one will probably net you more money in the end, but that would likely be when you already have a huge excess and it doesn't matter much.
  
  If you walk 10k on avg a day from 30 to 70, you'd have to live until 130 to break even. It only gets worse if we consider steps walked since birth.
  That's before you consider that I'd rather have money while I can walk. Even looking purely at it from a most money at the end perspective I could invest the excess 1.5k a day and make far far more than you could breathing. I could also quite likely beat 10k steps on most days, when I go to a festival or other walking activity (which I would do a lot more with all the free time I'd have) I pretty often break 25k steps.
  So the expected value is much higher for walking even factoring in the chance of a horrific accident.
  Of course maybe you'd rather not feel obligated to walk every day, or maybe you'd rather play it safe with breathing. Those are both valid choices, 1k/day is still more money than anyone needs. But walking definitely makes you more money by the end, and personally I'd appreciate the incentive to stay active.
- But think about this, if you run, you'll breath faster. It's a win for breathing either way.
  
  It doesn't outweigh the sheer quantity of step income though, even if you're hyperventilating.
- Does that first step also count? Maybe taking steps with your feet aren't the only kind of steps!

Choose steps
Don't pay taxes on them
Taxman wants money
I run away
Taxman chases me
Each step I run, I owe more money

This is the absolute easiest question. If you ever get this, the answer is steps. Get your 10k steps a day, or even 20k if you're feeling frisky. Get in shape, buy some nice walking or running shoes, and invest the massive difference between walking and what breathing would get you.
Once you reach a good level invested, you're functionally able to retire and never even take another step. Your investments will cover everything.
Anyone who says breath doesn't realize the sheer difference steps can make.
- But what if I choose breath n do cardio everyday? Wouldn't my number of breaths increase a lot during that time while also keeping me healthy?
  
  Yes, but you wouldn't make nearly as much money. You have to breathe 5 times per step to break even.
  
  As your cardiovascular system improves, you typically take fewer, larger breaths at rest, so improving your ability to breath reduces the number of steps you'll typically take. On the other hand, most people become able to walk more steps after walking consistently.
  Unless you're handicapped, bedridden, very old, or otherwise prevented by health related circumstances from doing so, you can make more with steps.
- But if you get an unlucky leg injury, you are out of income at least temporarily. So breathing for mea, even if it’s less money
  
  If you can't take advantage of the huge increase in income steps have over breaths, then that's more of a budgeting problem. It's incredibly easy to pay off your home and have a huge chunk of emergency funds available even if you get injured if you average 5000+ dollars a day with steps.

Let's say you walk 10,000 steps a day. That's $2500 per day. Sounds like a lot right? How long would it take you to become a billionaire? 400,000 days or just under 1100 years. That's for 1 billion dollars. Bezos is worth 192.4 billion... Billionaires should not exist and the world would be better off if we ate them.
- Not for us. We'd be full of gross billionaire flesh. Ew.
  
  You've got a point. Maybe we should feed them to tigers or something

According to my quick random search* a normal persons breaths 20k times a day, which equals US$ 1k
In order to achieve that with steps, i would need 4k steps, which is practically nothing
- me who does 600 steps per day on average (with random spikes to 10000)
  
  Bro.... You should move around a bit ya know?
  
  You should probably work towards flipping those numbers. Regular 10k, random spikes of 600.
  
  Brother, your quality of life improves massively from walking well every day. Speaking from experience.
- But how many more times do you breath IF you're walking 4k steps a day?
  
  Average breaths per minute is about 15. You're not breathing much harder just walking than you are sitting around.
  Getting 5000 steps a day is trivial for most people who can walk. I average around 7200 and that would get me 650k per year.

making money by sleeping? Fuck yeah

The average person takes ~12 breaths per minute, so the left works out to ~$ 850 if you do absolutely nothing.
Generally, taking more steps will include taking more breaths, as you increase physical exertion, your breaths per minute goes up. It won't be nearly as much of an increase to make up the difference for the increased value of steps.
Basically, I see this as two distinct paths. Low risk low reward, and higher risk higher reward. On the low risk side is breaths. Even if you become paraplegic, you will continue to earn. It will be less than the alternative in optimal conditions, but it will be earnings for every moment of your life for the rest of your life. On the high risk side, I see that you can very easily outpace the earnings of the alternative by simply being more active. The risk is that you need to keep active to earn. Any lazy days on the couch are going to cost you. Any days ill, bedridden or injured, will cost you.
This splits most into a more communal vs capitalistic view: where more long term thinkers would likely go with breathing, and more short term and capitalistic thinkers will go with steps.
If steps people take their income from those steps and invest wisely, they can secure more long term income, which is a good move, since it not only secures your position, but you can also pass on those benefits to future generations. People picking breath are going to be earning less overall, but continually and depending on conditions, could end up better for it in the long run, especially if they are faced with a disability that prevents them from walking.
Personally, I'd go with breaths. I want stability more than high earnings. My current lifestyle doesn't lend itself very well to taking many steps per day, so in my current position, I'd probably make more that way. Also the idea that I can make money while I'm sleeping is appealing to me.
A consistent $600-1000 daily would result in more than $200,000/yr on the low end, which is more than double my current salary... In fact nearly triple.
So you're telling me I can triple my yearly earnings by doing absolutely nothing differently? Sign me up.
- I probably take 80,000 steps every week just with my job and hiking. Might as well make bank while I do it.
  
  You can also get the most lucrative delivery job ever
- Consider that I could choose steps, and then spend a week of 8 hr days on a treadmill and earn enough to buy a house. It would take a couple years of breathing to earn that much.
  I can probably make 20 years worth of breathing money in 1 year of walking. Then I can put that money to work for me immediately. That money earns while I sleep too.
  Sure, there's a higher risk, but as someone who's already fit and active, I would relish the opportunity to continue hiking and pour myself into it to stack a big bank account, then just get on with life building the sort of business I want to build, immediately, with a few million dollars upfront.
  And yes, while one could hyperventilate to cheat the breath count, I could also walk 50km in shuffling short steps to earn 40k in a day if I needed it.
  I choose steps.
- more short term and capitalistic thinkers will go with steps
  I'm sorry, so Capitalists are thinking short-term?
  
  Ha. Funny.

breath! I breathe while I am asleep, case closed.
- Average 18 breaths a minute 60 minutes an hour 24 hours in a day
  $1296
  You make more if you walk more than 5184 steps a day. Which you probably do
  
  Nope but you can't do wheelies so I'll call it even.
  
  Bold of you to assume I walk that much

The breathing one allows you to make money while you sleep
- Something something passive income.
- Yes, far less than steps would ever make you. Then you can invest the difference and make money while you sleep either way.
- walking one allows you to make much more money even at 10K steps and also makes you healthier in the process.

The monkey's paw will break my legs. I'll take the breaths.
- Granted, you are now a rock
  
  This is fine. No more mental burden, or at least I'm dead.
- If there's a money's paw in play you better pick walking. Monkey's pawing breathing is guaranteed bad time, if not dead time.
  
  I chose breathing:
  Money's Paw: it feels like you're breathing through a straw forever now.

Breathing so I can make money while I sleep.
- You can do that with steps, just invest the massive difference in money you can make with steps.

The left is already 600 Bucks a day. This is sufficient money. Hence the right should never be chosen. Greed is not always good. If you can have enough forever vs. More + downside/condition you should always choose the easy out.
- I am torn by this comment. The Internet says we take something like 20,000 breaths a day which is $1000 a day. Like you said that is plenty of money and you will collect it until the day you die.
  On the other hand walking 10k steps a day is 1.5x that, and I get on average more than 10k steps a day, but I don't make money while I am asleep or if I am on a cruise or a plane, or if I hurt myself and can no longer walk.
  Maybe what id do is take the steps, run enough in a couple months to have a sizeable seed investment and then put it in the market and then just live. Never look at or care about additional my walking money and just live my life like I want.
  
  That's the correct answer. Get in shape, invest that money, then live as you want. Breathing forces a passive income that you can't take as much advantage of.
- The recommendations for health is 5,000 to 10,000 steps per day, which is $1,250 to $2,500 per day.
  While the first is better on the case of unexpected disability, the second is probably going to lead to a better life overall.
  
  According to my watch I average 14,000 steps a day. I pace nonstop though. I can’t stand to stop moving.
- I work out, and my job is fairly physical.
  Averaging 15,000 steps on work days and 10,000 on off days.
  So 95,000x0.25= $23,750 a week. $1.2M a year.
  I'm taking the steps.
- It forces you to get in shape and you can start running to raise money for charity.

Let's do some math, shall we?
Average person takes 12-20 breaths per minute. 0.05 × 12 = 60 cents a minute on the low end.
0.6 × 60 = $36/hr at minimum.
I was initially gonna say the steps one, but $36/hrs minimum just to exist? That sounds kinda tempting...
- I average between 8 and 10k steps a day, so 2000-2500$ a day vs 36*24 ~= 864$
  Someone pointed out you could loose your ability to walk in an accident or due to old age but you'd be breathing until the end, but at 3x the income you could easily invest and save to end up much wealthier than you would with the slower but more reliable breathing option
  But regardless of which option you choose you'll be set for life, but it'll still probably take you hundreds of thousands of lifetimes to get even a fraction of Jeff Bezos wealth
  
  Circled the keyword here
  
  I have a bad knee and live in the mountains. I'll take breathing, thank you.
- I think I'd go for the steps just so I could build a nest egg faster and that generates passive income that way. 10000 steps in a day isn't too tough (especially if you don't need to work anymore) and that's $2500 which is about triple the breathing amount for one day. Hell, I do over 20k steps some days. Even if I only get steps in on weekdays I'd still easily double the breathing income and getting more money earlier makes all the difference.
  Plus I'd be getting paid super well just to stay somewhat active which is a win-win.
  
  Your last sentence where I realized I’d get paid to go running has me sold.
  Ok … where do I sign up?
  
  I'd totally be averaging 30–40k steps a day if I were getting paid for it
- you don't walk while sleeping (at least most people don't) but still breathe
  
  Ok, so average respiration rate for adults over 18 during sleep peaks at 20 breaths per minute. That's 1200 breaths per hour, and with a cushy 8 hours of sleep, that's a whopping 9600 breaths while asleep, maximizing the average. That would net you $480 just for sleeping.
  In comparison, on average at a 3 miles per hour pace, it takes 20 minutes to walk 2,252 steps. $480 would take 1,920 steps, and would take about 15.5 minutes to walk at the same pace.
  So, 15 minutes of relaxed but purposeful walking would match the total amount you'd make on average for sleeping.

I just want enough money to be comfortable. I'll take the breaths option for the free low effort money.
- I am not even sure what the irs thing is about.
  If i had this much passive income of course id want to pay taxes. What else am i going to with the money? Move to a different shitty country where everyone is unhappy?
  
  It's a reference to the Police song: Every Breath You Take

My exercise induced asthma says fuck you to either choice I make.

- How is this so relatable

Considering my fitness tracker shows I took 121k steps in January, and the average breaths of 12 per minute, I'd have made 30k in January. 5k more than just breathing. Assuming a resting heart rate, breathing faster because of exercise is not a factor I can quantify
- so it's about 20% more for walking based on those numbers.
  i would definitely take the breathing! there's been too many times i couldn't walk, that's only going to increase as i age.
  imagine getting in a bad car crash the day after starting the walking deal, both legs are broken. now, you are broke two ways! it's like adding insult to injury. that would be the worst feeling in the world.
  when it comes down to "enough money to never need to work" vs "enough money to never need to work +20%, with extra risk if you get injured" i'll take the safe bet every time
  
  That's true it'll pay you till the day you die. And any kind of exercise will increase your breath rate
- Yeah make sure you consider more intensive breathing during the walk/run.
  Then the picture will be different.
  
  🙌 If you're not hyperventilating during your run, you're not doing it right 🙌

Now the melody from The Police is haunting me again.

You couldn't pay me to breath. Not. even. once.
- Oxygen is corrosive. If it can turn solid iron into rust, just think what it would do to your body!

I can do anything when I'm breathing. Walking kind of puts everything else on hold.
Breathing would give me enough money. I'd choose it to be able to be free from any obligations.
- Standing desk + treadmill. It's easy to go for an hour or two
- Become a millionaire with 1 year of getting in shape, then you can be free of obligations and stay in shape. Steps wins.

Billionaires make 10000x that, and the IRS can't afford to check them.

the IRS is a feeble, gutted institution. its task is to collect money from the rich and use it for the public good, but it has become so underfunded and hogtied by the fat cats in power that it can barely do this job.
so, no, the IRS ain't fuckin watching any of us, and probably won't have time to ask for your money unless there's enough of it missing.
and we should start respecting the institution and bring some power back to it so they can at least go for the rich guys not paying.
- They just got several billion from the inflation reduction act to actually fix themselves which is why they can finally do our taxes. They are also projected to be able to collect an additional 500 billion from tax evaders into the next decade.
- Its* task is

What about bonds you break, or claims you stake?
- I'll be watching you
  
  I'll be watchiiiing youuu.

I've got a foolproof and legal way to never pay the IRS a cent!
- Have sufficent tax obligations that you have to pay them more than just a cent?
  
  Nah, be part of 96% of the population that's not American while not making any money in the states either.

Breath is relatively constant, so yeah.

Steps then hike the Appalachian Trail

If you do the average 8,000 steps a day that's $2,000 just by walking. IRS may be watching, but I'll pay my taxes on that just fine.

Breaths no question. It’s passive and if you do cardio you breathe more. Taking away the steps for health argument
- You still step far more during running or walking than breathing, though. Steps is still passive, and allows you to actually get in shape and front-load your money. Invest your gains and that covers the passive income aspect.
  
  Too much trouble. If I choose breathing I never have to worry about money, get paid just for sleeping. Until I die. I don't have to worry about investing or saving, I know for a fact that I'll have money if I wake up.

My breaths per minute is like 13 or less. But I get like 12000+ steps in a day. For a really long run I can get in like 50000 steps.
So I know which way the math swings for me
- Dude, based on an average stride length of 5ft, 50000 steps works out to over 47 miles.
  That's some long ass running.
  
  This was 19 miles up an down a mountain, so much much shorter stride lengths
  
  I just looked at what my stats were, and I was over estimating, but I still got a lot of steps in that day

Plot twist, both options are only paid by in their respective coins. And payment is automatic: it falls on your head from a small portal.

Steps. It's less money, but will probably lead to a better quality of life overall.
- It's actually several times more money, especially if you actively pursue it.
  
  Oh really? I guess I hadn't thought it through. I really like jogging, so figured it would be a nice motivation. Hell maybe make working out my job

My time has come. All that time spent on the Power Pad as a kid will finally pay off.

Every single day

Paid to go thru hiking in eaither case

213 comments