To those would would also do it: would you do 2 years? How much $$ would it take? What’s the longest amount of time you’d be in?

so no, I wouldn’t.

I would volunteer though that money is highly nonlinear. US $152.21 per hour has a larger effect on someone currently making $5,75 at around 30 hours weekly. that person would do well in taking your offer.

So one year of weird misery for the opportunity to spend the rest of your life doing what you like, within reason–no commuting, no cubicles, no asshole bosses, no weird coworkers, all of that gone. In four years you’ll have spent the equivalent amount of time at work–and that includes the time you’ll spend sleeping at the Walmart.

Hell, you could spend the year writing a journal of the whole experience and have not only a worthwhile project but something else to earn money from when you get out. You’d also, assuming you had some discipline (I’m not sure I would), have the chance to really concentrate on acquiring a new body, new musical skills, whatever–I’m sure there are probably dozens of things you could do within a wal-mart. It would be like “junkyard wars” except everything would be shrink-wrapped. Don’t forget they sell guns and ammunition, so you’ll be able to use those Limbaugh books for target practice.

Plus you’d immediately become caretaker of dozens of tropical fish–maybe even a few more interesting animals, I can’t remember if they’re in the “small and squeaky” pet business.

Heck, I’d think about doing it now, married or not. It would be very hard, but people touring Iraq courtesy of our government have gone through worse with far less reward.

Those of you who said you’d need, say $6M instead of $2M to do this - how did you come up with those numbers? I guess with the larger numbers you might be able to live off the interest.

Wall mart sells canned food (fruit, beans, vegetables, soup, etc.), Ramen, ice cream, frozen pizzas and stuff like instant rice and potatoes. You only need ~2500 calories a day, I can’t imagine there being less than a million calories in non perishables which would more than do you. Even stuff like milk and cheese could be taken from the cooler and frozen. Frozen milk products will last 6 months easy. It wouldn’t be the greatest diet, especially towards the end. You’d probably want to pop a multivitamin daily I’d imagine but I doubt you’ll be malnourished to any degree if one worked at it abit. I might actually manage to loose a few pounds.

I ask people a variation on this question: Would you spend a year in prison for $100 million? There are some caveats: somehow the risk of death or permanent physical injury is nullified (but not the risk of temporary pain/injury or permanent emotional injury), it’s a medium- to high-security prison (not a supermax but not a minimum security-prison either, and you didn’t actually commit a crime to get there and no one on the outside thinks you did either.

My price for the prison scenario would be greater than for the Wal-mart scenario, but I’d say still say yes. Maybe as low as $25 million for the year in prison.

If I was single I’d definitely do it. As said above, $2M is “retire now” money for me.

Guess I had better get used to reading the collected works of Limbaugh and O’Reilly over and over and over and over. And, wait, no internet? I guess the ladies underwear department and assorted manikins will regret my internment, seeing as Walmart doesn’t stock any “interesting” magazines…

Wal*Mart sells computers, and shitty keyboards, and shitty guitars, and shitty microphones, and if there’s one thing that’s true about recording an album it is that if having shitty equipment to work on is the biggest challenge you have to face in recording it, you’re in great fucking shape.

One hopes there is some sort of basic multitracking software either preinstalled on a computer (does Wal*Mart sell Macs?) or boxed up somewhere in the software aisle.

I’m sure they sell hotpots, so given running water and electricity there’s no shortage of clean water even if there are not workable heavy appliance hookups to run their floor models in that section. Cooking is doable, bathing is doable. Laundering clothes? Out of rustic boredom, maybe; I could just switch over every couple days to a new outfit.

There’s the question of excrement. Can I assume the employee toilet works? Sink too, at that point, which is nice.

New music every day, on great big stereos. Movies on great big televisions if I’m in the mood. Really, for that matter, the existence of the video game section kind of puts into danger the idea of it being a *productive* year at all.

Yeah, that’s the deal-breaker for me, too. I wouldn’t spend half-a-year away from my wife (with no way to communicate with her) for fifty million dollars.

Were I single, though, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Don’t tell starman, but I’d do it for half a million.

So… I guess not.

Because being paid $2 million dollars to spend a year trying to write a novel and record music sounds like a better deal than most people get.

This question really centers around how much the respondent needs contact with other people in their daily lives …

But for $2mil? I’ve had boring jobs that paid a lot worse. I could work out on the equipment, watch movies, read books and magazines (current magazines?). I would get really, really bored. And maybe a little homicidal if I had to deal with WalMart customers all of the time. I get a little homicidal having to deal with them in 15-minute incriments.