If you were given $1,000 to change the life of a perfect stranger, what would you do?

I would give $1,000 to the perfect stranger and ask him to use it himself/herself to change their own life. Who better to decide wats good for you other than yourself? The key is to remind them that the money is to change their life for the 'better'..not worse.

I would ask all the women in the street to see if they can f*k me for $1000...

Enough is enough!

I can tell you are a rich guy. Now work on becoming(appealing) to ladies.

Best wishes.

Let us not respond. Let us ignore to those people's comments which is not relevant to the discussion. As we can't tell them what to do and what not to do. And I believe that they are well educated who knows what is what! So let us post our words ignoring such comments which will be out of topic. Cheers

What if that person does not know how to use the money properly? Do you think that giving the money and expecting that they will change will help them? Or don't you think we need to show them where they can use that money in order to keep them rolling in a day to day life? What about making them believe in them first that they can have a life first? Do you think giving just money is going to help those in need?

Ktmdude, i think you are raising better questions now. From your first post, it sounded like the solution was in using the $1000. Thanks for extending the discussion to deeper issues as to WHO can use the money and WHO can guide them.

First off...I want to make one point very clear (in my opinion :-) ): I think that every human is capable of deciding whats best for them. The attitude mostly displayed by the donors and some so called 'better equipped' folks is that they are somehow qualified to make someone else's life decisions. I agree that we dont know a lot about lot of things and when you started a post, I was assuming that I would hand out the money to someone who could use the money. In other words, I wouldnt be handing out to a nice car driving, well dressed, well-to-do looking person. I think giving the money, and then telling that person how to use it just exercising your power or controlling. Yeah, you and I might have seen better days..seen/read/experienced a lot but our priorities as to what is 'good' is almost always different from their priorities. Respecting the person's capacity to decide for him/herself is the first thing everyone should do. I would like to mention (have to mention, coz i cant remember the exact quote) the fundamental principle of Mohammad Yunus here. He believed that no matter how uneducated, inexperienced, 'backward' a person is..they know how to survive and work towards the betterment of their own life. All of us have the desire and equipped to do it, some just lack the means. He gave loans to people who had never made money before and look how it has impacted the folks. Providing the means is great generousity but giving the freedom to decide how to use the means is humanity.

I guess this was my only point. That we have to learn to teach ourselves that a person in the right health and mental condition will decide the best for him/herself.

I think one other question you raised is if that person will be able to survive in the long run after that $1000 is over. Its a great thought and as I am an economist, i think of it as a sustainability issue. Yes, money will run out one day or the other and unless you have 'planted the seeds' somewhere..you will end up squarely where you started. However, sustainability is very hard to achieve as everything runs out eventually. So there is nothing that is truly sustainable. But a person's lifespan averages to about 80 years and it is definitly possible to have something consistent. Depending on where you give that $1000, it might do nothing for that person in the long run coz the amount is too small. Or it might land up in a country like Nepal where it is good chunk of money and a person can survive according to their skills (minus the natural disasters and tricky folks). They can buy cattles, open as small shop, collect interest, etc. Like I said, depending on their skills. And yes, everyone has skills..it might not be refined..but we are definitely skilled to survive.

Why dont you tell us what you think? Asking the right questions is just the beginning :-)

This is the question asked by Oprah on Yahoo Answers...

If you were given $1,000 to change the life of a perfect stranger, what would you do?

Additional Details

3 days ago
You may have heard about the concept of paying it forward -- the idea of doing something meaningful to help someone else without asking for anything in return. So, if you were given $1,000 with the understanding that it had to be used to help others, how would you use the money and why?

To see how others turned these endless possibilities into amazing results, watch Monday's "Oprah" (check local listings for airtimes or go to http://www.oprah.com/ for more information).

Thank you Sapphire for letting us know about this topic. Friend of mine asked me about this and I was like hmmm....interesting subject.......when you mentioned about this I called my friend to know more about this and he told me he got this topic in YAHOO ANSWERS.....
- http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhxIviHYBT.SsApmCifF7fsezKIX?qid=20061121155642AA9yYO2&fr=hp&cp=2&tp=1045#all-answers

However.....this topic is interesting and would like roll on....will jot down my opinion soon. Till then keep rolling:)

Exactly, the future is very uncertain and one can’t predict it. Here there everywhere the changes keeps taking place this way or that way. Keeping this entire aside. Focusing in what can be done, not looking at guaranteed source. Making or helping who are in need of help to achieve what common people are doing being simply a part of human race. Once people who are in need of help get opportunity to get into track. They certainly will know how to drive life and be part of social life not wondering here and there getting no where.
Giving money some might make good future and some might not. But letting them know the right path surely will help them to utilize it in a right place in order to help themselves in the coming days.
I know it is not easy when it comes to the reality. I don’t know what I will be doing with $1000 to help some one who is in need. I’m simply trying to find what would be the best out of best. I think I will give money to someone who is sick and in need of medical attention but can’t afford to do the treatment. This amount might not be sufficient but this will help that person in so many ways to keep going with the daily life and be a lesion to all other people who don’t care and respect the life that they have.