• partial_accumen
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    1273 months ago

    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.

    • @Sabin10
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      613 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        423 months ago

        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.

          • @Cheems
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            53 months ago

            I didn’t even do a ton today and I’m at 15,000 steps

            • Rustmilian
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              23 months ago

              Your Fitbit is on your wrist isn’t it? O⁠_⁠o

              • @Cheems
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                53 months ago

                It’s usually on my penis actually.

        • @LifeInMultipleChoice
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          83 months ago

          $1175 for the average person NOT being paid to get more steps in. I would watch a 2 hour movie on the treadmill instead of going to an 8 hour work day. Not including any other steps it would average around $3370 dollars there. Or just listen to music, watch a TV show, whatever it was. I could do that 3-4 days a week, make more money and stay in shape.

      • @TheDoozer
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        43 months ago

        Jesus, I range anywhere from 9-15k steps every day. I guess I’ll take steps.

        • @Sabin10
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          13 months ago

          Same here. I’ll take steps and in 10 years I’ll be set up to make more than the breathers even if I become a paraplegic.

      • @Donkter
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        503 months ago

        For anyone curious (1000000/50)/12 is 1666.66 which is how many years you would have to live to make a million dollars.

        • @kurwa
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          363 months ago

          Whoever thought that $50 a month is any sort of good income is brain dead.

        • @TheLameSauce
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          143 months ago

          Also should be noted, if you took that 1 mil and just put it in a bunch of high-interest savings accounts, you’d be averaging a little over $3k/month just in the interest earned.

          It does make me wonder, at what point is the guaranteed $x a month a better call than one lump 1 mil?

          • @[email protected]
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            33 months ago

            You don’t need a degree in finance to do this calculation. You are simply looking for the present value of a stream of income.

            It depends on what interest rate you think is “risk free”. Right now treasuries range from 5% to 3%. Just divide the yearly dividend (12 * 50) by that interest rate. $50 per month risk-free in perpetuity is worth $12,000 to $20,000.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 months ago

            Put it in safe low-interest investments and you’ll likely still be making far more than $50/month

    • @Ledivin
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      3 months ago

      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.

    • PP_BOY_
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      23 months ago

      deleted by creator

  • @Caboose12000
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    603 months ago

    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

    • @nickhammes
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      213 months ago

      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

      • @[email protected]
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        63 months ago

        How are we even defining steps? If I shuffle around my living room like a penguin for a minute, do I earn $20?

      • @[email protected]
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        3 months ago

        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.

          • @[email protected]
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            3 months ago

            Like i said doing something you like is the best motivation you’ll ever need. The biggest benefit id receive from a magic deal like this is that I could stop having to consider money even exists and that to me is heaven.

            And when i get old i may no longer be able to walk but as long as i live i will breath.

            • @[email protected]
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              13 months ago

              You can do that with steps, though. You get in shape for a year and you invest that money, then boom. Free money for the rest of your life, without worry, plus the ability to make a ton of money quickly if you wanted. You can’t do that with breaths.

              • @[email protected]
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                3 months ago

                I dont think you get my point. I want to live like money doesnt exist the last thing il spend thinking about on is investing.

                Breathing is passive income and i am no big spender, its more then il ever need or Earn in real life. Plenty if for some unthinkable reason i want to play adventure capitalist irl.

                I’ll Just build a system that any money over half a million (takes less then 2 years with just breathing) gets forwarded to my favorite charities and and then il get fit doing whatever sport i fancy.

                Why would i want more money quickly lol? Looks Like your already addicted. Once you make enough money people get obsessed with “making” more. Either the money did not exist and your causing inflation or it did already exist and your just a middle man. Whats the point?

                • @[email protected]
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                  13 months ago

                  You don’t have to think about investing. You can just buy a broad market ETF and you’re done, you take the distributions and you have stable income for the rest of your life even if you don’t take another step.

                  Breathing is exclusively passive, meaning if there’s a big emergency, you can’t make more money. You have to be far more careful about budgeting than you would if you had the big investment from steps.

                  Following, you can run for charity if you want. Donate to good causes and gain fulfillment. The breathing option requires you to budget for this, while the step option doesn’t.

  • @Bruncvik
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    573 months ago

    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.

    • @Ultraviolet
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      333 months ago

      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.

      • R0cket_M00se
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        23 months ago

        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.

        • @kameecoding
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          13 months ago

          bruh, you don’t lose gains by walking, Dr.Mike form Rennessaince Periodization literally recommends walking as one of the best forms of increasing your calories burned without excess hunger or fatigue

          • R0cket_M00se
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            13 months ago

            increasing your calories burned without excess hunger or fatigue

            That’s my point, your goals for exercise are to burn more calories, calories that my body needs to rebuild muscle. If I do more cardio I have to eat more food to maintain my muscle mass. I’m not worried about too many I’m worried about having too few.

            • @kameecoding
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              13 months ago

              but walking doesn’t make you lose muscle mass, nor is it cardio.

              • R0cket_M00se
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                13 months ago

                If the calories burned are greater than those I can consume to maintain my body weight (currently about 3000kcal/day) then yes it will make me lose weight.

                Also yes it is cardio, or it wouldn’t be good exercise. It’s not HIIT or running, but it consumes energy and calories.

                Do you fundamentally misunderstand the concept of calories in versus calories out? If my body needs more calories than I’m eating it will harvest muscle to do so. I’ve been lifting weights for over a decade and diet is just as big of a factor in gaining muscle versus lifting itself, this isn’t something new to me.

                • @kameecoding
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                  3 months ago

                  Also yes it is cardio, or it wouldn’t be good exercise. It’s not HIIT or running, but it consumes energy and calories.

                  Cardio is a shorthand for cardiovascular, if you do normal paced walking it doesn’t challenge your cardiovascular system therefore it’s not cardio.

                  If the calories burned are greater than those I can consume to maintain my body weight (currently about 3000kcal/day) then yes it will make me lose weight.

                  you said lose muscle, which it doesn’t do, in your scenario you are losing muscle because of insufficient calorie intake, not because of “doing cardio”, there is no extra effect from walking that would have you lose muscle other than burning some calories, which is what “losing muscle” means

                  you can just eat a handful of almonds and you will replenish all that you walked away.

    • @HappycamperNZ
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      3 months ago

      13k steps.

      If im getting 2500 a day, 1800 after tax im good.

      More time to walk to get junk food too.

    • @[email protected]
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      113 months ago

      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.

      • @Bruncvik
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        63 months ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          33 months ago

          I agree with the permanent work from home, all thst commute time you save and all the dead times you can use for something else useful. On the other hand my lazy ass only averages 3.5k steps daily… I also walk everywhere, stuff I need is just too close… I also do some mtb once or twice a week tho

  • Enkrod
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    513 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      223 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        223 months ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          53 months ago

          Winning the stock market is guaranteed unless society collapses just by investing in a broad market fund. You don’t worry, you just make money. 150k is not enough in many cities to have a family, unfortunately, and you also can’t run for charity.

          You don’t need to use your legs after the first bit. You get in shape, and then you have well over 150k, not losing to inflation with no raises ever again. You’re done.

          • @[email protected]
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            33 months ago

            $150k per year for the rest of my life would be way more than enough for me and the lifestyle I want to live. I currently make less than that, but still have enough to invest and donate to charity, so this would be just a straight, guaranteed upgrade with zero changes to my current life.

            I understand that I could make more with the steps option, but I’d be thinking about it. Any time I was off my feet, I’d be thinking to myself, “I’m missing out on money right now”, and I don’t want to have that nag for the rest of my life. Give me the no-work, no-change, fully automatic upgrade over the steps option every day of the week.

            • @[email protected]
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              23 months ago

              it’s funny how many armchair money managers we have here who want to give up huge passive income in order to… have more money to invest and eventually get passive income.

              how much would an annuity that pays $150k/yr cost for somebody in their 20s or 30s? I can’t imagine it being less than $10 million. probably more like $50 million. so the logic is give up $10-$50 million in value, for the opportunity to maybe make it up in the long run, while hoping you never get injured or debilitated…

              • @[email protected]
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                3 months ago

                3.75 million dollars in a high yield savings account right now pays 150k per year, at a rate of 4% annually. Investing in the broad market pays 6%ish per year after adjusting to inflation.

                You can make multiple millions off of intentionally jogging per year, which pretty much debunks your point. Yes, breathing is more passive, but will lose to inflation compared to what you can gain comparatively immediately with steps.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 months ago

            Someone did the math. It’s $315,000 not $150.000. So plenty to live on and still have some left for investment.

            As for winning capitalism: capitalism is a travesty that’s killing both people and the planet. I would rather people stop talking about winning such a system - there are truly no victors. To be the victor in capitalism is to be a cell of a tumor that slowly kills its host; you only live until you finish killing the host or the host fights back. We should kill and consume those responsible for capitalism like macrophages consume cancer.

            • @[email protected]
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              13 months ago

              Oh there are Victors, the only real chance at liberation a Proletarian can have is to either end Capitalism itself, or join the bourgeoisie. At least if you have a ton of money, you can donate to strike funds.

              • @[email protected]
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                13 months ago

                The issue here is capitalism will destroy the environment so you won’t have anywhere to go eventually, at least if you’re not a billionaire. This is what I mean about killing the host, the bourgeoisie are slowly killing society and the planet.

  • @Emerald
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    413 months ago

    Cashier: You are 5 dollars short

    You: starts hyperventilating

  • @[email protected]
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    393 months ago

    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

    • @cristo
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      93 months ago

      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.

    • @[email protected]
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      13 months ago

      You would have to be bedridden, the average step count for most people outweighs their breaths.

  • The Dark Lord ☑️
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    373 months ago

    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.

    • @slaacaa
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      83 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        23 months ago

        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 Dark Lord ☑️
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        23 months ago

        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.

    • @Trashcan
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      33 months ago

      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

      • @[email protected]
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        33 months ago

        You’re not taking 5+ breaths per step even when running, and as your cardiovascular health increases you take fewer breaths.

        • @[email protected]
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          53 months ago

          That’s the kicker. You work out to breathe harder and faster, but as you work out, your heart gets more efficient, meaning at least you exert yourself slower, requiring more work to get the same heavy breathing.

      • @kameecoding
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        3 months ago

        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.

    • @MightyGalhupo
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      13 months ago

      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.

  • @[email protected]
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    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.

    • Leeks
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      123 months ago

      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.

      • @Ledivin
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        163 months ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        83 months ago

        It doesn’t outweigh the sheer quantity of step income though, even if you’re hyperventilating.

        • /home/pineapplelover
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          13 months ago

          That’s a good point. Op doesn’t state how much air intake a breath takes. Say you breath in tiny amounts of air really fast. It would be much faster to ear that money.

    • @Mango
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      23 months ago

      Does that first step also count? Maybe taking steps with your feet aren’t the only kind of steps!

  • @AeonFelis
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    313 months ago
    • 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
  • @[email protected]
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    253 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      33 months ago

      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?

      • @prime_number_314159
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        53 months ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        53 months ago

        Yes, but you wouldn’t make nearly as much money. You have to breathe 5 times per step to break even.

    • @slaacaa
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      13 months ago

      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

      • @[email protected]
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        13 months ago

        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.

  • @Siegfried
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    3 months ago

    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

    • @CptEnder
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      43 months ago

      But how many more times do you breath IF you’re walking 4k steps a day?

      • @Wogi
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        33 months ago

        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.

    • voxel
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      43 months ago

      me who does 600 steps per day on average (with random spikes to 10000)

      • @Wogi
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        53 months ago

        Bro… You should move around a bit ya know?

      • @Tangent5280
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        13 months ago

        Brother, your quality of life improves massively from walking well every day. Speaking from experience.

  • catsarebadpeople
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    243 months ago

    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.

    • @Tangent5280
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      33 months ago

      Not for us. We’d be full of gross billionaire flesh. Ew.

  • @Fedizen
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    223 months ago

    making money by sleeping? Fuck yeah

  • @[email protected]
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    223 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      63 months ago

      I probably take 80,000 steps every week just with my job and hiking. Might as well make bank while I do it.

    • @Agent641
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      23 months ago

      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.