After finishing the Hunger Games Trilogy I've been thinking about how likely it is that we could have a real life Hunger Games in the future. [For those not familiar with the book, the Hunger Games is where 24 kids enter an arena and fight until only one victor remains].
It's not like there's not precedent for this - just look at the Roman Empire. Then it hit me - there's a way we could have a real life Hunger Games today and use it to do some good as well.
Remember all the hoopla a year or so ago about Arizona's decision to stop funding certain life saving procedures for it's Medicare patients? In case you forgot, here's a link to a story detailing the second death from that decision:
Second AZ Patient Dies After State Budget Cuts
Why should we let a good death like that go to waste? An ABC news report from around that time mentioned that there were 100 such patients awaiting a death sentence from Arizona's decision.
Here's my (modest) proposal: Offer those 100 patients an option to voluntarily participate in a real life Hunger Games. The winner gets their life saving medical procedure paid for and perhaps some cash to help them kickstart their new life (say $100K?).
Here's the real genius of the "Games" though - Arizona televises them and uses that revenue to pay for the operation!!! Plus I'd all but guarantee that there'd be a nice surplus that Arizona could then use for some much needed tax relief for hardworking taxpayers! Realisitcally the revenue would probably be enough to cover medical procedures for everyone on Arizona's "death row" - but that would create a Catch 22 - if Arizona paid for everyone's procedures who could they get to sign up for the next Games?
Now you might say that 24-1 odds of surviving would discourage people from signing up, and I might even agree (though even 24-1 is better than the 100% chance of death they have now). So we can either limit the Games to 10 participants at a time, or maybe even allow for 2 or 3 winners, etc. The bottom line is you're taking people with no chance of survival and giving them hope - it's really quite American if you think about it.
Plus the idea for added revenues here are limited only by our imaginations: give the participants a month to train and create a reality show to follow their progress, legalize gambling and allow people to bet on likley winner(s), product placement during the games, etc.
So what do you all think? Have to say I'm really excited and think I'm on to something here. May the odds be ever in your favor.