What If You Could See Everyones Future Salary ?

Imagine walking down the street and seeing a number floating above everyone's head. Not their age. Not their IQ. Their highest future salary. Suddenly, you know which child will become a millionaire, which stranger will strike it rich, and how much you'll ever earn yourself. Job interviews become effortless. Opportunity is everywhere. But then you notice something unsettling: the numbers can change. Every decision rewrites the future, and the biggest number doesn't always mean the best life. If you could see everyone's earning potential, would you become richer—or start measuring everything that matters in dollars? Watch to find out. Subscribe to Ifblitz for more what-ifs and sci-fi stories. Every what if becomes a story. FACT BANK: According to a 2021 Georgetown University report, US workers with a bachelor’s degree earn about 2.8 million dollars over their working lives on average, compared with about 1.6 million for those with only a high school diploma. A 2010 analysis of 86 studies led by Timothy Judge found the link between pay and job satisfaction was weak: how much people earn says little about how much they like their work. In 2016, economists Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren and Lawrence Katz found that children whose families moved to lower-poverty neighbourhoods before age thirteen earned about 31 percent more as adults. A 1995 evaluation of the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program by Joseph Tierney, Jean Grossman and Nancy Resch found mentored young people were 46 percent less likely to start using illegal drugs and 52 percent less likely to skip school. Identical twins share essentially the same DNA, yet their careers and earnings can differ a lot. Research on the “hedonic treadmill” suggests people quickly get used to higher income, so raises often bring smaller and shorter boosts in happiness than expected. (contested) Can rewards kill motivation? In 1971, Edward Deci found that paying people for a puzzle they enjoyed made them less likely to keep doing it for fun, an idea later called the overjustification effect. A 1994 review by Judy Cameron and David Pierce argued the effect was minimal, while a 1999 analysis by Deci, Richard Koestner and Richard Ryan found it was real for expected rewards. The debate continues. (contested) Can childhood self-control predict success? Walter Mischel’s famous marshmallow studies from the 1960s and 1970s linked waiting for a treat to later achievement. A 2018 replication led by Tyler Watts found the link was much weaker once family background was taken into account.