It's Your Choice

On the face of it, $100,000 sounds like a lot of money. But before you rush into anything, let's do the numbers. Take the $100,000, and that's all you get. Give away $300,000 to charity, and, if you're in the top bracket, you get a tax deduction worth $99,000. That way, you'll earn some philanthropic warm-and-fuzzies (and perhaps a nifty PBS tote bag), and you'll end up just $1,000 short of where you'd be if you took the cash up front.

Sadly, most of us aren't in the top tax bracket, and warm-and-fuzzies don't pay the kids' college bills. Fewer than one respondent in 10 is prepared to travel the philanthropic path. But most aren't taking the cash up front either. These are boom times -- and what stirs the soul of a generation weaned on a 17-year bull market is the opportunity to strike it rich in stocks.

The unmistakable message from more than three-fourths of the survey respondents: This 18-wheel economy will keep on trucking. More to the point, General Electric will. Respondents who chose to invest are more than twice as likely to sink their money into GE as they are into eBay. Jet engines and industrial controls will still be around a decade from now, even if Jack Welch won't. Internet auctions? Who knows? And government securities? Who cares?

Much has been said and written in the media about the sudden riches that entrepreneurs and investors have made from the Internet. Have you, or has anyone you know, made a lot of money by investing in, working for, or starting a Net company?

"I personally have made a lot of money from the Net" -- 2.3%
"I and people I know have made money from the Net" -- 9.2%
"I haven't made money from the Net, but people I know have done so" -- 20.7%
"I don't know anyone who has made a lot of money from the Net" -- 65.2%
"Actually, I have lost money on the Net" -- 2.3%

Think about this: One-third of our respondents have made money from the Net or know someone who has made money from the Net. What do we know about this one person in three? For one thing, he's more likely to be a man than a woman: By two to one, more men say that they have made money from the Net. Those men are also likely to have higher-than-average incomes. And they're more likely to be among those who, at the start of our survey, said that they would prefer to work for Yahoo! or for Goldman Sachs. And what of the rest of us -- the sorry two-thirds who have missed out on the boom of a lifetime? We're scooping Cherry Garcia at Ben & Jerry's, and we're proud of it. Our personal values, if not our stock values, are in the right place. And we're hoping like hell that this Net bubble pops real soon, so that we don't feel like complete morons.

CEOs and Celebrities

Which of the following CEOs would you most like to work for in the new millennium?

Bill Gates, Microsoft -- 32.9%
Michael Eisner, Disney -- 25.1%
Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com -- 9.2%
Steve Jobs, Apple Computer -- 7.2%
Jack Welch, General Electric -- 6.9%
Margaret Whitman, eBay -- 6.5%
Michael Armstrong, AT&T -- 6.0%
Lou Gerstner, IBM -- 3.5%
Jack Smith, General Motors -- 2.9%

Time for our beauty contest. A dream team of execs vie for validation from the online throngs. When the votes are counted, there's no surprise about who's strutting away with the cubic-zirconia-studded tiara: Bill Gates is the richest guy in the world, and he has dominated the high-tech world for at least the past decade. Microsoft remains undeniably, outrageously successful -- as hundreds of its millionaire employees and alums can attest. Hitch your career to Gates, and you're practically guaranteed an enriching ride.

Disney's Michael Eisner has put up great numbers throughout his career, creating an entertainment Leviathan -- notwithstanding some recent droppings in Mouseland. Here, he finishes well ahead of Jeff Bezos, who honchos the Internet's hottest retailer but who has yet to demonstrate that he knows how to turn a profit. GE's Jack Welch, arguably the finest manager of the past 50 years, finishes out of the money -- a function, in large part, of low support from lower-income respondents.

One surprise: It turns out that there are CEOs for men and CEOs for women. Gates, he's a guys' CEO: 36% of men, but just 26% of women, want to work for him. Eisner, he's a ladies' man, drawing 32% of women's votes. Welch and Armstrong appeal to men. Women like Bezos and Whitman. (Is this a Net thing?)

From each of the following pairs, pick the person whom you would rather sit next to on a cross-country flight:

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com -- 44.3%
Michael Crichton, novelist -- 55.7%

Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney -- 54.2%
Bruce Willis, actor -- 45.8%

Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft -- 58.1%
Oprah Winfrey, talk-show host -- 41.9%