The worst situation I have seen mentioned here is I am the only person in the world with magic. If you pick magic, you are going to watch every single person you have met so far in your life die and have to continue living without them for at least a century. At least the HP choice gives you other people you can grow old around.

Am I going to have to remember my choice? Will I have to remember the fact that I am the reason my nephews no longer exist?

 

Ban anybody voted for money.

 

Well I voted for money!

You seem to have focussed on what the genie has offered rather than what has been left unsaid. To me, the idea of having magic is in principle fantastic however the second option leaves too much open for the genie to screw you:

a) The genie has not mentioned the setting... so you could be turning down $10 billion to be a first year when the Carrows are teaching at Hogwarts! If the genie has any relation to Taure you'd probably be their favourite crucio guinea pig.

b) Dark Lords rise every 50 years or so in canon, I imagine the conflicts would get old real fast.

c) I recall a comment from someone that has always stuck with me regarding cannon that was along the lines of "Harry following an old man's convoluted plan to save a society not worth saving". Would you really want to join said society?

d) Perhaps I'm not quite as old as some you at a humble 33 but the propect of going back to 11 again does not appeal to me at all.

e) I'm not sure I want to live to 100 let alone 160+

 

Here is your gold medal on mental gymnastics.

Now, can someone ban this guy please?

 

Hm, hard choice.

The problem with choosing magic is that I don’t know enough about the world I’m damning myself to. I would need to know about the Canadian laws of interfering with the Muggle world using magic. And since I’m going to my local school, where is that? The wiki implies I would be going to Ilvermorny, in Massachusetts. Considering there seems to be only one North American school, does that mean North America is also one magical country? I don’t want to be a magical American. :/

There are so many unknowns. I’m sure though there must be rules for fucking with Muggles and making yourself rich. So that’s a long seven years at school surrounded by children when you’re actually nearly thirty. No internet to make online friends. Just a lonely experience and a graduation into a society you probably can’t take advantage of. I'm not sure how well the North American Wizarding World deal with mental health and if magic can do anything about it. I'm thinking no, but I don't know, and that's the problem.

Not to say becoming a billionaire wouldn’t also be a lonely experience. But it’ll be a secret and I can’t be investigated for having that money. I can keep my current life, and I know exactly what I can and can’t do.

So I’m choosing the money UNLESS the genie can give me more information about magical law. I’ll only choose magic if I can live out my Indy!Harry fantasies.

 

I'd pick magic without a doubt. Longer life, easier transportation, my basic needs easily met, magical creatures, magical gardens; it's not even a competition.

Conflicts arise in the real world, too. Also, using two dark wizards as some sort of rule for when powerful dark wizards rise is dumb. And anyway, a war every 50 years that might affect you really isn't as bad as you make it sound when you compare it to the real world. Our wars in the last 50 years have killed tens of millions of people.

This is just silly. What's so bad about magical society that's not already in our society? We have war, corruption, bigotry, terrible justice systems, etc. Hell, I'd argue we have more. The average wizard is probably considerably happier in life than the average muggle.

 

My feelings remain unchanged. Becoming 11 again, undoing the birth of my brother in the process, and the difficulty involved in making genuine friendships with people either my physical or mental age, and the resulting loneliness that would ensure are enough that even if I was to become Dumbledore-level I'd probably find magic less appealing than living the life of an average multi-billionaire in this world.