Despite what people like to believe about themselves, no one ever takes the red pill.
This is an interesting question indeed and I believe that it is actually a much harder decision than than we may initially think. It is much more than a question of whether or not we want to give up our bank accounts or satisfy our curiosity.
The blue pill represents this world as we know it which means that it most importantly represents all of our attachments. It represents the world in which our loved ones exist and perhaps even more importantly it represents the world in which our identity exists. Our identity is made up of all of the labels that we define ourselves with and all of the roles that we play in life.
So the red pill therefore represents a world in which we give up our ego and give up all of our worldly attachments. By taking the red pill we not only give up our careers and our bank accounts but we also give up all of our pursuits and our purposes in life that are associated with this world. We give up our family. We give up our mothers and our fathers, our brothers, sisters and children. We give up our friends. We also give up all of the labels that we identify with that that are apart of the world and what makes us who we are. Eventually all that we are left with is a name, but we must give that up as well.
The red pill represents what is behind the veil. behind the illusions that we create with our mind. Behind our attachments.
The red pill represents death.
Each one of us right now lives within the world of the blue pill and it is all of the things in this world which drive us to keep on living (our identity, our loved ones...etc)
When we die our brain struggles and fights death with all of its effort. It flashes our loved ones faces within our minds eye to encourage the 'will' to hold on and keep fighting to stay alive.
In this moment right now, I'm not ready to die. I don't think many people are.
You perfectly explained why people would choose the blue pill and I completely get that. It's a lot to give up. No, it's everything to give up.
But I do have to disagree that the red pill represents death. In my scenario, and in the movies, the red pill represents the truth, the actual reality. Granted you would be literally no one in that reality and would have to build everything from scratch and you might not even get to do that if it was ruled by this other highly intelligent species. But yes, you would at least get the truth.
I completely agree that the red pill represents truth. I interpret the movie to mean that our mind creates a world (the matrix) that is made up of illusions. Illusions of self, illusions of belief, illusion related to attachment and so on. If you remove the machine aspect of the movie, which for me is just a plot line used to convey the deeper message, then the world of the matrix actually parallels our own world. The matrix is the world of the ego - the world of the "self." Whereas the red pill is the world of truth beyond the self and beyond the illusion. People in our world hold onto their egos for dear life. We are so attached to our identity (ego) that many of us do not even consider the fact that when we die, we may not exist at all or that the "self" won't exist.
If we think about the truth (red pill) as only being associated with the machine world then I personally think that we miss the true meaning of the movie. In such a case we are not actually giving up our "self" we are merely transporting the self to a different world. We are in essence saying that we are unsatisfied with this world and that we want to be a part of something else. Like saying "I want a new purpose in life."
In "The Matrix," Mr Anderson dies and eventually he becomes "Neo" - "The One." So Mr. Anderson lets go of his ego and becomes one with the universe. Its basically the idea of enlightenment as taught by Buddhism. I say that no one actually wants the red pill because everybody has the opportunity to take the red pill in this life, yet no one does. Only a select few become monks who dedicate their lives to meditation and dissolving the ego, and all of its illusions, in order to reach enlightenment and oneness with the universe.
So the "actual reality" of our world is that there is no "you" or "me." Such things are just illusions that are created by the mind.
That's just my thoughts on the subject though.