Conversion Table

Ben advises doing this through guesstimate, account for variation that could occur, take mean score from Guesstimate (that also has a range)

According to the World Happiness Report, for a developed country, a loss of $1 reduces WELLBYs by 1/100,000, and if a year of life is worth 7.5/10 WELLBYs, we should be willing to pay $750,000 to safe a life year

$1,000,000 = 1 WELLBY

Can calculate lifetime earnings/net worth to approximate as well

US median individual income: $40,000 (adjusted slightly upwards from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States due to inflation)

US median individual net worth: $121,700, and $250,000 at retirement (https://www.cnbc.com/select/average-net-worth-of-americans-ages-65-to-74)

Lifetime inflation-adjusted earnings: $40,000 * 40 working years (25–65, aligns with common estimates of working years) = $1,600,000 ($1,200,000 after taxes)

Lifetime potential net worth (assuming 10% savings rate on $40,000 - https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/personal-savings, inflation-adjusted interest of 6%, accumulation until age 65, and inflation-adjusted growth of 6%): $620,000

Average US lifespan: 80 years (adjusted slightly upwards assuming technological advances)

Conversion Table

Untitled

Overall ScoreFinancial - Lifetime Net WorthFinancial - Lifetime Earnings (After Tax)Time - Hours SavedTime - Years SavedHealth - EV Micromorts AvertedHealth - Micromorts Averted/Modified Microlives GainedHealth - Standard Microlives Gained
$250,000
$1,200,000
60,000
7 (6.85)
170,000 (171,428)
85,000 (85,714)
120,000
$225,000
$1,080,000
54,000
6.3
76500
$200,000
$960,000
48,000
5.6
68000
$175,000
$840,000
42,000
4.9
59500
$150,000
$720,000
36,000
4.2
51000
$125,000
$600,000
30,000
3.5
42500
$100,000
$480,000
24,000
2.8
34000
$75,000
$360,000
18,000
2.1
25500
$50,000
$240,000
12,000
1.4
17000
$25,000
$120,000
6,000
0.7
8500
$0.20
$1
0.05
0.0000058
0.14
0.07
0.1
$4
$20
1
0.000114
2.85

High-Level: I used dollars (in earnings, $20 per hour) to convert to time, and I used time to convert to micromorts and modified microlives (350,000 hours remaining in life, so 0.35 hours per micromort)

We’re assuming that an hour is worth $20, which aligns with US government figures (and median wages), so $1,200,000 in lifetime earnings is equivalent to 60,000 in hours gained (7 years).

If one life has 700,000 hours, a micromort is worth 0.7 hours (a microlife, which is normally 0.5 hours and ignores childhood). So that would be a modified micromort, which I think is more useful. The official micromort is 0.5 hours, which only accounts for the length of an adult’s life. However, these figures are actually assuming a full life is 700,000 hours. Of course, a micromort incurred at the middle of life only causes 1-millionth of a loss of 350,000 hours in expectation. So 1 micromort is worth 0.35 hours, or ~$7.

Conversion Factors

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NameHoursMoney
1
$20