How much do you value your life?
 

This thought came to me yesterday:

If you had to pick one ticket from a bin of 100 tickets, where 99 of the tickets is a certian amount of money, and one ticket is immediate death (think giant Miller Lite can falling on your head), how much money would the 99 money tickets need to be worth each?

I know my answer, I am curious about you all, if you would take that bet at all, and if you did, how much would you need to stand to gain?

Re: How much do you value your life?
 

3 mill.

Re: How much do you value your life?
 

Assuming that my life insurance would pay off my heirs if I suffer a bad beat, then I would say $10 million ($7 million if tax-free).

Re: How much do you value your life?
 

Depends on whether you are religious or not. If you see death as infinitely negative value (by that I mean going to hell, or similar), then you'd need the other tickets to be of infinite value to you to be neutral EV. If you see death as the cessation of life (if you are atheist, or just believe that when you die you cease to be concious), then any positive amount of money at all would be +ev (as the value of death is 0).

Personally, I'd take it for any amount of money greater than I could make in the time it takes me to pick a ticket.

What if ....
 

How about turning it around. the tickets with the money each say 1 Billion dollars. There is one death ticket.

How many tickets do there need to be in the bin before you'd play this game? More than 2?

Re: How much do you value your life?
 

Spiritually speaking, I would not take this bet. My life is not mine to gamble with. There is a reason I am having these experiences at this point in time. I may not always have perfect perception of the reason, but there is one.

Practically speaking, I still would not take this bet. Money is an infinitely renewable resource. My life is not. I am not willing to risk the opportunity cost of not getting to live anymore.

Also under the "my life is not mine to gamble with" category: I would never risk causing such grief to Gilbert, my parents, my brother, my grandmother, my best friends, and a whole lot of other people who care about me. They would be devastated enough if I died...I would never risk them knowing that I bet my life on the pull of a ticket, trying to get rich quick. That is just selfish.

Re: How much do you value your life?
 

This seems as backwards as you can possibly get. If you're religious, chances are you believe you're going to a "good" afterlife, therefore death is just the end of a small fraction of your total consciousness. If you're an atheist, death is the end of 100% of your future.

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Personally, I'd take it for any amount of money greater than I could make in the time it takes me to pick a ticket.

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Even if we assume the rest of your life has no value to you other than the amount of money you would make, unless you are on your deathbed this doesn't make much sense.

As an example, let's say that you would live for 5 more years if you didn't draw a ticket. Your winrate is $60/hr (the exact amount doesn't matter, I'm just making an example). It probably takes two minutes to choose a ticket, which means theoretically you would take this bet if the payoff was $3.

So, 99% of the time, you make an extra $3 over the course of your life. The other 1%, you lose all the income you would have made for the rest of your life, which if that amount is more than $2.97 makes this a -EV gamble even from a pure monetary standpoint.

Re: How much do you value your life?
 

I was assuming it would be an instant death; if it would be, and when you die you cease to be concious instantly, then it would make no difference, as you'd only be aware when you win. This is all assuming you are a "hardcore" atheist with no doubts about it.

Re: How much do you value your life?
 

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I was assuming it would be an instant death; if it would be, and when you die you cease to be concious instantly, then it would make no difference, as you'd only be aware when you win. This is all assuming you are a "hardcore" atheist with no doubts about it.

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I disagree with that completely. I am a "hardcore" atheist and have been for over a decade. It's my view that since this is the only life I have then I'd like to live as much of it as possible.

That said I don't think I'd take the ticket for any amount. I already have more money then I'll ever need and I can't see risking death just for a few million more.

Re: How much do you value your life?
 

$2 a ticket.