If you haven’t seen the movie In Time (2011) before, I would highly recommend it. What I really loved is their literal interpretation of how time is money and is a form of currency in this alternate world. So, to quickly summarize the movie, everything is paid by and for in time. You work to gain hours and minutes and you pay for things in hours and minutes.
I always love figuring out the math and economics behind these movies just to make sense of it all. When Will is gifted 116 years, exactly how much is that worth in the real world? When his mom can’t afford the bus, how much is that worth?
Although we’ll never know those exact numbers, there are tons of clues as to how much time is really worth to real life.
Background
So for a quick background if you haven’t seen the movie before, after the age of 25, everyone gets 1 free year (or 525,600 minutes) and the clock starts counting down from there. You stop aging at 25 but once you run out of time, you “time out” or die. Everything is paid for in time. A cup of coffee is 4 minutes and a bus ride is 30.
Right when Will turned 25, his clock started counting down. The format in the arm is YYYY-WW-DD-HH-MM-SS.
How much is time worth in money?
So how much is time really worth? I created a simple table showing some of the time currencies that were used. Based on that, I believe that a minute worth $0.05 is the most reasonable amount.
Location | Cost | Time | Item | In $ Amounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dayton | 1 | Minutes | Girl begging | $0.05 |
| Dayton | 1.65 | Minutes | 99 Second Shop | $0.08 |
| Dayton | 4 | Minutes | Cup of Coffee | $0.20 |
| Dayton | 30 | Minutes | Lunch from Mom | $1.50 |
| Dayton | 60 | Minutes | 6 Pack of Beer | $3.00 |
| Unknown | 120 | Minutes | Bus ride to Dayton | $6.00 |
| Dayton | 360 | Minutes | Will's shift (net) | $18.00 |
| Dayton | 2880 | Minutes | Desperately pawns her jewerly | $144.00 |
| Dayton | 60969600 | Minutes | 116 Year Gift from Henry Hamilton | $3,048,480.00 |
| Dayton | 5256000 | Minutes | 10 Year Gift from Will to Borel | $262,800.00 |
| All | 525600 | Minutes | Everyone get's 1 year after 25 | $26,280.00 |
| All | 525600 | Minutes | Cross Time Zone | $26,280.00 |
| New Greenwich | 86400 | Minutes | Standard night hotel room | $4,320.00 |
| New Greenwich | 95760 | Minutes | Fancy breakfast | $4,788.00 |
| New Greenwich | 525600 | Minutes | Non-Member Casino Fee | $26,280.00 |
| New Greenwich | 31010400 | Minutes | Fancy car | $1,550,520.00 |
| New Greenwich | 131400000 | Minutes | After moderate gambling at casino | $6,570,000.00 |
| New Greenwich | 578160000 | Minutes | After winning big at the casino | $28,908,000.00 |
Dayton Girl asking for time: 1 Minute or $0.05
A young Dayton girl asks for a minute ($0.05) and Will generously gives her 5 ($0.25).
6-Pack of Beer: $3 & 99-Second Shop: $0.08
A 6-Pack of Brevit beer costs an expensive $3! Perhaps tax on alcohol is horrendously large. However, right beside it, the 99-second shop (which is equal to $0.08) is alot more reasonably priced.
Coffee Menu
Coffee: $0.20
Coffee Plus: $0.30
Coffee X: $0.40
Black Tea: $0.19
Energy 16 oz: $0.32
Energy 21 oz: $0.45
Again, those are pretty reasonable prices especially when a six pack is $3!
Will’s Workshift: 6 Hours (net) or $18
The top picture shows his clock right after his mom gives him 30 minutes for a nice lunch. The bottom picture is his clock after he claims his time and didn’t meet this week’s quota. I am assuming an additional hour which is spend on lunch, coffee, perhaps other minor things. He basically earned $18 for his shift, which is very low. However, it is reasonable considering Dayton is supposed to be today’s real world ghetto. Had he met the quota, there would probably be a slight bonus to put him over $20.
Bus Ride to Dayton: 2 Hours or $6
This does seem like an expensive bus ride given all the prices so far. However, Rachel Salas did mention that it would have been a 2 hour walk. That distance is roughly 10 KM or over 6 miles. It is reasonable if she had to cross time zones. The only thing I’m at gripes with is that she actually had to travel to pay off her debt. Perhaps it was an under-the-table loan to loan sharks or gangs?
Henry Hamilton: 116 Years or $3 million
Now this guy is absolutely loaded in Dayton! People there were barely getting by working for $20 and he comes strolling around with $3 million outside his pocket’s, literally! To put that into perspective, if your family was earning $100,000/year, a real life Henry Hamilton would be worth nearly $60 million dollars! Imagine if you were hanging with your buddy at the bar and a guy with $60 million strolls in! I could definitely understand the envy Borel had.
Gift to good friend: 10 Years or $262,000
As you can see, Will is a very generous man. Without hesitation, he gives his good friend $262,000 from his good fortunes.
Time Zone to New Greenwich: 1 Year or $26,000
No wonder it is near impossible for an average Dayton resident to cross borders! People barely earn $20 a day and they are asked for fork over $26,000 cross zones!
Hotel Room: 2 Months or $4,300
Immediately, you see how inflated prices are in New Greenwich. $4,300 for a standard room for a night in a nice hotel. Still, it is possible he is paying full door price in a almost booked out night.
Breakfast: 9.5 Weeks or $4,800
Of the whole movie, this is the only issue I have. When a hotel costs $4,300 and morning breakfast ran him almost 5 grand? Again, it does show 2 Champagne glasses…perhaps he order 2 rounds of Ace of Spades?
Casino Entrance Fee: 1 Year or $26,000
Again, this casino is definitely not for your average person when an entrance fee runs you over $26 grand! It is probably the equivalent of an ultra high roller casino somewhere in Macao.
Luxury Car: 59 Years or $1,500,000
This car is equivalent in price to a Bugatti Veyron…
Casino Networth: 250 Years or $6,570,000
After some sessions of poker, presumably, he manages to convert his $3 million to a hefty sum of $6.5 million.
Casino Big Payout: 1100 Years or $28,900,000
Now this is what you’ve all been looking for. At the casino he risks his entire stake (including his life) against Philippe. In the end, he beats him with a straight and wins 1100 Years. That amounts to almost $30 million! Now we are talking about money!
Conclusion
All in all, it was a very enjoyable movie. Most of the prices made sense with the exception of that ultra luxury breakfast…The price analysis definitely did put things into better perspective.
Again, if you haven’t seen the movie, I would definitely recommend it!
One thing you could do with this currency system is to work as hard as you can for some years and spend as little time as possible.
You will have an extreme amount of time with you, after that you go to some jungle and live there for the rest of your life.
Life on a jungle sucks and is hard, but there is another thing that sucks alot and its called dying.
And, in the movie, “time” with a street walker, is “one hour for 15 mins” LOL. But at least it means their age never fades…
Great point lol! I totally forgot about that!
The movie impressed me, a bit like Bladerunner, they showed how people would get desperate – “wrestle” for money, steal money, rip people off, especially at corporate level.
Just like we have millionaires etc, this movie would have people with (drumroll) too much time on their hands LOL.