Actually, it's a bit more involved than that... The gain is a one time amount Wages are recurring income. So when wages fall by 50% you need to value an annui

Actually, it's a bit more involved than that... The gain is a one time amount Wages are recurring income. So when wages fall by 50% you need to value an annuity with half the cashflows as before. The PV of your wage income stream over some time horizon can then be compared with the one time gain. Otherwise you are comparing a stock concept (wealth) with a flow concept (income)