The Value of Human Life

The general consensus exists that human life is priceless. This principle has guided human action in all matters of life, and made murder so abominable worldwide, or so I had thought. The EPA has provided us with a statistic: a human life is worth around $6.9 million of today’s dollars. This “value of a statistical life” is about $0.9 million less than the previous, five year old estimate.

The number sounds big, but when one takes inflation into account it’s really not that much. Mega-corporations deal in millions of US dollars every day, as does the US government, and economists do categorize labor as a form of capital, so this number could be simplified as an equation of how much profit an average worker contributes, combined with how much is invested in education, training, salary, etc. But it’s not that simple.

At first the number struck me as offensive. I know that I, my friend, my family, everyone I know is worth more than this. But after I looked behind the headline declaring the EPA had told me what my life was worth, I developed an understanding of why this statistic came about, although I don’t feel much better.

For eons humans have engaged in risk analysis as they go about their daily lives. Individually, this can be a matter of deciding what to eat, or to smoke or not, or if its worth j-walking to get to the store thirty seconds faster. In economic terms, it’s a cost/benefit analysis. When this endeavor is undergone by large bodies where the consequences of their actions impact large numbers of people the complications increase exponentially.

In this sense, the government is not attempting to ascribe a monetary value to the moral value of human life, rather they are attempting to identify how much society is willing to pay to assume risk. This judgment obviously has moral implications, and there are those accusing the Bush administration of devaluing this statistic for their own gain.

What is most disconcerting about this then becomes how people value each other. Has the capitalist system expanded beyond economics and politics and into our very consciousness of how all of life should be valued? Well, yes.

Not only, to be cliché, is the personal political, but how a society organizes itself is a direct reflection of its moral values. I’m not saying it’s right or justified, but it is a tool. Here’s an example, taken from an AP article by Seth Borenstein:

…a hypothetical regulation that costs $18 billion to enforce but will prevent 2,500 deaths. At $7.8 million per person (the old figure), the lifesaving benefits outweigh the costs. But at $6.9 million per person, the rule costs more than the lives it saves, so it may not be adopted.

This example also illustrates how the small number can be interpreted as a manipulative technique to curb government spending. Interestingly, different groups within the government are able to calculate their own figures. Such inconsistency certainly leaves the door open to those who wish to choose the number that best suits their purposes, or distance yourself from a group that uses another number, or— you get the idea.

Ultimately, the motive behind the change is little more than speculation, as only adjustments for inflation can be accurately verified.

And to further complicate things, I leave you with this quote from the aforementioned article:

[The] EPA took portions of each [of two studies] and essentially split the difference — a decision two of the agency's advisory boards faulted or questioned.

Really now? (See, I told you I was priceless.)