I see the argument about the US Governmentâs statistical value of a life used a lotâand Iâm not sure if I agree. I donât think it echoes public sentimentârather a governmentâs desire to remove itself of blame. Note how much more is spent per life on say, air transport than disease prevention.
Yeah Iâve always been a bit sceptical of this as well. Surely itâs just a yardstick that a department uses to decide between which investments it should make, rather than a considered (or even descriptive) âvalue of a lifeâ for the US Government. Descriptivelyâthe US government would spend far more for a few lives if those lives were hostages of a foreign adversary, and probably has far less willingness to pay for cheap ways the US govt could save lives (idk what these are, probably there are examples in public health). BasicallyâI donât think itâs a number that can be meaningfully extrapolated to figure out the value of avoiding extinction or catastrophe, because the number was designed with far smaller trade-offs in mind, and doesnât really make sense outside of its intended purpose.
I see the argument about the US Governmentâs statistical value of a life used a lotâand Iâm not sure if I agree. I donât think it echoes public sentimentârather a governmentâs desire to remove itself of blame. Note how much more is spent per life on say, air transport than disease prevention.
Yeah Iâve always been a bit sceptical of this as well. Surely itâs just a yardstick that a department uses to decide between which investments it should make, rather than a considered (or even descriptive) âvalue of a lifeâ for the US Government.
Descriptivelyâthe US government would spend far more for a few lives if those lives were hostages of a foreign adversary, and probably has far less willingness to pay for cheap ways the US govt could save lives (idk what these are, probably there are examples in public health).
BasicallyâI donât think itâs a number that can be meaningfully extrapolated to figure out the value of avoiding extinction or catastrophe, because the number was designed with far smaller trade-offs in mind, and doesnât really make sense outside of its intended purpose.