Or to George W. Bush, for that matter?
The answer determines how much spending the government should require to prevent a single death.
To protests from business and praise from unions, environmentalists and consumer groups, one agency after another has ratcheted up the price of life, justifying tougher — and more costly — standards.
The Environmental Protection Agencyset the value of a life at $9.1 million last year in proposing tighter restrictions on air pollution. The agency used numbers as low as $6.8 million during the George W. Bush administration. ...NYT
Different government agencies apply different values to your life and the business community doesn't like any of them.
The trend is a sensitive subject for an administration that is trying to improve its relationship with the business community, much of which has bitterly opposed the expansion of regulation. The White House said the decisions on the value of life were made by the agencies. The agencies, for their part, referred any questions to the White House.
Businesses just want to pin the government down. Now the US Chamber of Commerce is getting involved.
The business community historically has pushed for regulators to put a dollar value on life, part of a broader campaign to make agencies prove that the benefits of proposed regulations exceed the costs.
But some business groups are reconsidering the effectiveness of cost-benefit analysis as a check on regulations. The United States Chamber of Commerce is now campaigning for Congress to assert greater control over the rule-making process, reflecting a judgment that formulas may offer less reliable protection than politicians.
The number, whatever it is, determines in effect the liability of the business when its product or service goes wrong. But it also plays a big role in shaping government policies.
“The reality is that politics frequently trumps economics,” said Robert Hahn, a leading scholar of the American regulatory process who is now a professor at the University of Manchester in England. But he said that putting a price tag on life still was worthwhile, to help politicians choose among priorities and to shape the details of their proposals.
“Even small changes,” he said, “can save billions of dollars.”
Let's not forget our experiences with commercial banks and other large corporations over just the past several years. When a man kills, he risks the death penalty. When a corporation kills or ruins lives, government rushes in to save and compensate it. CEO's don't get strapped to gurneys in lethal injection chambers.
In that sense, the value of human life in America isn't really $6 million or $9 million. In fact, it's pretty negligible compared to actual dollars we're willing to spend to maintain the advantages and well-being of the corporation.
