By Geoff Carter
Artwork by Michael DiMilo
How much is a human life worth? Depending on your sources, you might hear numbers ranging from ninety dollars to nine million to absolutely priceless. That’s quite a range. Ask a parent what their child’s life is worth, and they’ll say priceless. Ask Donald Trump, and he’ll say it depends.
So, what do those price tags on our backs read, and more importantly how—and by whom—are those numbers being determined? According to the article “5 Ways of Valuing a Human Being” on the website Big Think, the worth of a human life can be measured by metrics including statistical estimates, the caps put on certain procedures by health care providers, and to current market prices in the modern-day slave market.
Institutions use the concept of Value of Statistical Life, or VSL, to put a statistical value on a life. And, in many instances, government agencies use the VSL when determining EPA and public safety policy. As Think Big states, “In essence, the value of a statistical life is a way of… measuring how much people are willing to pay for small reductions in their risk of mortality.” Or, more succinctly, “the economic value used to quantify the benefit of avoiding a fatality.” In other words, VSL measures how cost-effective it is to keep a person alive.
According to Bloomberg, the average VSL is about nine million dollars. Apparently, people are willing to spend big money on safety devices like car seats or vaccinations in order to stay alive.
Before the advent of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, when lifetime insurance caps were outlawed, insurance companies valued a human life at $129,000. That, according to a 2008 Time magazine article, was “the international standard used to determine whether to cover a new medical procedure.” Of course, these figures are from ten years ago, and Obamacare has now erased lifetime caps, but there is little doubt, at least in my mind, that most EPOs would revert to these practices if given the chance. Our intrinsic value probably hasn’t gone up too much in their eyes.
In 1864, the going price for a slave in the American South was about $1000—in today’s money. Today, the going price for a slave—a victim of human trafficking—is about $90. Apparently, slaves in the antebellum South were considered long-term investments; today, victims of human trafficking are often killed or abandoned when they become ill or injured, so the price is much more reasonable. We do live in a throw-away society.
Of course, finally, governments don’t hesitate to send their young people off to be killed in battle for wars that are, in many instances, are economically driven. What were the lives of the soldiers lost in Afghanistan or Iraq worth? Could we measure them against what was gained? I suppose Dick Cheney might have an answer.
Now there is a new metric to calculate the value of a human life. For the second time in a decade, the world is in the grip of a life-altering pandemic. In 2009, per the CDC, the H1N1 swine flu pandemic infected nearly 1.4 billion people across the globe, killing between 151,700 and 575,400. In the United States, the swine flu infected 60.8 million and killed 12,500, a death rate of about .02%.
The coronavirus of 2020, on the other hand, looks to be much more deadly. It has so far infected 600,000 persons worldwide, causing nearly 30,000 fatalities, a death rate of 2%, nearly ten times that of the H1N1 swine flu. If the coronavirus follows the same trajectory as the H1N1 swine flu, we might expect anywhere from between 1.5 and 5.0 million casualties—approximately 1.2 million Americans. This is without taking into account the fact this new contagion is exhibiting an infection rate double that of the 2009 swine flu. If these metrics hold true, the death rate will probably be even more devastating.
Hospitals and health care facilities world-wide are struggling to control this blight. Clinics in Italy, and now New York City, are being overwhelmed. Doctors and nurses don’t have enough respirators or ventilators, let alone masks and gloves, and as a result, because of this lack of foresight, people are dying.
The only control that seems to be working is imposing extreme stay-at-home quarantine rules, which other countries have already effectively utilized. In Singapore, the virus was almost completely contained because of early quarantine. After building quarantine centers, the rate of infection has slowed to a crawl in China. Quarantine works. Keeping the greater population in their homes works.
Life, however, because of the quarantines, has slowed to a crawl. Schools are closed, businesses are shuttered, and the world economy has ground to a near halt. The Dow Jones and other world economic indeces have plummeted to the point where experts are worried about the possibility of a global recession—or worse. And some business leaders are worried.
President Trump, amidst his confusing, contradictory, and idiotic posturing during his crisis, has recently suggested that we “can all get back to normal by Easter.”
Sorry, Donald. Viruses can’t tell time. Experts—experts, not reckless fools who speak without thinking—reckon that the pandemic might persist until midsummer or possibly later. But Trump and some other business leaders maintain that the importance of maintaining economic stability. The truth is that they don’t look at this crisis as a health crisis, but as a political crisis. And of course, their politics are wound up in their purse strings.
And they’re not shy about putting American lives at risk. Dick Kovacevich, former CEO at Wells Fargo, stated, “We’ll gradually bring those people back and see what happens. Some of them will get sick, some may even die, I don’t know… Do you want to suffer more economically or take some risk that you’ll get flu-like symptoms and a flu-like experience? Do you want to take an economic risk or a health risk? You get to choose.”
How much money do you stand to lose, Dick? One hundred million dollars? If you divide that by the 1.2 million people who will probably die, that averages out to how much? About $100 a person. Is that how much our lives are worth to you?
And you’re wrong. Unfortunately, Dick, we don’t get to choose. Your average American has to work to stay alive. If you and your ilk desire to have your workers return before the coronavirus is contained, you will have chosen to put their lives at risk because they will have to come to work; it won’t be a choice for them—they’ll come. You will have chosen to translate a human being into dollars and cents before entering her into your account books. You will have ignored the priceless quantity that is a human soul.
But perhaps I shouldn’t be so harsh. In order to appreciate the value of a human soul, I suppose it’s necessary to have one.