How much were our lives worth to the US Government in 2017?

First, this post does not imply that life should be measured in USD value. This post is merely to show that there is data out there which can be analyzed to provide insight in how governments may value our lives. This is an example of OSI (Open Source Intelligence), where you take publicly available information, analyze it, and from it gain insights. The key measure that governments and private entities use is called VSL (value of statistical life).

The big question, what is the value of a human life to the US Government?

By Original: Planemad Vector: Radio89 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Different agencies have different numbers which they internally use to represent how much our lives are worth to them. This in my opinion provides useful insight because it can inform us as to how much we are worth to different agencies and even help us determine which agencies are more valuable to us. If an agency for example values your life a lot vs another agency which doesn't value your life very much then which agency would you prefer to be funded going into the future?

Now for some interesting yet good news, the EPA actually values our lives a lot. The EPA puts the value of a human life at around $10 million USD as of 2016. This compared to the value of our lives by the private sector such as insurance companies and we learn something. We learn that the US government actually values our lives more than most entities. There are other agencies which also value human life in the millions of dollars such as the FDA which values human lives at around $9.5 million USD as of 2017. Most important from this data is that to these particular agencies we see a rising trend showing our lives are worth more from year to year, which means the USD value representing the life of an average human is going up in these agencies.

Different Administration means different interpretation of the math

Last week, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt began the process of repealing the Clean Power Plan, a regulation that placed limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. He disputed, in part, $55 billion to $93 billion in estimated health and live-saving benefits the agency had calculated under Obama as justification for the rule. And when the Trump administration ran its own math, it said the regulation would cost as much as $33 billion, compared to $8 billion calculated under the Obama administration.

Under Obama the interpretation of the VSL (value of statistical life) was interpreted different than it is now being interpreted under Trump. The VSL really matters when determining policy so having a value representing human life can help inform policy makers, but if that value is too low or too high? Can it be too high?

Using a $9.6 million value of statistical life, the estimated benefits of a proposed seat belt reminder system outweigh the $324.6 million high-end costs that would be imposed on car manufacturers.

The good news, the VSL is high in certain US agencies relative to the private sector

We have some good news from this data which shows that at least some agencies have a mathematical basis to make sure their policies protect our lives. We cannot assume any agency has emotions but when the math points to or directs toward a certain behavior pattern then this can have a similar effect. Can we say the EPA "cares" about us more than some other agency which has a much lower VSL? I would not use the word care but what I would do is create a model using mathematics to calculate based on the VSL of an agency or entity, a score showing how much that entity has incentive to promote the kind of efficiency which protects our lives.

Should decentralized institutions rely on a concept like VSL?
Is VSL good enough or should we view life as priceless?
Is it possible to take VSL and plug it into a formula or model to get even greater insight into how different agencies may treat us in the future?
Does VSL get influenced by who we are, and what we have done? Such as do criminals or people with higher reputations maintain higher VSL on some unofficial ledger?

We know there is a trend toward governments (and blockchains) keeping score. When China does it, it is called social credit, and is done in a top down manner. When the US does it, if the US is doing it, then it is done in a less public or perhaps even classified manner. We simply may not know our classified scores but cannot rule out that there is one. On the blockchain we have reputation scores (even on Steemit), but we do not know how this influences credit score, or VSL, or any other scores, so in a more transparent world all data being open for analysis would include seeing the possibly hidden VSL scores which institutions may maintain.

A comparison of the VSL scores between different national governments (or blockchain based governance) would provide valuable insight into how these different entities may treat it's people. We can see for example that the US has higher values than some other countries, and then only in certain agencies.

The income elasticity of the value of statistical life has been estimated at 0.5 to 0.6.[4] Developing markets have smaller statistical value of life.[4] The statistical value of life also decreases with age.[4]

Of course this is flawed because the values are measured in USD and the collection of these estimates are not sufficiently coordinated but this provides at least a window and hint. We can take this window and hint to expand on it using blockchain technology to track data such as this and thoroughly analyze it. The blockchain and potentially EOS will be able to apply transparency to improve OSI in these areas. The critical question many citizens need to know is what do different governments and institutions think of them and what how are they valued? The basic question of how we are valued is partially answerable by the VSL, but we do not know how the influence of reputation, of the media, of emotion, can influence the statistics.

References

Viscusi, W. K., & Aldy, J. E. (2003). The value of a statistical life: a critical review of market estimates throughout the world. Journal of risk and uncertainty, 27(1), 5-76.

Viscusi, W. K. (2008). How to value a life. Journal of economics and finance, 32(4), 311-323.