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Value of a Statistical Life "VISCUSI: If you multiply the 1 million lives saved [Trump], and if the lives are worth $10 million each [OHSA], the result is $10

Value of a Statistical Life "VISCUSI: If you multiply the 1 million lives saved [Trump], and if the lives are worth $10 million each [OHSA], the result is $10 trillion. … Ten trillion dollars is half of the U.S. GDP, which means that in order to justify completely opening businesses back up, the economy would need to lose half of its value." [1] https://www.npr.org/transcripts/835571843 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/835571843

marcinzm 6y ago
To be pedantic, Covid is far more fatal to the elderly whose statistical "worth" is significantly less.
- pinkfoot 6y ago
  Er no, as TFA mentions, when the USG they tried that American protested with signs saying "Granny for sale". Sufficiently that the USG dropped the 'pensioner discount'. You'd have to argue why its suddenly OK now. You can also argue to discount children - where I live, we make them by the dozen. It is less applicable to COVID-19 through. But VSL the correct framework because its based on the premium the average American at large puts on jobs to compensate for the risk of injury or death. What could be more democratic? But $10T is such a large envelope that even if you added the granny discount, you would still come out at an enormous fraction of USA and hence world GDP.
deleted 6y ago
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pacala 6y ago
The 'economy' is not some abstract entity. It is us, the people, going about our business every day. A hard lockdown is destroying all of the economy. No accounting tricks can mask that. We should not play accounting tricks to begin with. If we want to stoop at the article's level, note that the numbers are flawed, as they don't account for age distribution of the risk. https://twitter.com/AndyBiotech/status/1241741127205572609/photo/1 https://twitter.com/AndyBiotech/status/1241741127205572609/p...
- pinkfoot 6y ago
  Addressed in the article. But feel free to add the 38% USG pensioner discount (or 100% if you care). You'll still come out at a very, very large number.

marcinzm 6y ago

To be pedantic, Covid is far more fatal to the elderly whose statistical "worth" is significantly less.

pinkfoot 6y ago
Er no, as TFA mentions, when the USG they tried that American protested with signs saying "Granny for sale". Sufficiently that the USG dropped the 'pensioner discount'. You'd have to argue why its suddenly OK now. You can also argue to discount children - where I live, we make them by the dozen. It is less applicable to COVID-19 through. But VSL the correct framework because its based on the premium the average American at large puts on jobs to compensate for the risk of injury or death. What could be more democratic? But $10T is such a large envelope that even if you added the granny discount, you would still come out at an enormous fraction of USA and hence world GDP.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

pacala 6y ago

The 'economy' is not some abstract entity. It is us, the people, going about our business every day. A hard lockdown is destroying all of the economy. No accounting tricks can mask that. We should not play accounting tricks to begin with. If we want to stoop at the article's level, note that the numbers are flawed, as they don't account for age distribution of the risk. https://twitter.com/AndyBiotech/status/1241741127205572609/photo/1 https://twitter.com/AndyBiotech/status/1241741127205572609/p...

pinkfoot 6y ago
Addressed in the article. But feel free to add the 38% USG pensioner discount (or 100% if you care). You'll still come out at a very, very large number.