Paradoxically, a refusal to "put a monetary value on life" means that life is often undervalued. Ross Shachter relates an experience with a government agency th

Paradoxically, a refusal to "put a monetary value on life" means that life is often undervalued. Ross Shachter relates an experience with a government agency that commissioned a study on removing asbestos from schools. The decision analysts performing the study assumed a particular dollar value for the life of a school-age child, and argued that the rational choice under that assumption was to remove the asbestos. The agency, morally outraged at the idea of setting the value of a life, rejected the report out of hand. It then decided against asbestos removal — implicitly asserting a lower value for the life of a child than that assigned by the analysts. -- Russell and Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 4th US ed. Removing schemes like cap and trade or Pigouvian carbon taxes because money is involved is a great way to end up doing nothing about carbon emissions.