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US DOT maintains a valuation of a statistical life specifically as a metric for this reason. (https://www.transportation.gov/office-policy/transportation-policy
by hellotomyrars 3y ago
US DOT maintains a valuation of a statistical life specifically as a metric for this reason. (https://www.transportation.gov/office-policy/transportation-policy/revised-departmental-guidance-on-valuation-of-a-statistical-life-in-economic-analysis https://www.transportation.gov/office-policy/transportation-...)
For 2012 it was 9.1 million. So 8 people doesn't quite get us to 100 million, but it isn't far off.
Also PG&E absolutely doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt on their safety culture.
- epistasis 3y agoCars are one of the main causes of death in the US, and we just accept it. So perhaps DOT can get away with it. But we do not accept this tradeoff in, say, approval of medical devices or drugs. I doubt Boeing is happy with the tradeoff of counting lives in millions of dollars right now.
- roenxi 3y ago> But we do not accept this tradeoff in, say, approval of medical devices or drugs. It is applied in hospital care though, they have the same problem that they also have to cap spending somewhere. A bunch of people could technically survive but die because they can't afford care. Since care is rationed by more direct economics than design that means it would be capping out at figures far lower than 10 million/person in practice. > I doubt Boeing is happy with the tradeoff of counting lives in millions of dollars right now. The public reaction to Boeing is a bit hypocritical though, because of the road transport example. No-one would bat an eye at a delivery driver on a motorcycle but that seems to be a comparable level of risk to these Boeing planes. Consistent standards should be applied between different modes of transport.
- DANmode 3y agoWhen the wheel falls off of the motorbike, it has pretty limited crash damage compared to a plane.