Talk:Value of life/Archives/2020

Cheapest Life

It seems to me that it would be best to give bounds on this by having the most expensive life saved as a lower bound (which seems to be several million dollars, based on the examples sited), and the cheapest life not saved as a lower bound (The Against Malaria Foundation saves lives for $2,000 each, and there are people failing to donate). That puts the lower bound above the upper bound. Make of that what you will. — DanielLC 23:39, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

The phrase "save a life" is used incorrectly, after the meaning of the statistical value of life is explained. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:558:600A:62:591D:67C8:C3CB:E998 (talk) 23:31, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

This page is a mess. The Value of Statistical Life (VSL) is a specific concept in economics. Conflating it with court and insurance methods of determining the value of a life lost by discounted future earnings is incorrect. These are two completely different concepts with different applications. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:985:3:B5A0:5931:444A:D098:A9E8 (talk) 21:03, 4 December 2017 (UTC) I would just like to explain this comment. In industrial safety calculations we just use a fixed value. In insurance and legal settings you may consider the lost earnings potential so I agree with the commentator that these are two different things. However as the fixed value I was using in industry of £1 million also corresponds approximately with a lifetimes average earning potential maybe the underlying thinking is similar. It may also be of interest that the international oil & gas and nuclear industries use a fixed value throughout the world and do not reduce the value of life for poorer countries.

If it was me I would delete the sentence "In industrial nations, the justice system considers a human life "priceless", thus illegalizing any form of slavery; i.e., humans cannot be bought at any price". The political aspect of slavery really has no place in the calculations that people do. Quite simply its off topic. Still its not damaging, just irrelevant. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.192.138.191 (talk) 22:01, 11 July 2020 (UTC) As someone who has been doing As Low As Reasonably Practical calculations in the UK Nuclear & Oil & Gas industries for thirty years I don't agree that the page is a mess. It reflects what people actually do when making decisions about allocating resources to safety.