A dollar sign is placed beside everything else in this world on statistical terms so would it surprise you to find out that there is also one determining the monetary value of a human life? Would it disturb you to find out that this value has dropped $1 million over the past 5 years at the discretion of the EPA? How does this effect you?
Well, say there is a project that costs x amount of money. This project will save or improve y amount of human lives. Y multiplied by the cost of each individual life would have to be more than the project cost, x, or there would be no economic reason to implement the project.
This is where the devaluing of human life is an issue. When looked at in monetary terms, we’re simply not as important and many things that may have once been implemented to save/benefit human lives, may not come into existence in the future due to our decreased value.
http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/how_much_are_you_worth.php
Thoughts