New Book on The Value of a Life from Carneades
Ever wondered what a life is worth? Economists have. But the answer is drastically different depending on where a person lives. The life of an American is valued at anywhere between $7 million and $10 million, but the life of a Liberian is worth only around $65,000. This means that, according to economists, it is more beneficial to the world to save the life of one American than to save the lives of 100 Liberians. Explore how much your life is worth here.
This paradox and more are the subject of the new book on the philosophy of economics from YouTube philosopher Carneades.org: Are All Lives Equal? Why Cost-Benefit Analysis Values Rich Lives More and How Philosophy Can Fix it. The book explores the economic reasoning that leads to this unsettling conclusion, investigates several previous failed responses from philosophers and economists, and offers a new solution that would make economic cost-benefit analysis both more just and more accurate.
It may seem strange to put a price tag on saving someone’s life but economists do so to understand the impact of policies that reduce the risk of death, like seatbelt laws or public health campaigns. This helps governments understand how much they should be willing to spend on these campaigns using the tool of “cost-benefit analysis”. When economists speak of saving “a statistical life” they aren’t really talking about a specific life, they mean that a policy will reduce the risk of death enough to save on average one person’s life to value the benefit gained from reducing the risk of death in a community. This tool can help ensure policymaking is data-driven, objective, and accountable to the tax-payer.
Philosophers are rightly worried about such ideas, since a common moral maxim is that all lives are equal. Moral philosophers argue that it is strange to ask to see how much money someone has in their wallet before you decide to save them from drowning. This becomes particularly problematic in the context of international development where policymakers are truly deciding between saving one rich life and saving the lives of many poor people.
The book threads the needle between these two acrimonious disciplines, appreciating that cost-benefit analysis is an important tool that should not be discarded, while acknowledging that any tool that values one wealthy life as equal to hundreds of poor lives life needs to be recalibrated. The book is available from Amazon for $29.99.
Carneades is a philosopher and international development practitioner with over a decade of experience in international development and public policy working with the Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and multiple U.S. Government development agencies. Carneades is also a YouTube Philosopher with a catalog of over 1,000 educational philosophy videos, 100,000 subscribers and 10,000,000 views.
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