Saturday, July 12, 2008

I'm Getting Cheaper but I Still Have My Pride

I had to struggle to get of bed this morning after finding out my value as a human being was down a million bucks since Shrub showed on the scene.
It is just plain hard getting excited about the future when you see your valued going down, down, down. Calling me worthless is going to take on a whole new meaning.
The "value of a statistical life" is $6.9 million in today's dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May — a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago.

The Associated Press discovered the change after a review of cost-benefit analyses over more than a dozen years.

Though it may seem like a harmless bureaucratic recalculation, the devaluation has real consequences.

When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule. The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution.

No comments: