The U.S. government has devalued an individual life by nearly $1 million.
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The EPA’s estimated “value” of a human life is used when drawing up environmental regulations. The value of an individual life is equal to the cost of the life-saving benefits of a new regulation. In other words, the less life is valued in financial terms the less need for the regulation.
Environmentalists are accusing the Bush Administration of trying to get out of stricter regulations. S. William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, which represents state and local air pollution regulators, said: “It appears that they are cooking the books in regards to the value of life. Those decisions are literally a matter of life and death.”
To figure out the “value” of a human life, EPA economists use payroll figures, how much employers pay their workers to take on additional risks at work, and how much people are willing to pay to avoid certain risks at work.
It is no secret that, as a result of pollution, global warming has become a threat to the planet. Ice is almost non-existent at the North Pole this summer. The permafrost may start melting three times faster than usual. And the ozone continues to deplete.
The EPA decision will lead to less regulation and more pollution.
A recent National Research Council report dealt explicitly with the EPA’s mission of protecting human health from environmental pollution. The report challenged the EPA’s devaluation, suggesting that the increased health risks associated with ozone depletion may mean the EPA had undervalued the benefit of reducing pollution.
The EPA calculation is just another in a long list of capitalist crimes. Money could easily be allocated to provide much greater environmental protections. Lives can be saved. But under capitalism profits come before people.
One minute of the Iraq war costs $10.5 million. That is more than the EPA’s value for saving one life. Over $535 billion have been spent on the illegal occupation of Iraq. The U.S. government is responsible for the deaths of over 1 million Iraqis.
By contrast, in socialist Cuba people’s lives and well-being are top priorities. Cuba, a small island country with scarce resources always manages to evacuate people under threat from hurricanes. Very few deaths occur as a result of natural disasters. In the U.S., the wealthiest country in the world, 1,500 people died due to criminal neglect during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. To this day, thousands of displaced persons are left to fend for themselves.
Unless the people intervene, life-saving environmental regulations and protections will continue to come under attack.
