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Washington: It is not just the US dollar that is losing value. A government agency has decided that an American life is not worth what it used to be.
The "value of a statistical life" is $6.9 million (Dh25.3 million), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reckoned in May - a drop of almost $1 million (Dh3.67 million) from just five years ago.
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, 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 regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution.
A hypothetical regulation, for example, that costs $18 billion (Dh66 million) to enforce will prevent 2,500 deaths. At $7.8 million (Dh28.6 million) per person (the old figure), the lifesaving benefits outweigh the costs. But at $6.9 million per person, the rule costs more than the lives it saves, so it may not be adopted.
Activists say the administration changes the value to avoid tougher rules, which the EPA denies.
"It appears that they're cooking the books in regards to the value of life," said S. William Becker, head of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, which represents state and local air pollution regulators. "Those decisions are literally a matter of life and death."
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