Comments on: What is a life worth?

Question: What is a life worth?

googly — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 10:38:46 -0800

Some years back, I recall hearing an interview with someone regarding the relative value of the awards given out to survivors in wrongful death suits. Might have been on "This American Life." Help me find it...

I don't remember who the interview was with - perhaps an academic or a lawyer. The jist of the interview was that the determination of the "value" of a person's life depends on how much their present and future earnings might be, what sort of a family life they had, and so forth.

I'm fairly certain it was on TAL, but might have been elsewhere. Googling hasn't helped, nor has combing through the TAL archives. Bonus points for locating an audio file.

Also, any additional info on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

By: Alison

Alison — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 10:43:08 -0800

Yup. It's this one.

By: Alison

Alison — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 10:43:44 -0800

From the description: "How to Increase Your Value as a Person. In which we tackle the biggest possible how-to we could think of: how to make your life worth more. And we get answers. Real, practical answers. From the people whose job it is to think about this issue: insurance adjusters. Adam Davidson reports. (10 minutes)"

By: googly

googly — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 10:46:49 -0800

Holy Moly thats the one. How did I miss that?

Thanks Alison!

By: TimTypeZed

TimTypeZed — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 11:26:20 -0800

Also see this. I remembered reading the article - looks like it was written by the same guy who did the This American Life story.

By: lowlife

lowlife — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 11:31:30 -0800

googly, there was a great TV documentary about the Kenneth Feinberg, the special master of the Victim Compensation Fund created after 9/11. He also wrote a book about it.

My google-fu isn't helping me find the show though. Maybe it was a 60 Minutes segment (search for 'feinberg').

By: googly

googly — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:10:00 -0800

Thanks for the article link, Tiny. Looks great.

lowlife, it was actually the Kenneth Fineberg book (which I just bought) that got me thinking about the TAL story. I'll look for the TV program....

By: googly

googly — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:18:10 -0800

..er, make that Tim, not Tiny.