Ultimate Life Value by University of California Press

How valuable is a human life? People, families, businesses, and governments regularly assign a monetary worth to life. These valuations, often hidden in complex jargon, impact our economy, laws, actions, policies, health, and safety. They're frequently unfair, tainted by gender, racial, national, and cultural biases that often prioritize the young over the old, the wealthy over the poor, whites over blacks, Americans over foreigners, and relatives over strangers. This matters as undervalued lives receive less protection and face greater risks. Howard Steven Friedman simplifies how economists and data scientists in corporations, regulatory bodies, and insurance companies create and use these valuations, highlighting their flaws and limitations. He then strongly argues against the widespread unfairness in the system. Readers will be educated, shocked, and ultimately empowered to challenge the price tags we place on human lives and understand why these calculations are significant.

• Life or Wealth: The Dilemma
• The Day the Towers Collapsed
• Blind Injustice
• Accepting More Arsenic
• Profit Maximization: At What Cost?
• Grandpa's Death Wish
• Youthful Rejuvenation
• Affording Offspring
• Faulty Calculations