Coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data

Re:Coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions ... by aaron695 on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @06:15AM (#22615107)

What is the value of a human life in the West?

My figure is $2 million.

Then a billion $ is 500 lives.

A trillion $ is 500,000 lives.

This is how I rate it. What is your figure on a life?

And how would you relate loss and gain of $ to buying / destroying lives?

The discussion changes when you leave the West, so start there.

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Re:Coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions ... by sershe on Thursday March 19, 2020 @09:12AM (#22627125)

Don't forget about the age of deaths here. Divide the above by life expectancy at birth, then multiply by life expectancy at death from the virus. And possibly weigh by decade, I'd probably trade another decade of my 20ies over e.g. 80ies (not that I've been there). AFAIK /the average/ age in Italy is pushing 70.

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Re:Coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions ... by csharptwdec19 on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @08:55AM (#22616058)

I remember that the author of XKCD dug up that the EPA puts a human life around 8.4mil.

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Re:Coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions ... by aaron695 on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @09:04AM (#22616148)

https://what-if.xkcd.com/96/

Sounds ok. I think it's less, but it's the same for this calculation.

Do people even get trained in napkin math anymore?

Wiki is very limited on the topic- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-of-the-envelope_calculati...

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