The driver was acting on behalf of Uber and was found to have acted in a negligent manner. Whose fault was this, if not Uber’s? If not $40M, what should this young woman’s life be valued at?

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alex43578 10 hours ago | parent [-]

The driver's fault. Is there any evidence it was Uber's policies or actions that caused this?

The US government values a statistical life at anywhere from $7 to $12M. Is there any evidence that this woman's lifetime earnings would've exceeded that? If it's a "feels" argument, why not $80M or $200M?

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1659447091 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> The US government values a statistical life at anywhere from $7 to $12M. Is there any evidence that this woman's lifetime earnings would've exceeded that?

Thats not what that means. "... when conducting a benefit-cost analysis of new environmental policies, the Agency uses estimates of how much people are willing to pay for small reductions in their risks of dying from adverse health conditions that may be caused by environmental pollution. [...] these estimates of willingness to pay for small reductions in mortality risks are often referred to as the "value of a statistical life.”[0]

> Is there any evidence it was Uber's policies or actions that caused this?

The arbitrator/judge believed there was enough that the company was legally responsible for the conduct and issued a fine to the company for that failure of responsibility to be paid to the parents -- not because he decided that was how much she was worth

[0] https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/mortality-risk-v...

	▲	alex43578 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That's about the closest value you'll find to what human life is economically valued at. Do you have an alternate measure that is grounded in anything?

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tmnvix 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Lifetime earnings? That is a very poor measure of a person's life.

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90d 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's what happens when you live in a company, not a country.

	▲	alex43578 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		As compared to your implied view where any amount of money can appear from thin air, and law should be dictated exclusively by feelings?

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alex43578 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's an economic measure for what should be an economic question. Taking the statistical value of a human life as a baseline feels pretty fair, and adjusting it upwards for special circumstances seems reasonable.

Are you arguing that because she was a nice person, she should be worth more? If she was a mean person, should she be worth less?