Putting a Price Tag on Death: How much does a dead lover cost?

hiake · Jun 12, 2007

SciAm.com said:

Putting a Price Tag on Death

Economists say balancing the pain of loss with the right amount of money could lead to more rational court awards

If money could buy happiness, how much would it take to bring it back after the death of a partner, child or spouse? Most of us would be loathe to assign such a value, if not offended by the question, but two economists have attached such dollar values to deaths by comparing the way that lost loved ones lower scores on happiness surveys with the way that greater incomes boost scores. More than just a gruesome exercise, they say they hope it will provide courts with a way to more fairly award damages.

"It's a very black thing to talk about," says economist Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England, but courts regularly award damages to bereaved survivors after the death of a loved one. Such awards, however, are not necessarily based on well considered rules. In the U.K., the 1976 Fatal Accidents Act provides for a lump sum of $20,000 to a surviving spouse or the parents of a minor. Recent U.S. court cases have valued life at as much as $18 million or as little as $10,000, according to a 2005 study.

Looking for a more equitable way to assign damages, Oswald and Nattavudh Powdthavee of the University of London reviewed data collected from 10,000 Britons tracked by the British Household Panel Survey, begun in 1991, which records major life events and includes questions designed to gauge overall mental health. They identified the amount of money, on average, that raised a person's mental health score by the same amount that a loved one's death lowered it.

They calculated that it would take $220,000 annually to raise someone's happiness to pre-death levels after a spouse dies, $118,000 for a child, $28,000 for a parent, $16,000 for a friend and only $2,000 for a sibling. Taking into account that some people might be harder hit than others could as much as double those amounts, Oswald and Powdthavee wrote in paper reported at a conference held last week on happiness research, law and policy at the University of Chicago (UC).

Eric Posner, a UC law professor and co-organizer of the conference, says it is too early for courts to adopt Oswald and Powdthavee's method but notes that it may be less arbitrary than the existing way of assigning damages. "The courts ask juries to pick a number and they don't give juries a specific rule or principle for guiding their deliberations," he says. As a result, "it's either nothing or a very high number."

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt of the University of Virginia says there is "so much more at stake when people suffer loss than simply the hit to their happiness." Actual suffering should factor into damage awards, he says, but so should other things such as feelings of outrage or injustice.

Oswald agrees that more research is needed before the findings should influence policy, but he stands by the concept. "Just because it's hard to value this subtle thing is no reason not to try to do the best in being fair to victim," he says. "We're trying to make it logical instead of random."

Source: SciAm.com
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This is posted in reply to one of the "Guys: What Qs Do You Have for the Girls?" Thread...

http://www.dramasian.com/forum/showthread.php?p=319689&#post319689

Denomic · Jun 12, 2007

hum.. I don't know what to think of society anymore... first it's ok for children to torture animals because they are "too young" to know the difference... (if you know enough to run when someone sees you torturing an animal, you deserve to take full punishment..) now a price on happiness..

hiake · Jun 12, 2007

Denomic said: ↑

hum.. I don't know what to think of society anymore... first it's ok for children to torture animals because they are "too young" to know the difference... (if you know enough to run when someone sees you torturing an animal, you deserve to take full punishment..) now a price on happiness..
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Well, our society is the one described in The Little Prince, we are not usually awed by someone's house because it's got red bricks, roses and beautiful flowers in the garden. But we will go automatically awed if someone tells us "it's a million dollar house".

It's all about quantifying the world... Not that I am a fan of it... -mellow

Denomic · Jun 12, 2007

hiake said: ↑

Well, our society is the one described in The Little Prince, we are not usually awed by someone's house because it's got red bricks, roses and beautiful flowers in the garden. But we will go automatically awed if someone tells us "it's a million dollar house".

It's all about quantifying the world... Not that I am a fan of it... -mellow
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Is "The Little Prince" a movie or a book?

hiake · Jun 12, 2007

A book, it has been adopted into a musical (in French), numerous animation (me think), possibly a film...

Classic children's literature which one can love until the end of time.

[N] · Jun 12, 2007

oh shit, i wonder how much my life's worth, should get them to "calculate" it lols

kdotc · Jun 12, 2007

in the past 4 years i lost 5 ppl....so who wants to give me money?

Taxloss · Jun 12, 2007

^aww sorry to about heat that kdot...-mellow

Hmm, dunno...if you lost someone close to you and you'll get a huge amount of money as compensation, how can you enjoy the money if you can't share it?

hiake said: ↑

A book, it has been adopted into a musical (in French), numerous animation (me think), possibly a film...

Classic children's literature which one can love until the end of time.
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I love the musical! I've seen the English version on BBC and bought the same play on dvd and cd; I was mesmerized by the wonderful colours and sounds of this magical opera.

wind2000 · Jun 12, 2007

Guess money do have a way to ppl's hearts now.

Aoes · Jun 12, 2007

really... that is a stupid way to decide how much to pay for death...

it should be a matter of survival for the remaining family... not happiness... considering it cant' be calculated... if idiots are looking for a large lump sum they're just trying to cash out...

otherwise... pay their annual salary + raises(both till retirement) + funeral expenses... and if they don't have an annual salary, just pay the funeral expenses and give their condolences... its not a matter of who is worth more, its just to repay for the losses that otherwise would not have occured...

seriously... looking at death from a monetary standpoint is retarded... likewise to idiot couples that buy LIFE INSURANCE for their INFANTS... do they really expect to lose their child at the age of 2?

adrianc · Jun 12, 2007

money can help make a person forget, I think...like going to trips etx

kdotc · Jun 12, 2007

adrianc said: ↑

money can help make a person forget, I think...like going to trips etx
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u're rong man...u can never forget some1

[N] · Jun 12, 2007

kdotc said: ↑

u're rong man...u can never forget some1
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Seriously there is no way to forget someone you care about unless you never cared about them at all.

Aoes · Jun 12, 2007

NewAzNSensation said: ↑

Seriously there is no way to forget someone you care about unless you never cared about them at all.
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exactly... so I don't understand why people try to put a monetary unit on happiness from death -_-2

hiake · Jun 15, 2007

^ Because people who did not die has to SURVIVE their very much dead loved one?

I mean, yeah yeah, everyone would grieve for their loss. But it doesn't mean they no longer have to pay the bills... Considering how much a death can affect someone's mental healthy, I am surprised that they don't have some institution for the survivers to recover from their grieve until they can functional reasonably well (or resembling a human being once again?)

Putting a Price Tag on Death: How much does a dead lover cost?

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

Denomic Well-Known Member

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

Denomic Well-Known Member

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

[N] RATED [ ]

kdotc 안녕하세요빅뱅K-Dragon입니다

Taxloss Stripper Vicar

wind2000 Self Schemata

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kdotc 안녕하세요빅뱅K-Dragon입니다

[N] RATED [ ]

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hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin