traviscommeau

The Bush administration has valued the lives of senior citizens less than the lives of younger people when conducting cost-benefit analyses of anti-pollution regulations. Such analyses are employed to determine whether potential regulations would benefit the public enough to justify the cost to industry. Twice in 2002, the White House Office of Management and Budget instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the $6 million valuation of a human life traditionally used by the federal government for cost-benefit assessments. Under the OMB's directive, anyone under the age of 70 would instead be valued at $3.7 million; anyone over 70 would be valued at $2.3 million, or 62 percent of the worth of a younger individual. These figures have allowed the EPA to forecast smaller societal benefits in its analyses of proposed regulations on power-plant pollution and snowmobile emissions.

The Bush administration's valuations were based on a 1982 survey of British citizens that asked how much they would be willing to pay for a safer bus system. It found that elderly respondents would not pay as much to avert death. The study's author, Michael Jones-Lee, told reporters that the data was out of date and could not be applied to the United States.

(Source: Seth Borenstein, "Elderly Less Valuable in Cost-Benefit Analysis," Knight Ridder Newspapers, December 18, 2002. See article at: bradenton.com.)