How much is a human life worth?

[Epidemic]

You jail a person for 4 days, forget about them and as a result they die of dehydration.

Clearly your organization is at fault for the negligent act of not providing food or water to this person.

do you give the family

1,000,000
5,000,000
50,000,000
100,000,000

how much is the liability for the organization who hires someone who forgets about a prisoner.

do you pay more depending on the person.

Do you pay less if the person is permanently incapacitated but alive.

Do you pay less if the person only suffers temporary incapacitation. let say 99% recovery within 2 years.

[RicheemxX]

Somewhere between 500k and 1mill is what I think the going rate is these days. Could be wrong though I haven't been paying attention to the wrongful death lawsuits lately. What should they receive is well beyond my scope. I mean I'm not sure how you put a monetary value on life?

[Steve R Jones]

I think the dead person "earning potential" gets factored in. A homeless person is worth less then a CEO

[Theophylact]

And Afghan victims of shooting rampages are worth $50K.

Or were you limiting consideration to Murcans?

[sharder8]

And a soldier's life is only worth $100,000 . . .


Harder

[tony_j15]

Meanwhile, a 9/11 victim is worth 1.8 million.

[PoonDoggy]

How much would Mother Teresa's life be worth in monetary value. I cannot place a value on someone's life by how much they made during their life span.

[Chuckiechan]

How much is a 65 year old's worth, vs a 20 something?

More info:
How Much is a Human Life Worth in Dollars?

[Epidemic]

Meanwhile, a 9/11 victim is worth 1.8 million.

Personally I don't believe they deserved 1 red cent of government money. That was 100% ill spent money on the US governments side.

I see little difference in responsibility of the government to the 911 victim and my brother in law dying in a car crash.

They were sad events but thousands of people die every year. 911 just happened to be flashy.

[Epidemic]

How much would Mother Teresa's life be worth in monetary value. I cannot place a value on someone's life by how much they made during their life span.

Well actually I am not sure you would need to put a price on her life. Were she wrongfully killed it would not be a matter of monetary compensation. The payment to whom ever for their loss would be minimal. There was no expectation that she would support anyone.

In the case of dear ole dad being wrongfully hit by a bus there is a family who had an expectation of dad supporting them and said support and future savings.

Mother Teresa was a service to society. There is no "beneficiary" per se.


Theo,

50K for the afgan victims is probably quite generous. It appears as if the annual Per Capita GDP of Afghanistan is approximately 900 dollars, and $425 dollars seems to be the average laborers annual income.

50,000 dollars would be a rather fair, something on the order of 4 million dollars for an wrongful American death.

So this fellar definitely is not dead so we should start well below 4 million for the payout.

[tony_j15]

I think with 9/11, some politicians were looking to curry favor for the next election cycle, and there was also some guilt associated with the failure of the intelligence services to prevent the attack.
Also, it was a backhand giveaway to the air industry. By accepting the government funds, victims had to agree to never sue the airlines for failure to provide safety. The total payout from the 9/11 fund was ~7 billion. Individuals suing the airlines could have made many times that amount. So once again, government bailed out an industry that desperately needed it.

[Epidemic]

I think with 9/11, some politicians were looking to curry favor for the next election cycle, and there was also some guilt associated with the failure of the intelligence services to prevent the attack.
Also, it was a backhand giveaway to the air industry. By accepting the government funds, victims had to agree to never sue the airlines for failure to provide safety. The total payout from the 9/11 fund was ~7 billion. Individuals suing the airlines could have made many times that amount. So once again, government bailed out an industry that desperately needed it.

the problem is that in our tort riddled society we believe that someone who is locked up for 4 days and does not die is worth millions of dollars. That we feel we can sue the airlines for taking all reasonable and customary precautions is liable for damages associated with terrorism.