{"id":102381,"date":"2015-10-27T19:30:42","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T17:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=102381"},"modified":"2015-10-27T18:03:59","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T16:03:59","slug":"how-much-money-your-life-is-actually-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/102381\/how-much-money-your-life-is-actually-worth\/","title":{"rendered":"How much money your life is actually worth in SA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Depending on who you consult, a single life in South Africa is placed\u00a0 at anywhere between R3.4 million and R24.2 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Placing a monetary value on a human life is a controversial topic, and may seem a little callous.<\/p>\n

However, when it comes to determining the cost-benefit of infrastructure, environmental, medical and insurance projects, it can be necessary and justified.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the figures above represent an economic term called the\u00a0value of a statistical human life (VSL) – how much income (or wealth) individuals are willing to exchange for small changes in mortality risks.<\/p>\n

If, for example, 100,000 people were each willing to spend $100 to decrease the chances of mortality, the estimated statistical value of a single human life would be $10 million (100,000 x $100).<\/p>\n

The number is important for policy makers,\u00a0and is used for statistical calculations related to various industries\u00a0– such as\u00a0insurance, medicine, environmental and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

It is also used to determine the economic impact of deaths in the country – such as lives lost to disease, road accidents and other causes.<\/p>\n

An example would be if a number of people settled in a region that was prone to flooding, government would need to determine whether it would be “worth it” to improve infrastructure in the area, or spend money on flood prevention.<\/p>\n

If the total cost of these projects was greater than the value of human life in the area, policy makers would need to reassess their strategy.<\/p>\n

If lives were lost due to flooding, the statistic could then be used to determine the total economic impact of those deaths\u00a0– cold\u00a0and\u00a0cruel, but\u00a0necessary.<\/p>\n

The value of life in South Africa<\/h3>\n

Based on tuberculosis data<\/a> from South Africa in 2006, the World Health Organisation determined the economic impact of TB deaths, using a baseline<\/strong> VSL of $230,000 (R3.15\u00a0million<\/strong>). This was used to determine economic impact of deaths in the sub-Saharan Africa region.<\/p>\n

In a 2012 document<\/a> looking at the environmental impact of Eskom’s failure to comply with South African emission standards, Greenpeace cited OECD values on VSL.<\/p>\n

These placed the value of human life in South Africa between R5.4 million and R28.7 million (mean of R12.1 million<\/strong>) for adults – and between R8.1 million and R57.5 million (mean of R24.2 million<\/strong>) for children.<\/p>\n

Another way to determine the true VSL is by looking at the potential earning and consuming power and how that impacts base VSL numbers.<\/p>\n

A 2011 study<\/a> looking at the elasticity of VSL – as affected by potential income changes – estimated that the statistical value of a human life in South Africa was between $316,000 (R4.3 million) and $1.5 million (R20.5 million) – a mean of $692,000 (R9.5 million<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The study, published in the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, sought to determine how VSL would change with an increase in real income, in both high-income and low-income nations.<\/p>\n

Value of life in the USA<\/h3>\n

Due to its strong economy and high earning power, the USA carries the highest value of human life.<\/p>\n

In the country, a high-income nation, human life has a statistical dollar value of anywhere between $600,000 (R8.2 million<\/strong>) and $9.1 million (R124 million<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The former is what a soldier’s family can expect to be given in compensation should their loved one fall in military service.<\/p>\n

The latter figure is what the US department of transport determined, based on eight different studies which delivered a range between $5 million and $13.2 million (median value of $9.1 million).<\/p>\n

Figures compiled by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA<\/a>) puts the value at $8.5 million (R116 million<\/strong>), while the aforementioned 2011 study put it at $7.2 million (R98 million<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

All numbers\u00a0have been adjusted for inflation from 2007 dollars, and converted at a rate of USD 1 = ZAR 13.69.<\/em><\/p>\n

More on wealth<\/h3>\n

What if South Africa\u2019s richest men gave all their money away?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Give more wealth to blacks in South Africa: Presidency<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

How much the world\u2019s super wealthy are worth<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may think that every life has infinite value – and while it’s a beautiful sentiment, in the cold, hard reality of economics, there are limits to our worth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":48484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,10709,853],"class_list":["post-102381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-life","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102381"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102417,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102381\/revisions\/102417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}