Trump EPA: Value of Human Life is $0

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As I was reading through the Sierra Club’s response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address last night, one line really jumped out at me, that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Donald Trump has “set the value of a human life to zero when conducting cost-benefit analyses.”

Doesn’t that just encapsulate this administration and what it’s all about. Trump is focused on making money for himself, his family, and his cronies. If that costs other people, all the better. If that costs people their lives, who cares? We’ve already seen this mindset in many ways, including when the administration crushed USAID, which has cost countless people their lives. Of course, those were disadvantaged people in other countries, no one who could help Trump personally….

Beyond the USAID cruelty, a key thing here of course is that the EPA is putting the value of an American life at zero. But why? What does this relate to?

In case you are new to this topic, note that it is key for various huge analyses that are aimed at determining the true costs and savings/benefits of policies or regulations. If a policy or regulation is going to add some costs to coal power plants or gas-powered vehicles, what is it going to save society on the flip side? If we’re talking about EPA regulations, we’re mostly talking about health and human life savings. You can track and estimate health care costs, but what about human life? That’s why it’s important to set a value to human life. It can be $1 million, it can be $5 million, it can be whatever is determined to be a good value for a human life, but making it $0?… Zero?!

It is definitely hard to figure out how much to make the value of a human life in these analyses — something that is extensively debated and analyzed and researched — but putting it at $0 is truly harmful, inane, and heartless. But that just sums up the Trump administration, doesn’t it?