Definately Not a Dog Post

Take into consideration the recent tradegy in New Orleans. You have two choices.

Choice 1- Katrina kills one person, causes absolutely no damage economically (cost is 0 dollars to the economy)

Choice 2- Katrina kills no one but causes 25 billion dollars of damage.

Which one would you choose and why?

[David Sklansky]

At the moment the US government considers the value of an American life to be about 3 mil.

A good argument that you have to let the guy die is that if this happenned hundreds of times the US would be penniless and everyone would now die.

[Non_Comformist]

It entirely depends on how the person was selected.

If I got to choose then absolutely the person dies

If it was random but nobody I liked could be choosen then the person dies

If it was possible for someone I liked to be picked then no, the damage

I don't feel qualified to answer this question. /images/graemlins/shocked.gif
Hmmmm.....
Shooby

[ QUOTE ]
At the moment the US government considers the value of an American life to be about 3 mil.

A good argument that you have to let the guy die is that if this happenned hundreds of times the US would be penniless and everyone would now die.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well ,for the sake of my argument, lets just assume that this is a choice that only has to be made once. Keep in mind that hundreds of families will be homeless if the man/woman doesnt die. How can his/her sacrifice be justified to the normal person. Its not like these people wont be able to rebuild.

[Piers]

If it were London (UK), I would choose for the guy to die and just hope it’s not me.

New Orleans, I think it’s hardly worth the effort of making a decision. But I think I would have to still have to choose 1.

Decent change that causing 25 billions worth of dmg will result in at least collateral death no...not from the hurricane itself (food, homeless, epidemia, etc)

Oh well all in all I would RANDOMLY choose for one person to die (could be me, could be an old fart, or possibly someone that was going to kill themself anyway :P)

So one US life is valued at 3,000,000 dollars?

25,000,000,000 dollars / 3,000,000 dollars per person = 8,333.333 persons

So i geuss only 8000 people could die and the 25 billion dollars in damages would still be considered a greater loss.