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The methods used for valuing life depend on the purpose of the costing, what exactly the costs are meant to represent, and the perspective taken for the costing. — location: 58 ^ref-42592

This book uses a broad set of examples to explain a few critical points: (1) that price tags are routinely placed on human lives, (2) that these price tags have major ramifications on our lives, (3) that these price tags are often neither transparent nor fair, and (4) that this lack of fairness is critical since undervalued lives are left underprotected and more exposed to risks than more highly valued lives. — location: 63 ^ref-7916

The analysis cliché of “garbage in, garbage out”45 truly holds for estimating the Value of a Statistical Life, yet these methods are used to produce price tags. Despite the fact that these price tags are flawed and illogical, they are regularly employed, with substantial real-world implications. — location: 507 ^ref-15925

The suggestion that a top hedge fund manager, earning over $100 million a year, adds one thousand or more times value to society, to his family, and to his loved ones than these other hardworking individuals is ridiculous. Relying on income to estimate the value of someone’s life produces this type of illogical conclusion, with its resulting immoral consequences. — location: 517 ^ref-44842

Every step along the way—from the criminal investigation to the last parole hearing or the execution—is open to judgment calls that provide opportunities for potential discrimination based on who the defendant is and who the victim was. Being impartial to the race, sex, lifestyle, socioeconomic class, and family status of the victim and the defendant is difficult, and consistent biases indicate that some lives are more valued, and consequently more protected, than others. — location: 847 ^ref-40564

Justifiable homicide is the formal recognition that it is reasonable and legally acceptable for you to value your own life more than the life of someone who is threatening you with potentially fatal consequences. — location: 877 ^ref-42093