Overview

How much is a human life worth? Individuals, families, companies, and governments routinely place a price on human life. The calculations that underlie these price tags are often buried in technical language, yet they influence our economy, laws, behaviors, policies, health, and safety.  These price tags are often unfair, infused as they are with gender, racial, national, and cultural biases that often result in valuing the lives of the young more than the old, the rich more than the poor, whites more than blacks, Americans more than foreigners, and relatives more than strangers. This is critical since undervalued lives are left less-protected and more exposed to risk. Howard Steven Friedman explains in simple terms how economists and data scientists at corporations, regulatory agencies, and insurance companies develop and use these price tags and points a spotlight at their logical flaws and limitations. He then forcefully argues against the rampant unfairness in the system. Readers will be enlightened, shocked, and, ultimately, empowered to confront the price tags we assign to human lives and understand why such calculations matter.

Full Product Details

9780520383128

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Reviews

Provides a concise review of some of the scientific literature on valuing life including some of the moral issues one must consider when making these judgments. . . . Certainly worth a read for those looking to learn more on this interesting topic. * Healthcare Economist * Friedman argues that we must devise more equitable ways to assign value to human life. . . . Readers are exhorted to understand how lives are priced so that they might demand better formulas. * Science * To ration resources and seek to re-open businesses, accountants have to assign price tags to life. . . . In Ultimate Price, a detailed analysis of how government organisations and corporations define the monetary value of human life, Howard Friedman tours the uncomfortable architecture of this calculus. * The Spectator * Should be required reading for anyone sitting down to watch the evening news. * New Books Network * Price tags on human lives are everywhere. -- Kai Ryssdal, * Marketplace * Timely - and, frankly, sometimes shocking. . . . Ultimate Price exposes a system rife with troubling assumptions and inequality that reduces each human to a data point. Well-written and readable, the book avoids being overly academic while still presenting a meticulously researched argument of why we all should take the time to understand how our own lives are priced. * BuzzFeed *

Timely - and, frankly, sometimes shocking. . . . Ultimate Price exposes a system rife with troubling assumptions and inequality that reduces each human to a data point. Well-written and readable, the book avoids being overly academic while still presenting a meticulously researched argument of why we all should take the time to understand how our own lives are priced. * BuzzFeed * Price tags on human lives are everywhere. -- Kai Ryssdal, * Marketplace * Should be required reading for anyone sitting down to watch the evening news. * New Books Network * To ration resources and seek to re-open businesses, accountants have to assign price tags to life. . . . In Ultimate Price, a detailed analysis of how government organisations and corporations define the monetary value of human life, Howard Friedman tours the uncomfortable architecture of this calculus. * The Spectator * Friedman argues that we must devise more equitable ways to assign value to human life. . . . Readers are exhorted to understand how lives are priced so that they might demand better formulas. * Science * Provides a concise review of some of the scientific literature on valuing life including some of the moral issues one must consider when making these judgments. . . . Certainly worth a read for those looking to learn more on this interesting topic. * Healthcare Economist *

Author Information

Howard Steven Friedman, a leading statistician and health economist, is an expert in data science and applications of cost-benefit analysis. He teaches at Columbia University.  

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