Economic Value of Life

In Torts we were discussing difficulties courts have in assessing the value of life. I was left disagreeing with the court, and thinking that you can assess the monetary value of life (specifically loss of enjoyment of life) kind of because it's no different than pinning the value on loss of consortium. If we have started to pin these values on emotions and such, why draw a line in the sand before the value of life.

but then again, if I spend all day at my computer, and reading law books, does that show that I don't value the outdoors, or friendships?

The case on point decided the admissibility of expert testimony on the value of life. Determined by survey of $ spent on health and safety. In my opinion, this is clearly far from exact, but probably helpful to a jury. The court found the testimony inadmissible because the expert didn't know any better than the average person- his testimony sought to determine what the average person thought. I guess because the jury is presumed to BE the average person it was inadmissible. Plus, some other, less interesting details about the effects of marketing.

Fire & Ice

Ever think of how more fuel makes a fire burn hotter, but more ice doesn't make water much colder?
hmmmmmmm......

evidentiaries

The English language needs some way of marking clauses with evidentiaries.

I'm not sure how other languages use them, but I want to be able to mark my hypothetical stories, easily, within the flow of conversation, and make assertions for the sole purpose of discussing the validity of my assertion. I want people to know when I’m using info from a highly regarded statistical report, or from personal experience. There are many more things I want from my language. I want to be able to express all things, and I don't think English is capable of that.

Does this disprove "Wittgenstein's meaning is use" explanation? I certainly have meaning that is not expressed clearly, efficiently and sometimes is completely impossible to transmit to anyone! (If I had an appropriate marker for the above question, it would mean something like, "I haven't read wittgenstein in the last 6 years, and don't remember much other than this quote, but I invite any comments on the matter you have."

More info to follow after talking with my learned linguist friend at Berkeley.

Random-by-the-way: Missouri is the "show me state." One theory is that this is because they are not blinded by political rhetoric. Maybe these people would be persuaded by political discourse if it included evidentiaries that reveal when someone is speaking in opinions and generalities rather than on supported data. I think we should have an evidentiary to show when something is a generally-accepted-bi-partisan-multi-cultural fact.

Regulation Crazy!

My third alarm, following ring tone music, is a loud radio alarm, tuned to a classic rock station. This station has provided me with weird interesting information, such as informing me that meat will soon be synthasized in small appliances, rather than coming from cows. On Mondays the DJ’s know that I need my favorite hits (which include oldies as young as the late 80’s).

(additional side note, this station’s ability to adapt itself to my telepathic and subconscious needs is starting to make me rethink some of my criticisms of informed-personalized marketing techniques, however, considering that I get up anytime between 5:30 and 10am, I am comforted to think that either God is looking out for me, or that I’m in the matrix, controlling what I think is my life by my own thoughts- not that this isn’t true…. Either way, God or the Matrix, I like it better than the Marketing group at Wallmart.)

So today, the station was playing “taking care of business,” and that, I most certainly have been. I have never before worked consecutive weeks without social contact, little if any sleep at night, and solid computer/book time, no work out, no food shopping, no nothing.

The result is an explosion of thought and interest. My brain is so beautifully stimulated and my body can not support it. My back and neck are so sore from sitting. But I’m loving the CONTENT! I feel like I’ve been deprived of information for so long, locked up by my own insecurity, by a limited amount of time, by theoretical texts. My experience with real information about the real world (as I sit in my room, locked away from the world) FINALLY I am applying those theories! For so long my educational focus has been geared to skills. All through college I learned skills.

All through my life I’ve felt deprived of information, people assuming you couldn’t understand it. Soooo many questions. No one wants to discuss. They think that because you don’t have the tools you can’t understand. Maybe giving kids the Real juicy stuff, they can gain the tools themselves! Maybe they would get passionate about certain areas of the world! It’s hard to get passionate about learning, devoid of learning about something.

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I am wondering if we need an international regulatory agency. Or at least a federal, forward thinking agency. Something not focused on the next 4 or 8 years, but something that looks at the sustainability of the country or the human population.

If we can have the foresight and dedication to build pyramids, then certainly we can find people willing to commit to evaluating our true impact on the environment- maybe economists who have some control over federal $... otherwise it really doesn’t matter.

This whole debate about global warming and genetic engineering has me frustrated. Scientists have a lot of power, but it’s not Science that makes the problem, it’s the origin of funding. If the money used to determine which scientific investigations are worth wile comes from people evaluating how much $ they will make off the technology, then the technologies will not be geared to sustainability, but to making money. If they happen to be good for the environment, it was a side benefit.

It is not the responsibility of the American industries to regulate themselves when they are competing internationally. This would surely hurt the American market. I think we need a strong and powerful government to take control and start setting some long term, energy/environmental goals.

The biggest long term problem facing Americans and the human population is that we don’t have any reasons to stop what we are doing. Mice don’t know how to run mazes; they have to hit a few dead ends first. It’s not forward thinking that caused us to evolve, it was because those of us who didn’t have the trait, died off. It is somewhat unnatural for us to change before we run into problems. However, with global warming, and genetic modifications of animals, maybe by the time we run into trouble it will be too late- and maybe not. But is this a risk we can afford to take?

I think we need a forward thinking regulatory agency- integrated with the American economy and trade and the functioning of the government as a whole.

At first I was planning on using economic theory to demonstrate our reactionary history, thinking about the supply/demand balance. But then I started thinking about the stock market. This seems like a predictive, preemptive approach …and of course, there is always George Bush and his love of preemptive measures! We just need to tweak that one a bit.

I think the American public would support such a measure, but how does it get done?