This video was really hard to get right. We started with an interesting premise: what is the best way to put a price on a human life?
Sounds great! What could go wrong? Well, it turns out it is a pretty standard process and there are already a million videos on the topic.
I thought there’d be huge differences between government agencies and that that would be interesting to explore — there weren’t. I thought there’d be huge differences between countries and the reasons would be interesting — there doesn’t seem to be much there beyond income differences driving different valuations.
So I had to find a new way in.
Enter the rescue mindset.
To be able to name the cognitive bias that infects a lot of decision making was something the video could add to the world. Treating infinitesimal dangers as dire really makes me mad. My kid’s school does active shooter drills. Why? Might as well do lightning strike drills or shark attack drills, as those are equally likely. Why are we scaring 2nd graders over an incredibly low-probability event? Rescue mindset.
I also wanted to bring micromorts into the video because we really need to be smarter about risk. Having a number starts us on that path. If you want to dive into to various risks, this site: https://micromorts.rip/
It was a bear to get all these pieces to work together. If you notice, I basically just go from interesting vignette to interesting vignette (micromort → rescue mindset → Alex Honnold → crash test video), and buoyed it with some great acting by my son.
Shout out to Calvin Tran and his team, who did excellent work on the graphics in this video. He’s done a number of Econ Nerds videos now and always delivers, and he also pushes me script-wise.
Works Cited
Costa, Dora L., and Matthew E. Kahn. “Changes in the Value of Life, 1940–1980.” Journal of risk and Uncertainty 29.2 (2004): 159-180.
Thaler, Richard, and Sherwin Rosen. “The value of saving a life: evidence from the labor market.” Household production and consumption. NBER, 1976. 265-302.
