Was It Worth It?

But the overall economic losses are even bigger. !ose families who lost a job stopped driving, buying extra goods, and using nonessential services. When you add these ancillary impacts of one-fourth of the population losing its income, there is another one trillion dollars in economic loss.

In response to the unemployment level and economic slowdown, the US Congress authorized a $2.2 trillion relief package called the CARES act. It distributed money directly to US citizens, expanded unemployment bene"ts, and enabled businesses to get “forgivable” loans if they kept employees on the payroll. In addition, the Federal Reserve Bank announced aggressive measures to buy municipal, state, and corporate bonds, lower interest rates, and advance other loan programs to drive “quantitative easing,” all in all amounting to another $2.3 trillion in investment. 8

Between economic losses, congressional stimulus, and federal reserve programs, the response to the coronavirus pandemic will cost the United States between $4.5 and $7 trillion. For the rest of this discussion, we will use the relatively conservative "gure of $5 trillion, or one fourth of our entire annual gross domestic product.

Was It Worth It?

!is is a subjective question, and it will be debated for years, but if we weigh the amounts spent and the losses to some families against the projected gains by others, it seems hard to say yes, it was worth it. More than likely we have extended the life of very few people, and only by a year or two on average. Even if the number is as high as 250,000 people, at a cost of $5 trillion, this would be $20 million per person. !is now begs the painful question, are those lives worth that much money? What is the value of a human life?

8 “Fed Expands Corporate-Debt Backstops, Unveils New Programs to Aid States, Cities, and Small Businesses,” !e Wall Street Journal, updated 9 April 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/fed-announces-new-facilities-to-support-2-3-trillion-in-lending-11586435450.

It is nearly impossible for anyone to put a value on the life of a loved one. A3er all, wouldn’t we spend every last dime we have to save a member of our family? However, when you are in a situation where saving some lives will damage or cost the lives of others, we are forced to weigh the options. On a large scale, society is sometimes forced to look at ways to weigh the value of life, and in some areas we actually place a value on human life nearly every day. We accept the risk of dying in a car crash so that we can earn a paycheck at work, we add safety features to cars while balancing a$ordability and lives saved, we set insurance rates for businesses and cars based on the possibility of injury and death, and we design roads and set speed limits knowing that lives will statistically be a$ected. We make decisions and set priorities every day based on some idea of the value of life. Yes, it is high, and almost everyone values the lives of children above adults, meaning your life is worth inherently more the more of it you have to live. But the value of life is not in"nite or priceless, because our resources (money, time, materials) are not endless or priceless.

In fact, one of the reasons to consider the “value” of life is so that we can prioritize where to invest resources. Consider medical research. Since we do not have unlimited resources for research, as our society makes decisions about where to invest, we must consider the cost of research versus the potential number of lives that could be positively a$ected. !at way, we ensure that our resources are going into the most e$ective areas.

So, what value should we use? Does anyone dare put down a number? Between looking at human behavior, insurance rates, and government reports, !e Globalist 9 published a summary that said we value life anywhere between $1.5 million (the value derived in 1987 when states made the decision to increase speed limits, comparing the economic advantage of increasing speed limits compared to the increased fatality rate) and $9.7 million according to the Environmental Protection Agency. However, to

9 “!e Cost of a Human Life, Statistically Speaking,” !e Globalist, updated July 21, 2012, https://www.theglobalist.com/the-cost-of-a-human-life-statistically-speaking.