Polya, “EPA de-values American lives. 7 million Americans, $49 trillion LOST under Bush”, MWC News, submitted 16 July 2008.
EPA de-values US lives. 7 million Americans, $49 trillion LOST under Bush
The US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has recently de-valued the worth of Americans by about $900,000 each, de-valuing from $7.8 million per person to $6.9 million per person (see: http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/how_much_are_you_worth.php ).
This EPA valuation of each American life is not like a tradable commodity. Rather, economists calculate the value based on the cost of risk avoidance - what people (government, employers or individuals) are willing to pay to avoid certain risks to citizens, employees or themselves.
In relation to this new valuation of $6.9 million per person it is notable that the accrual cost (long-term committed cost) associated with each American military death in Occupied Iraq has been estimated at $6.5 million by 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University) and Professor Linda Bilmes (Harvard University) (see “The Cost of War” on MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13099/26/ ).
With this new valuation on board it is useful to estimate the number of Americans who have died avoidably under the Bush Administration and hence the “wasted” risk avoidance expenditure. Of course, in making these estimations of the US dollar cost of the avoidable death of Americans under Bush we must also bear in mind that the Ruler is responsible for the Ruled.
Fundamental to this analysis are fundamental notions of causality as cogently argued by world-leading bioethicist Professor Peter Singer (Princeton University and the University of Melbourne) – we are responsible for the mortal consequences of what we do and for what we fail to do, and that those who deliberately take life by withholding life-sustaining requisites (passive killing) are just as morally culpable as those who deliberately act physically to terminate life (active killing).
The United States of America is the richest country in the world but it is estimated below that 7 million Americans died avoidably under the 8-year Bush Administration due to deficient policies and misplaced allocation of resources and at an EPA-revised cost of $48 trillion. In making these estimates of avoidable deaths I will draw on mortality data from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (see: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/lcod.htm ), articles published in MWC News and a recent analysis entitled “Carbon burning, Zionism and War kill 1 million Americans Yearly” (see: http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/2008/06/19/1593137-carbon-burning-zionism-war-kill-1-million-americans-yearly ).
I am a thanatologist (one who studies the causes of death) and indeed have recently published a comprehensive book on the subject (see “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya ). I have provided below a summary of avoidable American deaths under the 8-year-duration Bush Administration with cost estimates based on the latest EPA valuation of $6.9 million per person..
1. US under-5 infant deaths
About 20,000 American under-5 year old infants die avoidably every year in the richest country in the world due to misplaced priorities of the Bush Administration [ 20,000 persons per year x 8 years = 0.160 million persons @ $6.9 million per person = $1.1 trillion].
2. US deaths due to lack of medical treatment of uninsured Americans
As revealed in Mike Moore’s movie “Sicko”, about 18,000 Americans die each year from lack of medical intervention because they lack medical insurance [18,000 persons per year x 8 years = 0.144 million persons @ $6.9 million per person = $1.0 trillion].
3. US smoking-related deaths
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 438,000 deaths each year. This estimate includes approximately 38,000 deaths from second hand smoke exposure, and one must note that the death toll will go on for decades to come. Of course the deaths under Bush were due to smoking under previous Administrations but the figure is included as an estimate of future American deaths from smoking due to the ineptness and callousness of the Bush Administration [0.438 million persons per year x 8 years = 3.504 million persons @ $6.9 million per person = $24.2 trillion].
4. US deaths from fossil fuel- and coal-based electricity generation
Pollutants from fossil fuel-based electricity generation (notably carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, particulates, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, volatile organic components and heavy metals, notably mercury (Hg)) kill 0.3 million people world-wide each year and in the US cause about 49,000 “annual coal-based electricity deaths” as compared to 72,000 “total annual fossil fuel-based electricity deaths” in the US [72,000 persons per year x 8 years = 0.576 million persons @ $6.9 million per person = $4.0 trillion].
5. Additional US deaths from carbon burning particulates
Recent European data (2005) indicates that 310,000 people of the European Union and 33,000 in the UK (2005 population 59.6 million) die each year from particulates, from which one can estimate that for the US (2005 population 300 million) about 300 x 33,000/59.6 = 166,000 Americans die each year from particulate pollutants. After generous subtraction of the deaths from fossil fuel-burning power generation (item #4) we have 160,000 - 72,000 = 88,000 additional American deaths from carbon burning particulates [88,000 persons per year x 8 years = 0.704 million persons @ $6.9 million per person = $4.9 trillion].
6. US deaths from motor vehicle accidents
Motor vehicle accidents in 2002 killed 43,354 Americans, noting that motor vehicles are overwhelmingly fossil fuel-dependent. Further, of the only about 15% of fuel burning energy that actually drives a car (the rest being lost as heat), for a 70 kg driver and a 2,000 kg vehicle, only 70/2,000 is used to transport the human being, the overall energy efficiency being 70 x 15%/2,000 = 0.5%. Public transport is vastly more efficient and vastly safer [43,354 persons per year x 8 years = 0.347 million persons @ $6.9 million per person = $2.4 trillion].
7. US opiate drug-related deaths
About 17,000 Americans die each year from illicit drugs. If we assume that about half of these deaths are due to opiates (noting that illicit drug use is typically associated with multi-drug use) then about 8,500 will die annually from opiates. According to data from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report (2007), the Bush Administration restored the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 5% of world market share in 2001 to 93% in 2007 [8,000 persons per year x 8 = 64,000 persons @ $6.9 million per person = $0.4 trillion].
8. US gun-related deaths
About 29,000 Americans die each year from gun-related injuries under a pro-Gun Bush Administration [29,000 persons per year x 8 = 0.232 million persons @ $6.9 million per person = $1.6 trillion].
9. Additional domestic US deaths from Bush policies
According to the US Center for Disease Control in 2004 there were 2.4 million substantially addressable and potentially avoidable deaths of Americans from life style-related disease and violence. Subtracting the annual deaths in items #1-8 yields 2.4 million – 0.7 million = 1.7 million deaths. If only 10% of these people could have been saved annually through preventive medicine programs or expert medical intervention then that’s 0.170 million lives saved each year [0.170 million persons per year x 8 = 1.360 million persons @ $6.9 million per person = $9.4 trillion].
The total avoidable deaths summarized in items 1-9 above comes to 7.1 million and the cost (at the latest EPA valuation of $6.9 million per person) is $49 trillion. This number dwarfs the $3.5 trillion accrual cost of the fraudulent, racist, war criminal, Zionist- and Bush-ite promoted War on Terror that Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz asserts has “bankrupted” America.
The War on Terror - in horrible reality a cowardly, racist, oil- and hegemony-driven War on Arab, Muslim, Asian and Non-European Women and Children, associated with post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories totalling 2 million and 3-7 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths totalling 0.6 million and 2.3 million, respectively; and refugees totalling 4.5 million and 4 million, respectively. Assuming that “all men are created equal” then, at $6.9 million per person, the upper estimate of Reparations for what the Bush Administration and its Zionist, Bush-ite and neo-Bush-ite allies have done is 9 million persons x $6.9 million per person = $62 trillion.
If you really care for our American brothers and sisters and for Humanity as a whole please tell everyone you can.