In the era of Trump, you can’t help but feel a bit like Bruno Latour ending up having to defend climate change against the argument that it’s all socially constructed. Today the media report that the US Environmental Protection Agency has suspended use of a dollar value on a statistical life in its pollution cases. I remember way back when this was first introduced, making the same objection: You can’t give human life a price!
No, I am not now, nor was I anachronistically then, in the camp of Trumplethinskin and his dwarves.
Of course, I can appeal to all the standard defenses: It was commodification we were objecting to, Trump’s real reasons for the reversal are venal and punitive, it’s better to keep to a flawed practice than go without it, etc. etc. But it was always—is still always—the case that the burden of coming up with better appraisal techniques, and one that did not ride on the dollar value of a statistical life foregone, was on those of us who objected.
If the EPA goes ahead with this, it’s our duty of care to have better alternatives head.
WHEN COMPLEX IS AS SIMPLE AS IT GETS 