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Economics of death
Jul. 9th, 2016 12:25 pmTypically, when somebody dies in a police-related violence damages are calculated based on the individual's expected earnings plus pain and suffering. In short, we take into account the human capital aspect of death. (This is a relatively new concept that would be considered unthinkable 100 years ago).
Given the proliferation of social media, we should also take into account the social capital aspect of the incident. That is, the destruction of social capital that a particular death causes is far greater than the amount of human capital accounted for for the same death. For example, over the last week 8 people died in highly publicized episodes of gun violence: three black private citizens and five white police officers. Although the amount of human capital destroyed is less than $100M, the amount of social capital lost is hard to figure out, but it feels like the society is going to lose billions on future non-cooperation between its citizens.
upd. the social capital aspect would make explicit the difference in cases of, e.g. auto accidents vs gun-related violence.
Given the proliferation of social media, we should also take into account the social capital aspect of the incident. That is, the destruction of social capital that a particular death causes is far greater than the amount of human capital accounted for for the same death. For example, over the last week 8 people died in highly publicized episodes of gun violence: three black private citizens and five white police officers. Although the amount of human capital destroyed is less than $100M, the amount of social capital lost is hard to figure out, but it feels like the society is going to lose billions on future non-cooperation between its citizens.
upd. the social capital aspect would make explicit the difference in cases of, e.g. auto accidents vs gun-related violence.
