How Much is Your Life Worth?
I saw something in the papers today that I just had to do a little math on.
Recently a group of executives who formerly ran a company called Union Carbide were found guilty of negligence in what is one of the largest industrial accidents the world has seen. As many as 18,000 people were killed when the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India leaked a cloud of poison gas into the city.
Approximately 5,000 people died immediately. Anywhere from 15 - 25,000 have died since from effects of the leak.
Today, 25 years later, a court found a handful of the executives guilty of negligence causing death, a charge usually used in traffic accidents.
The worst penalties given to any single member of the group is a whopping 2 years in prison and a $2100 fine.
That's right, somewhere near 30,000 dead, 2 years and $2100 bucks.
Now this is where I wanted to do some math. If you know me, you know I'm math intollerant, so this decision did not come lightly.
I used 18,000 for a conservative number as far as the dead go.
So how much is a human life worth, if its end is embarassing to a major company who does big business in your country?
I mathed the shit out of it and this is what you are worth.
12 cents.
That's right, 12 whole cents. You can't even buy gum for that anymore. 12 fuckin' cents.
I can here some of you now though, "what about the prison time Rory? They're not totally getting off scott free are they?"
And you know what, you're right. There is 2 years of hard time in Indian prison on top of that 12 cents per person........only it's not 2 years per person......that's total.
Time for more math.....fuck.
So how much prison time does a fancy executive serve for cutting corners that kill your poor ass?
Again, using 18,000 as a conservative (SCOFF!) number of dead.
.06 of a day. Crap! More math.....I figure that works out to about an hour and 45 minutes.
Talk about your hard time.
So there you are. If you live somewhere that is willing to draw big business at almost any cost and you are poor and they murder your unlucky ass, they will pay through the nose...........a tiny nose that only lets out 12 cents and and hour and 45 minutes.
Oh, I should mention as well, Union Carbide was bought out eventually bought out by Dow, one of the largest chemical manufacturers in the U.S. They have refused, for 25 years to clean up the mess they purchased.
On the upside, that kind of stuff only happens in shady backwaters where there are no environmental laws and people are too dumb to realize how badly they're being F'd in the A. Good thing I live in Alberta.
