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Strange7 comments on Welcome to Less Wrong! (2012) - Less Wrong
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Testing would be a lot of work and potential corruption for comparatively little gain in nailing down the sig figs. The EPA is already willing to put an approximate dollar value on the life of a random citizen shortened by pollution (for cost-benefit purposes when evaluating proposed cleanup plans), so I'd say just estimate the average or typical value and use that as the standard, preferably showing your work well enough to allow adjustments over time or judicial discretion in unusual cases.
This is a situation in which "Speak for yourself!" would apply. In the weirdtopia where killing other people's children is criminal damage and such damages are calculated being able to prove higher value of said property would and should influence the amount of recompense they receive. For the same reason that Shane Warne could insure his finger for more than I could insure my finger an owner of an impressive child would be able to have that child evaluated and treated as a more valuable piece of property than an inferior child. They would aggressively and almost certainly successfully fight any attempt to make their child evaluated as a mediocre child.
That's what I meant by 'judicial discretion in unusual cases.'
Setting the default value a standard deviation or three above the actual average would probably be sensible. Cuts down on expensive investigations and appeals, since most bereaved parents would realize on some level that they won't actually gain by nitpicking, and erring on the side of punitive damages would help appease the victim and discourage recklessness.