The value of a human life is around 10 million these days.
Based on that, I figure that we can't justify spending 500 billion to
avoid extinction in 591 years. Sometime around July 4th, 2598 to be
exact.
500 billion is about what the US Congress has allocated so far for the
Iraq War.
I used a 2% real rate of return and assumed the human race stabilized
at 6 billion and the value of a human life stayed at 10 million real
dollars.
Of course, if we continue with business as usual then we will get
richer and probably breed more. Getting richer has reliably pushed
up the value of a human life in the past.
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