by ken hanly Actually I dont think that the Pinto Case was one of a straightforward cost-benefit analysis and didn't even include matters such as the cost of lawsuits per se except perhaps indirectly since it included the cost of human lives and of injuries. The human life values were themselves based upon government figures.
^^^^^ CB: Maybe I wasn't entirely clear on what Kenneth Campbell's original point was. In the Pinto case, not only was a human life given a dollar value, but it was determined (maybe even erroneously from the second post you sent) that because the cost of paying for a dead person's life in tort was less than making a standard modification of the Pinto, that they would let the people die , because the cost of paying for it was less ! That seems to have something to do with what he was getting at. I think they had to use approximate jury awards for wrongful death, as that would be what they would be paying out in lieu of making the change in the tank.
