The Value of Life = $$$$$$$

Today I have been writing an essay for my Ethics module. Consequently I've been looking through business ethics book for my research as you might expect. Here's a lovely story I found about Ford. I read it once before, but seeing it again just refreshed my memory.
Once upon a time (in 1971 actually), Ford produced a car called a Ford Pinto. They had this wonderful idea that they were going to sell the car at no more than $2000 and it was to weigh no more than 2000lb's. Isn't that clever. After the car went to market, the lovely people at Ford found that there was a fault with the vehicle, and if it was in a rear end shunt at above 30 miles per hour, the fuel tank would explode, and the car would warp in such a way that the doors would jam, leaving the occupants trapped, and left to burn to death. Thankfully, the clever engineers at Ford found a solution, for just $11 per car, fitting a baffle (I don't know either) between the fuel tank and the bumper, would prevent this from happening. And this would save many many lives. They got their calculators out and worked out how much it will cost to put all the cars right.

$11 x 12.5 MILLION CARS SOLD = $137.5 MILLIONS

The very clever financiers at Ford also came up with a figure as to how many lives would be lost - 180. And also predicted 180 people would be badly injured (i.e limb loss) and with this information they got their calculators out again and did this calculation.

180 DEATHS x COMPENSATION PER DEATH ($200,000) = $36 MILLIONS

180 SERIOUS INJURIES x COMPENSATION PER INJURY ($67,000) = $12 MILLIONS

TOTAL COMPENSATION PAYOUT WOULD BE = $48 MILLIONS.

So all the lovely clever people at Ford sat in their cosy office looking at these two calculations, and after looking at them for a very long time one thought - Hang on a minute, if we don't fix the cars, and we don't tell anyone, shhhhhhhh, we will only have to pay $48 million, instead of $137.5 million, and we could save, like, $89.5 million, and we'll all still get a lovely bonus. So they all jumped up and down, and celebrated how clever they are, and as they predicted hundreds of people died in Ford Pintos. Aren't they lovely.
Watch what happens here. Don't worry it's nothing gruesome. http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1977/09/compress.mov


I phoned the guy at Skoda today to tell him I don't want his job. He was short with me, but I didn't want to waste my time, or his. I thought about it loads, and the whole package just wasn't that great. It wasn't just the car thing. So I'm going with my gut feeling. Although I would have liked to have known if I'd still got the job. I feel better now. In fact I feel really good today.

Do this personality test now. I found it in the grace pages. http://www.gesher.org/Myers-Briggs/keirsey%20temperament%20sorter.htm I'm an ESTP Artisan Promoter. I'm Extraverted Sensing Aided by Thinking. That might make more sense if you do the test.