The Cost of the Golden Gate Bridge (1937) vs. Its Suicide Deterrent Net (2023) | Hacker News Reader

The Cost of the Golden Gate Bridge (1937) vs. Its Suicide Deterrent Net (2023)

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You can literally put a price on human life that is what insurance companies do. Also, the government does the same thing. FEMA estimates the value of statical life to be $11.6M which is a generous figure. Most western countries estimate between $1M - $10M. I will say it might be cheaper if they invested in preventing someone from getting to point they would consider suicide. Anyways, $10M * 30 people, you are looking at $300 million.

You can look up the Value of Statistical Life (VSL) here. https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_stan...

This is kind of simple to put in perspective. How much would it cost to build the Golden Gate Bridge in 2023, then take today's cost of the net and figure out what percentage of that it is. It's probably a small percentage now and would have been in the 1930's

The point being made is that the cost of building things has increased a lot.

$700 million in 1937 is like $14.86 billion now. $400 million now is like $18.8 million in 1937.

$700m is the inflation-adjusted figure FYI. The Golden Gate Bridge cost something like $30m at the time.

There is a note in the image saying inflation adjusted.

In fact, the quoted $700m is a generous figure. Wikipedia says original cost was $35m budget ($550m in 2021):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge#Construct...

Another contrast with today: it was completed ahead of schedule and under budget (which is also mentioned in another footnote).

I don’t put a price on human life. 11 died during the construction of the bridge, which had a safety net.

https://www.resetsanfrancisco.org/faq/how-many-people-died-d...

From 1937 to 2012, there were 1400 suicides.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicides_at_the_Golden_Gate_Br...

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