The Cost of the Life-boat Service compared with the Value of the Lives Saved.

No one can calculate the full value of a life saved, or a life risked. But certain calculations can be made, and have been made, by Insurance Companies and others, based on the wage-earning capacity of a man and the cost of providing for those dependent on him. The following note has been sent to the Institution by one of the leading life assurance companies in Great Britain, in which, as will be seen, the cost to the Institution of each life which it saved last year is compared with the minimum cost simply of providing money, it is generally agreed that a man or a woman is a very definite asset during the working period of life, and a very definite liability at other periods.

This note must not therefore be regarded as showing a lack of sense of proportion in that it neglects the non-material aspect of a life. Its object is simply to show that, leaving aside the non-material and incalculable value of a life, the value of even a part of the material side is sufficiently great to justify the expenses incurred by any of our great VALUE TO DEPENDENTS OF ASSUMED INDIVIDUAL MALE LIVES SAVED.

: Capital value of Age of first Age of secondj £1 10 0 weekly child uring 30 30 40 50 60 27 27 37 47 57 3 12 £ 1,508 1,508 1,355 1,160 923 Capital value of 51- weekly per £ 140 279 48 i Total Capital i value of the life 1,648 1,787 1,403 1.160 923 for the dependents of men who lose their lives. This cost naturally is greater the younger the man, but it will be seen that even in the case of a man of sixty, the cost of providing for his widow is much greater than the average cost of saving a life last year. It need only be added that the note was not prepared in consultation with the Institution; nor did the Institution ask for it. It represents a quite independent calculation.] While it is not contended that a human life can be equated to a sum of Services and Institutions in saving life, or, to the same end, in combating disease.

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of America published some two years ago a series of studies on " The Value of Human Life " in the pages of its monthly Statistical Bulletin. Briefly, the value of a life is there expressed as the present capital worth of all future earnings less the present capital worth of all future net costs. These studies were, however, of a very detailed nature and from that point of view not alto- gether suitable for our present purpose.

Moreover, the method of treatment necessitated separate consideration of persons in different ranks of society, and it is felt that such distinctions should be omitted from this note.

In order to keep this note on simple lines the only point considered is the financial value of a man to his dependents alone, although from other points of view, it would, on the lines of the American studies, be possible to show in most cases a further and additional financial value. It is understood that about 80 per cent, of the lives saved by the Royal National Life-boat Institution are A.B.'s in the Mercantile Marine earning an average weekly wage of about £3 3s. This fact guides the argument, but does not affect its conclusion, unless it could be proved that a very large proportion of the lives actually saved have been without dependents of any kind whatsoever.

With the same idea of keeping the note on simple lines, no attempt has been made to find the average age of lives saved, or the average number of dependents per life saved. Consideration has merely been given to assumed individual cases. The examples taken, however, indicate clearly that the expense incurred in rescuing life from shipwreck is well justified economically, even if regard is had only to this one aspect of a life's value, the cost of providing for the dependents.

It has been assumed that £1 10s. is the minimum weekly amount necessary to the continued existence of the widow, and 5s. the minimum weekly amount necessary for the maintenance of each child up to the age of sixteen. While the bread-winner is alive he provides these amounts or more ; should he die he cannot provide them. The capitalised value of these weekly amounts during the remaining lifetime of the wife, or in the case of the children until they attain the age of sixteen, seems to be a fair minimum financial value of the life to the dependents, and the calculations are based on the mortality shown by the 1911 Census, with Interest at 4 per cent.

The minimum weekly amounts assumed are possibly open to argument, but there is plenty of margin if even smaller amounts are taken.

It is observed that in 1928, the expenses of the National Life-boat Institution were £319,905, or £541 in respect of each life saved. This assumes that no services other than life-saving are performed by the Institution. This is, of course, not the case ; but it does show that the maximum expense is well below the minimum value of each life saved..