Imposing large costs on the private sector causes deaths because people become poorer and less employed; data suggest roughly a $7 million expenditure causes at least one statistical death, so a $40 million regulatory expenditure (not unusual) probabilistically causes five or six or more deaths, which itself violates the precautionary principle.

causalpending

Speaker

Cass Sunstein

Evidence Quote

if you increase the expense of an activity such as working if you impose big costs on the private sector then people are going to die because they'll be poorer and less employed so there's data suggesting a seven million dollar expenditure will cause at least one death

Source

Cass Sunstein on Worst-case Scenarios 11/19/2007EconTalk
Created: 6/15/2026, 9:17:23 AM

My Notes

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