The EPA just valued a human life at $0. That’s not just a moral crisis — it’s a market crisis

In my recent Fortune opinion piece on how Trump-era policies are driving capital out of capitalism, I argued that markets cannot function without trust, transparency, and a shared sense of purpose. Since then, the Administration took another step to take that argument to its logical—and frankly terrifying—next step.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did something extraordinary as a preface to revoking the Endangerment Finding—they revised how they evaluate air pollution rules by not counting the benefits of lives saved and illnesses avoided. The technical term for what disappeared is the “value of a statistical life” (VSL)—previously measured at approximately $11.7 million per person. In its place? Nothing. Zero. As the New York Times reported, when it comes to regulatory decisions on fine particulate matter and ozone, a human life now carries a market value of $0.

The EPA’s rationale is bureaucratically brutal—and cruel and radical in its implications. The agency claims that quantifying health benefits is too uncertain. Unverified compliance costs to industry, however, are conveniently concrete. To be clear, the ledger now tallies only........

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