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First day in a newspaper office, early 1980s: Editors shouting. Reporters muttering. Photographers bragging. Telex machines chattering. Typewriters clacking. Clouds of cigarette smoke drifting in the currents of an exhausted air conditioning system.

Despite this sensory overload your eyes are drawn to a poster on a wall, a reminder to all about the rules governing the coverage of global tragedies.

"The life of one Australian," the poster declares, "equals two Englishmen, four New Zealanders, eight Americans, 16 Europeans, 32 Chinese, 64 Africans..."

On it goes, the arithmetic of human worth growing more grotesque with every line, culminating in a final grim equation - an Australian life is worth 500,000 Bangladeshi lives. It's gallows humour, of course, the kind that thrives in places where endless bad news must be processed, polished and published before the next tragedy arrives.

But like all dark satire the poster carries an uncomfortable truth: not all deaths are treated equally.

Four decades later that crude equation feels less like a cynical joke and more like an instruction manual.

Consider the morbid mathematics of the past few weeks.

World cheers as a single American airman is rescued by special forces in Iran's Zagros Mountains.

World shrugs as more than 3000 die during relentless air raids on Lebanon and Tehran.

World cheers as four astronauts splash down safely in the Pacific after perilous re-entry to Earth.

World shrugs as bodies of hundreds of children and medical workers are pulled from the rubble of flattened Middle Eastern neighbourhoods .

Callous? No. A little racist? Perhaps. The truth? We are selective with our empathy and the reason is deeply and stubbornly human.

Psychologists call it the "identifiable victim effect" - we care more about one person, or a small group of people we can easily picture in our minds, than thousands of faceless victims.

Why do you think international charities pitch images of individual children living in squalor while telling us how a measly 50 cents a day can improve their lives and those of others in their village? Our brains are wired for storytelling. Our empathy requires a narrative - preferably with an image to tug at our heartstrings.

But when confronted by the suffering of an anonymous multitude we disengage. A rescue effort for a little girl trapped at the bottom of a well will be broadcast live to a compassionate and rapt worldwide audience. Remember the Beaconsfield mine rescue that captivated the world?

But blink and you'll miss the images of the latest African nation gripped by famine.

It's why the phrase so often misattributed to Stalin - "A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic" - contains a perverse truth about the human condition. It's not because we don't care. It's because we cannot care enough.

Our empathy is not an infinite resource. When I encountered that poster with its crude truth hanging in my first newspaper office, bad news arrived in the morning paper. If you wanted updates you turned to radio and television. But algorithms now deliver tragedy by the minute. We are exposed to more catastrophe than any previous generation yet there is no escaping our inability to handle it.

Other factors play a role. "Ingroup empathy bias" - identifying more with those who share our nationality, culture and even our favourite football team - is little more than ancient tribal instincts dressed in modern clothing. There's also "psychic numbing" - as the numbers involved in a tragedy soar, our emotional response cannot scale equally. It collapses instead.

It's not a flattering picture. We'd like to think we're better than that - shouldn't human compassion be limitless? But the reality is that we live in a world built on assumptions as crude as that old newsroom poster.

For years governments have been employing an economic term - the Value of a Statistical Life - when deciding how to spend funds for everything from road safety to healthcare and clean air initiatives. In Australia that number currently values a life at $5.87 million.

Is that so different to the gallows humour of that newsroom poster? It's a tough question without a simple answer.

Which is why, like our finite reserves of empathy, it's easier to shrug and look away.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Is the constant coverage of tragic events to blame for our apparent lack of empathy? How do you cope with the endless barrage of bad news? Do you contribute to international charities helping victims of war and famine? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

- Australian farmers will receive fertiliser faster as border processes for imports will be streamlined just as sowing season begins. The federal government announced the measure, in consultation with Fertilizer Australia, as the Middle East conflict continues to put pressure on fertiliser and fuel supplies.

Sixty per cent of the supply of urea to Australia for fertiliser travels through the Strait of Hormuz, which has remained closed since US-Israeli strikes launched on Iran in February.

- It is not just about the office playlist: artificial intelligence technology could deepen Australia's generation gap in the workplace. A study released by analytics firm Amplitude on Thursday found older workers were significantly less likely to trust decisions by AI tools than their younger colleagues, creating tension between the groups.

But the trend could also have a dire effect on business productivity, the study warns, as senior managers fail to provide guidance about its use. The findings come weeks after the federal government signed a deal with US firm Anthropic to share details of AI adoption in Australia, and as it established the AI Safety Institute.

- More Australians will switch to an electric car if petrol prices continue to rise, a study has found, with two in five naming electric and plug-in hybrid electric models as their preferred vehicle choices. The trend has emerged as more motorists named fuel savings as their top reason to go electric rather than environmental benefits or energy conservation.

Research firm Pureprofile revealed the findings on Thursday in its third electric vehicle report, which also found men and millennials were most likely to make the swap. The results come after sales of new electric vehicles soared in March, and as the Australian Automobile Association called for more charging stations funded by a road-user tax.

THEY SAID IT: "The value of life can be measured by how many times your soul has been deeply stirred." - Soichiro Honda.

YOU SAID IT: Jenna wrote about spending money on your kids and grandkids.

Cindy wrote: 'When my husband recently retired at 60, we were in a fortunate position to 'gift' our two children $50,000 each with no expectation of repayment. One was able to finally get his foot into the property market and the other pay down her substantial HECS debt. Giving with a warm hand allows us to see the impact our giving has made."

Susan wrote: "Unlike the wealthy baby boomers I keep hearing about I don't have a great deal of capital and I would rather keep that little for emergencies. Things break down and I would rather not have to go to the kids for assistance when this happens. I have one living at home, again rather than still, but have focussed over the years on supporting with education costs which can lead to higher paying and more interesting jobs.

"I agree with your thinking. This is a similar principle, adjusted to my financial conditions. If I am around when the grandkids are older I may be able to apply the same practice to them as well."

Paul wrote: "Thanks for the thought provoking item. It seems to me if the objective is to reduce house prices by removing or reducing investment concessions, then encouraging parents to boost their kids' house funds is working in the opposite direction. Those kids lucky enough to have well-off parents will be able to bid more for housing at the expense of those less lucky.

"The entitlement sentiment of millennials gets further built into the system in that the expectation becomes that parents will fund their life choices well into their own adulthood. And when it comes time for the aged home for the parents, their funds have been diminished and the kids don't want them to live with them - so the parents are left in the less than desirable facilities. But by then we will have dementia - so I guess won't know any better."

Jenni wrote: "I agree 100% with Jenna! We gave all our kids help with their first house. After that it's been more nuanced - the oldest two are probably wealthier than we are, while the youngest struggles. (A paediatric cardiologist, senior developer at Google vs a social worker). The youngest also has the only two grandchildren. So we have provided free childcare 3 days a week, help with the mortgage, pay school fees and take the family on holiday.

"It can be exhausting and sometimes a financial impact, but we wouldn't change it for anything. We are off to Fiji for a week at the end of June and the kids are so looking forward to it. The parents as well, as they couldn't afford it. We would definitely have a more relaxing holiday on our own, but the memories would be inferior! We took them to Port Douglas last year and it was so much fun.

"I don't always agree with Jenna, but when it comes to families she really gets it!"

Vena wrote: "One of my sons is a single Dad with 4 children to raise .. I had to use my deceased husbands super to buy a house for him for minimal rent to me .. who wants to rent to a guy with four kids .I have the peace of knowing they can't lose the roof over their heads. On a lighter note I took his two youngest to NZ for two weeks to visit my other son & family . It was joyous fun .. exploring the South Island,playing in snow, family all together . Cherished memories."

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