I am fascinated by a recent study showing that highway fatalities in 2008 were down 9.1% over the previous year, and how it puts death statistics in perspective.

Preliminary figures being released by the government Monday show that 37,313 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year. That’s 9.1 percent lower than the year before, when 41,059 died, and the fewest since 1961, when there were 36,285 deaths.

That’s more lives saved than the number of people that died in the terrorist attacks “man-made disasters” on 9/11/01, which started our War on Terror “overseas contingency operations.” Think about that for a second. We have been in a recession for over a year, but it has saved 3,746 lives in the process. Suppose somebody were to come to you on 9/10/01 and say that you had a choice to make: save 3,000 lives or go into a recession where 5 million people will lose their jobs (that’s the change in employment since this recession began). What choice would you make? Is the employment of 1,666 people worth one person’s life? Is it worth devastating one family to make 1,666 other families not have to worry about losing their homes or feeding their children? If not, how much is a life worth? What about 1 million families? There has to be a number there somewhere, one which probably differs for each person. These are all difficult questions that economists have to deal with sometimes, as when after 9/11 the government decided to give money to the families of the victims. Families were compensated based on a complex algorithm that included the deceased’s age, employment and earning potential. Bond traders at Cantor Fitzgerald were paid more than dishwashers at Windows on the World. Is that fair? Perhaps, perhaps not. But it really makes you think about what’s “fair,” doesn’t it?

On a related note, there are over 50,000 people currently waiting for a kidney transplant in this country (statistics vary from 55,000 to 70,000), and over 3,000 of them die every year waiting for a transplant. That’s one 9/11 every year. It’s not as graphic or as visible, but the numbers are the same. It is illegal to sell a kidney in this country because, if it were legal, the poor would apparently be exploited and the myth of the person waking up in a bathtub full of ice with a kidney missing would come true; or so that’s what we are told. If selling a kidney were legal, the overwhelming majority of those lives would be saved. To everyone who has been saying lately that the government should legalize marijuana because it will help the economy and increase tax revenues, I say this: legalize kidney sales, as it will prevent the equivalent of one 9/11 every year. What’s more important: getting high or saving lives? Where are your priorities?

P.S. Make sure you’re an organ donor and that your family members know this.