"In Western countries and other liberal democracies, estimates for the value of a statistical life typically range from US$1 million—US$10 million; for example, the United States FEMA estimated the value of a statistical life at US$7.5 million in 2020." [1]
That's also not the meaning of Value of Life, which is a statistical evaluation. On a commercial plane there are almost certainly multiple people whose individual Value of Life projections exceed $10 million.
In many other cases, the value of life calculation for the very pilots of a commercial flight is less than $10 million.
This all goes to show that this calculation is not for what "each human life is worth". This is a statistical evaluation for determining what would need to be paid to an individual to engage in a dangerous activity or to be paid to a survivor after a person dies from an activity. When someone decides to work at a 7-11 in a crime-ridden area for a greater pay compared to a 7-11 in a safe family area, they perform a type of Value of Life calculation.
[1] From the first section of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life
But the key takeaway is that, for government policy purposes in the US, all lives are treated as having the same value and that value is about $10 million.
[0]: https://www.transportation.gov/office-policy/transportation-...
[1]: How this VSL was calculated: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/policy_guidance/ben...
[2]: General VSL calculation methods: https://law.vanderbilt.edu/phd/faculty/w-kip-viscusi/368_Val...
If you follow your link to the actual VSL guidance, you will see that. [1] There is even discussion regarding how advances in data science can be used for subgroup evaluation of VSLs.
[1] https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2021-03/D...
“Prevention of an expected fatality is assigned a single, nationwide value in each year, regardless of the age, income, or other distinct characteristics of the affected population, the mode of travel, or the nature of the risk.”
I think reasonable people can disagree on whether it ever makes sense to use multiple different VSLs for different types of person. I happen to think that those kind of adjustments do more harm than good. But it’s all (literally) academic — actual policy is set based on a single VSL.
