Quantify Suffering

Dr. J. E. mentioned on the phone this morning that he was trying to "speak the business language" and begin to put various alternatives into how politicians and capitalists talk. His overall theme was that a community must protect their "human capital". As I queried further - he said "how do you quantify human suffering?"

In the 80's, I remember working on the Human Resource Practice Aid for Accenture. One of the intellectual ponderances was how to get employees on the balance sheet - or -- how to quantify human capital. Does an employee depreciate or appreciate over time? The thought was that as we transition to a service economy it is human capital that "wins" in the corporate marketplace. As an example the only asset - real asset - Accenture has is it's 190,000 employees.

If human capital is like a machine - then as we age we depreciate. If it is the emotional and intellectual quantification then maybe some of us appreciate as we age. But what about the ups and downs - joy and suffering.

Mythbusters the other night tried to quantify pain with the length of time you can hold your hand in a bucket of ice. That would be one way to quantify pain and suffering. The results confirmed women tolerate pain better than men.

"Labor" on that one. :)