2026/01/28 星期三

Life Value–Centered Economic Governance A Civilizational Framework for the AI Era

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日期:2026/01/13   IAE 

Executive Summary

Life Value–Centered Economic Governance

A Civilizational Framework for the AI Era

Prepared for
United Nations System Principals
(UNDP, DESA, ECOSOC, WHO, UNGA-related policy processes)

Author
Frank Chen (陳俊吉)
Founder, Global Charity Economicism
GCWPA × NATS Think Tank | IAE Global 

文本已依 UN Senior Officials / Principals Briefing 標準撰寫：高度濃縮、可決策、可跨部門引用、非倡議式，可直接置於 UN Policy White Paper 首頁 Executive Summary。

  • ✔ Principals-level, decision-oriented

  • ✔ UN-compatible, non-ideological language

  • ✔ Directly usable in UN Policy White Papers

1. Core Policy Message (For Principals)

This White Paper advances a central proposition:

Life Value must be positioned as a primary objective of economic governance, not a secondary outcome of growth or efficiency.

In the AI era, economic systems optimized solely for price efficiency and short-term output increasingly generate unintended consequences: delayed access to essential services, preventable loss of life value, escalating public expenditure, and declining civilizational resilience.

Life Value–Centered Economic Governance provides a unifying framework to realign economic policy with long-term human sustainability, fiscal stability, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

2. Why This Matters Now

Three converging dynamics make this reframing urgent:

  1. Public Health and Inequality
    Price- and income-based access barriers continue to delay healthcare, education, and basic services, transforming preventable risks into long-term public liabilities.

  2. AI-Driven Acceleration
    AI systems dramatically increase efficiency and scale, but without normative constraints, they risk amplifying life value delays, exclusion, and systemic fragility.

  3. Fiscal Sustainability
    Reactive spending on crises, emergencies, and late-stage interventions is structurally more costly than preventive, access-first governance.

These challenges are not isolated sectoral failures, but indicators of a civilizational misalignment in policy objectives.

3. What Is Life Value (Policy Definition)

For governance purposes, Life Value is defined as:

The immediately accessible capacity of individuals and societies to sustain life, health, dignity, safety, and long-term continuity.

Life Value has three policy-relevant characteristics:

  • Non-deferrability: delayed access produces irreversible loss

  • Non-substitutability: life value cannot be compensated after loss

  • Fiscal externality: life value loss manifests as future public cost

Accordingly, Life Value should be treated as a first-order governance variable.

4. Limits of Price-Centered Economic Governance

Traditional economic governance prioritizes:

  • Price signals

  • Marginal utility of consumption

  • Cost minimization

While effective in non-critical markets, these tools perform poorly in life-critical sectors (health, education, environment, social protection), where price-induced delay leads to:

  • Higher preventable mortality and morbidity

  • Greater inequality in life outcomes

  • Escalating long-term fiscal exposure

This reveals a structural gap between economic optimization and life preservation.

5. Life Value Economics: Key Insight

Life Value Economics introduces a corrective lens:

  • Life Value Function: evaluates availability of life-preserving capacity

  • Life Value Utility: measures whether activities enhance or diminish life sustainability

  • Marginal Utility of Life Value: recognizes that some goods and services increase life value with use (e.g., preventive healthcare, education, environmental protection)

This contrasts with traditional marginal utility models that often diminish with consumption and may erode long-term life outcomes.

6. Governance Implications (At a Glance)

Adopting Life Value–Centered Economic Governance implies a strategic reorientation:

Conventional Approach Life Value–Centered Approach
Price efficiency Life accessibility
Reactive expenditure Preventive investment
Short-term optimization Long-term life preservation
Sectoral policy silos Cross-SDG coherence

This is not a rejection of markets or technology, but a redefinition of their purpose.

7. Relevance to the SDGs

Life Value provides a unifying evaluative framework across SDGs:

  • SDG 1 & 3: protection from catastrophic life risks

  • SDG 4 & 10: reduction of life value inequality

  • SDG 8 & 9: growth and innovation aligned with human sustainability

  • SDG 13–16: climate action, peace, and institutional resilience

It strengthens coherence without altering existing mandates.

8. AI Era Considerations for Principals

In AI-enabled governance, Life Value functions as a boundary condition:

  • AI efficiency gains are legitimate when they reduce life value delay

  • Algorithmic governance requires explicit life accessibility safeguards

  • Human dignity and life preservation must constrain automated decision-making

This approach supports responsible AI deployment at scale.

9. Strategic Value for the UN System

For the UN system, Life Value–Centered Economic Governance offers:

  • A shared cross-agency language

  • A preventive approach to fiscal and social risk

  • Enhanced legitimacy of development and AI governance frameworks

  • Improved alignment between economic policy and civilizational sustainability

10. Concluding Message for UN Principals

A civilization cannot be considered sustainable if its economic systems allow life to be delayed, diminished, or depleted by design.

Positioning Life Value at the core of economic governance enables growth, innovation, and fiscal responsibility to operate in service of humanity’s long-term survival and dignity in the AI era.