Preview

Can Monetary Value Of Life Be Measured?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
577 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Can Monetary Value Of Life Be Measured?
Many people question how the value of life should be measured. There is no true definition to the value of life because there are various perspectives that tie to it. From, assigning monetary value to a person’s life, or simply how much an individual embraces and loves their existence. Throughout the ages cultures have been trying to figure out how one’s life is worth. The Aztec Civilization conducted human sacrifices as a way to repay their debt to the gods. They believed a person life is worth giving up for to sustain and repay the gods. Modern day people are unlikely to sacrifice one another and are much different from the Aztecs. Today cultures give life a value and meaning by accepting and enjoying it. As stated by the nonprofit organization, the human life value calculator is based on the annual income earned in one’s whole lifespan and that is simply it. It calculates how much your life was worth. How sad would it be if your value was roughly $25,000? I personally would feel upset and devastated like I had no meaning and was simply alive to work. The lives of all people should be valued at the same price, if you are to put a monetary value. Calculating the value of life in terms of money can be very complex but if it were to be done it should be the same for everybody. I do not agree with putting a monetary value on a person’s life …show more content…
Feinberg explains why $250,000 is not enough for pain and suffering in the case of her now fatherless nephew (Ripley12). This can imply that the monetary value of life according to them is useless. All the pain and suffering of a loss to only get a minimum of $250,000 which is not merely enough for the family which now has to liv a life without a father. Maintaining a family without the man in the house is a difficult task, it leaves an emotional scar that no one has ever felt

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    A. Placing a price or level of importance on a human being’s life is heartless, greedy, and hypocritical. A person’s financial ranking should not determine their entitlement to a fine quality of life. Who are doctors and other health representatives to determine the importance of a person’s life? Doctors aren’t the birth creators of their patients, so they definitely aren’t entitled to establish their life’s value.…

    • 2280 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The value of life is also another important consideration. Religious believers wouldn't like to put a price tag on a life, as it is seen overall as priceless (being a gift from God). It wouldn't be possible to attempted to save a person's life 'regardless of the cost', because a price cannot be placed on a soul. However, other people would disagree a say, for example, the life of a wealthy royal is worth much more than the life of a begger or homeless person. And taking…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is hard to imagine a society in which we would place a monetary value on human life. The practice of slavery in early American history was a disturbing example. Beginning in the early seventeenth century, the demand for labor became increasingly important as plantations in the South were on the rise. Slaves were considered a cheap form of labor and highly valuable. The output they provided far exceeded the input of resources. According to History.com, African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. Following on this principle of economics, the acceptability of slaves as a value of a transaction encouraged the spread of the system. The rationale was that, the more and higher the quality of…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shavuos Ethos Analysis

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages

    No society before the Torah or without Torah’s influence has attributed intrinsic value to individual life. Without the Torah, government spending to heal or preserve life would be considered an absurd venture. The right to life, which the American Declaration of Independence considered "self-evident," was not evident to anyone that didn’t absorb Torah values.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyone has their own way on how they value life whether it’s cherishing friends, traveling around the world, or learning as much as you can before the day it all ends. Some people take minutes figuring out how they value this human life and some people take hours. There are so many voices that are very confident in their opinions such as Roger Ebert, Hamlet, Steve Jobs etc. Chris Jones interviews Roger Ebert after Ebert had surgery to remove his cancerous tissue near his right jaw. In the article “The Essential Man”, Roger Ebert shows how he values life and what he does everyday to expand his movie critiques.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Value is based on the amount of money that people will make in their lives. In the article, “What is a Life Worth?” by Amanda Ripley, after the catastrophic accident, the government attempts to compensate by giving money to victims’ families; however, the system it distributes money is unacceptable. When Ripley reveals, “That means a broker’s family will qualify for a vastly higher award than a window washer’s family” (Ripley 8). An individual’s life worth less than others when he or she had a low paying job. The lives of all people should be valued at the same price regardless of their jobs. However, the government views profession is a critical matter when it comes to identifies how much his or her life value is not only after the death but also when he or she is still alive. Furthermore, the author of the article “What Is the Value of a Human Life?”, Kenneth Feinberg, who also agrees with Ripley’s perspective. According to Feinberg, “Mr. Feinberg, my husband was a fireman and died a hero at the World Trade Center. Why are you giving me less money than the banker who represented Enron?” (Feinberg 3). Although they are in the same accident, the amount of money that they received is totally different. People began to raise the question why some family gets more than others. As a consequence of the government response, people believe their life worth nothing when they have low- paid jobs. One might object here that compare the value of life in jobs how much they are worth is fair. If people want to get treated equally, then they should work hard to earn respect from others. People should value life, not by how much money they make, but by how much they enjoy their…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Economics and Real Value

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1) Microeconomics is the branch of economics that deals with which of the following topics?…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ebert and Hamlet

    • 651 Words
    • 2 Pages

    value of his own life differs. A person’s life cannot be valued in money no matter what the…

    • 651 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Consider this question. Are you reading this right now? The fact that someone can read what I am writing about is something to be valued. It is a blessing to be and to read of write or type. It shows a level of knowledge and education that a lot of people in this world might not have. Furthermore, Roger Ebert writes in an interview, “When I am writing, my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be” (Jones 4). Roger Ebert was a journalist and movie critic who was diagnosed with cancer and then lost his jaw and his ability to speak. Even though he is sick and dying, the simple quality of being able to still write like he had before made his life valuable. Lastly, the very fact that you are alive and breathing shows that your life has value. Being able to live another day and breathe clean air is valuable. Life in itself is very valuable. If someone is ever wondering if they have value or if they are worth anything, just consider the fact that you woke up to live another day. That has to mean something! For fate to grant you another day means you are…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    No one wants to put a price on a human life but if we did I am sure everyone in this room would agree that it would be millions of dollars. This strongly backs up the point that everyone is equal which Peter Singer constantly uses as a strong argument. This means it is wrong to evaluate people based on how wealthy they are but instead we should give them money so that they are also equal in the wealth.…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Human Worth

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What is a life worth? In today’s society the people take an unbias approach towards the, issues regarding the value of a person’s life. There’s compelling articles and evidence provided by , Amanda Ripley, and The Human Life Value Calculators, that conclude logic, and emotion to impact how the value of a person is determined.…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Value to Life

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Society assigns the value of life under the terms of which life is actually worth more in dollars. Its unfortunate but there are too many instances in life where one person’s life is considered with higher value than others simply because of what they have and what they are willing to show for it. I remember a time when a family member of mine was…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Death with Dignity

    • 1657 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Quality of life or Quantity of life, do we have the right to choose? A person who is in a vegetative state, are they living or do they just exist? Is it quality or quantity? People with incurable, debilitating diseases, suffering from great pain.... Again, is it quality or quantity? Who decides whether a life is worth…

    • 1657 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I believe that the Federal Railroad Administration valued a statistical life at 6 million fairly. Public choices about safety require estimates of the willingness of people to trade off wealth for a reduction in the probability of death. Estimates of these trade-offs are used in evaluating public safety and in many other areas. Considering the average quality of life, the expected lifetime remaining, as well as the earning potential of a given person, 6 million is a reasonable number. In fact recently the EPA valued a human life at 7.4 million. They came up with this number when conducting a benefit-cost…

    • 825 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Capital Punishment

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages

    We are put on this world to experience life; however, if life is not valuable, what is valuable? Everyone has one life until the heart stops beating. Life is limited, the way which you personify your values depend on how you treat your life and the life of others. Capital punishment is a death sentence for a horrible crime. In Seventh Century B.C. 's Draconian Code of Athens, the only punishment for all crimes was death ("Death Penalty Information Center"). In America, nearly one thousand criminals have been executed since 1972. Surprisingly, thousands of innocent individuals have been sentenced the death penalty when they were convicted of a crime they did not commit. Although some people believe that death repays the victim’s family, it is not necessary to end a life when there are other options that can be taken and may even help society. Capital punishment should not be an acceptable form of crime discipline in our society as it is ineffective and inhumane.…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays