The Best Things In Life Are Free

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Recommended: Importance of values and morality

The connotation of the word “value” is ambiguous. As value pertains to an individual’s life, it could be perceived as regarding monetary compensation, emotional perspective, and contribution. Unfortunately, modern society is looking at the idea of valuing life completely wrong. Life and death should be looked at emotionally as an alternative to financially. Compensation is being looked at subjectively and must be changed to being objective. The value of life should be based on recognition of positive emotions, personal values, and artistic and intellectual merit.

Compensation for an individual’s death has become a way to help families that may face financial strain after the death of the family member. The idea is gracious but unintentionally degrading. Led by an avaricious legal community, society has now begun placing a dollar value on life after death; this only stirs up problems due to the way a distinctive amount is calculated for each individual based on his or her certain circumstances.

Deemed fair the by the government, the Human Life Value Calculator is intended to give a rough estimate of an individual’s financial contribution to his or her family. By plugging in a few numbers: age, marital status, the amount of children, and annual income, the calculator computes a cold numerical estimate for a life. A different amount is given for each death, producing controversy among the families. Annual income is probably the biggest driver of the calculated worth of life in the Human Life Value Calculator is annual income. Under the Calculator’s reasoning, the life of one of the investment bankers that helped precipitate financial ruin on our economy, while at the same time making over a hundred million dollars a ye...

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...us that boxer Mike Tyson’s life is worth more than Abraham Lincoln’s or that Brittney Spears is worth more than Albert Einstein. I doubt if there is a historian or a scientist anywhere that would agree with that assessment, nor would almost anyone else.

The real question is how to put a number on non-financial contributions. Just because it is difficult, does not mean it should not be done. A person’s value is so much more than the amount of money she or he makes. Much of a person’s good may be done for free as evidenced by the following questions. How much knowledge do they impart to others? How many people do they make laugh? How many people do they help? What beauty have they added to life? How much positive energy have they imparted to others? Answers to questions like these and many others need to find their way into the Human Life Value Calculator.

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