Value on a human life
Is it possible for a person to be worth more than another just because of different lifestyles? Society seems to think so. An individual usually values life as a time to cherish moments with loved ones. People also value life with sympathy, making sure that lessons are learned after mistakes, and always moving forward, never looking back. However, society sees it in a whole different perspective. Society values life in a logical and financial way. People will always different opinions about valuing life, some agreeable and some disagreeable. Individuals should not think about the value of a human life in an emotional way, but logical way and society should think of it logically, not emotionally.
Not one person was worth a penny. In, What Is a Life Worth by Amanda Ripley, she mentions "...when a man died, he took his legal claims with him...the courts started to put a dollar value on a life-after death" (1). This means that years back, no one would get money for the death of their loved ones until the courts got involved. Even after the courts got included, not everyone got the same amount of money. Now, there are people who are worth more or even less than others. In the article What Is The Value Of A Human Life?, Kenneth Feinberg points out, “ The law required that I give more money to the stockbroker, the bond trader and the banker than to the waiter, the policemen, the fireman and the soldier at the Pentagon” (2). That is how society works. When people realized the difference in amounts of money, complaints began. People thought it was unfair that a banker would get more than a soldier from the Pentagon. Society sees the life earning s for each person, and that is how they get the estimated amount...
... middle of paper ...
...tart complaining for more money because the sufferings and pain is too much. However, society’s method of assigning a specific amount of value on a person could be a good method. People choose the lives and dream jobs they want, therefore, they deserve the amount they get. So what now? Should people try hard to change the fact that some are worth more than others? Every person that tries, can be close to making a difference and getting the justice that is wanted by many.
Works Cited
9/11 Death Statistics. Web. 26 Sep. 2012. http://www.statisticsbrain.com/911-death-statistics/ Ross, Stephen. The Harvest Fields: Statistics 2013. Web. http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/greatc.html Wolf, Catherine G. Fighting ALS and Insurance Denials. abc news, 2013. Web. 12 Sep. 2013.
http://abcbews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/09/12/fighting-als-and-insurance-denials
Ehrenreich states “…the United States, for all its wealth, leaves its citizens to fend for themselves — facing market-based rents, for example, on their wages alone. For millions of Americans, that $10 — or even $8 or $6 — hourly wage is all there is.” (Ehrenreich 214) A large portion of us human beings in society today, only care about making money to benefit ourselves rather than those less fortunate. People who have worked their entire lives on low wages may never experience luxuriousness due to the greed of our employers and government. Those graced with a generous amount of money tend to leave others in need of assistance, thusly causing inhuman nature to develop within our communities. Ehrenreich experiences this when she found out that her own self-esteem lowered at the hands of her employers who treated their workers as disposable. These employers as well as their companies, devalue a worker to essentially keep them powerless against them. Many of the job interviews she had gone through avoided any discussion of wages because, the employers wanted to keep the paychecks at a bare minimum. In most situations within our community workplace, a worker is not compensated correctly for his or her labor. Most of the human beings today would do just anything to stay wealthy, even if it means devaluing another. Most of our society spends their lifetimes
In the article, What Is a Life Worth? by Amanda Ripley, she explains that compensation was given to families of the 911 tragedy to reimburse them of their loss, so that they can maintain their lifestyle. For instance, “Congress created the fund as a safety net for the victims’ families to ensure that they maintain something resembling their current standard of living” (Ripley 76). Economically speaking, all lives are not equal because of where a person stands financially. People who are more successful and have a higher income, should receive a higher amount when being compensated. For example, a stockbrokers family should receive more than the amount of a dishwashers family because of the difference in their incomes. Amanda Ripley describes the system and how the compensation calculus works when she says, “First, the government will estimate how much a victim would have earned over his or her lifetime had the planes never crashed... To estimate this amount, each family was handed an easy-to-read chart on the way into the meeting: Find your loved one’s age and income and follow your finger to the lucky number. Note that the lifetime earnings have been boosted by a flat $250,000 for “pain and suffering”―noneconomic losses, they are called. Tack on an extra $50,000 in pain and suffering for a spouse and for each child.” (Ripley 75). Compensation is cruel but it is not trying to put a value on someone’s life, it’s simply
This is a very prideful way to view society. I believe that if a man works hard, he should be rewarded and can accumulate wealth that way. Not given money from the rich who worked hard to get wealth.
Facts about the attacks on the World Trade Center, WTC, on 911 - September 11th, 2001. (n.d.). WTC 9/11 World Trade Center 911 5th Anniversary Memorial Music Video. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from http://www.wtc911.us/wtc_911_facts.html
“Interactive 9/11 Timelines.” 9/11 Memorial. National September 11 Memorial & Museum. 2014. Web. 21 May 2014.
In society, often our perspective of people is shaped by their socioeconomic status. People center their values based upon various other origins, such as money or other material things, as opposed to personality to grasp a more authentic understanding of a person.
Every cultures has their own way to define the values. What could be of value in one country could be invaluable in a different country. For example, in Mexico there are places within the same country where the values are measured in different types of ways, such as; in a low-income scenario morality is of great value and in a high-income scenario money and power determine their values of life in a different manor. Everything depends in the social background you are born into that determines how you will live life this term would be called ascribed status” a position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life”(Henslin, 2015, pg.102).
... all, we must not forget there comes a time when a worker’s life and happiness is worth more than the hourly wage he is paid.
As the old saying goes, money is power. As the statistics show, some people have an insane amount of money, yet their fellow countrymen have close to nothing. In a struggling economy, unfair distribution of wealth can create real problems and unimaginable hardships for some people. For example, millions of people pay $2 for a bottle of designer water, while millions more live on less than $2 a day. If this is to one day change, wealthy people must adopt a much more magnanimous conviction towards their money.
There is no amount that can be given to degrade ourselves as human beings. Even if we have wronged someone or something has wronged us, that doesn’t give off less value. No matter what you do we are all created with rights that can never be taken from us because we all withhold a value and a sense of belonging in life. On the website real clear politics, author Michael Gerson writes an article “The Value of a Human LIfe” and discusses how much the human life is worth. He states “there is no human right to forfeit all our rights. And our dignity exists even if we cease to see it.” This quote insinuates that we all have rights as humans that can not be taken away and we all withhold self-worth even if we can not see it within ourselves. It is crucial to understand that although you may devalue yourself, you are still important and obtain life within
Who decides how much someone's life is worth? Is it even morally right to put a price tag on someone's life? I believe that there should never be a price tag for how much someone's life is worth. Every life is unique and cannot simply be replaced. Every life should be treated the same no matter what the circumstance.
I am well aware of global poverty statistics and I do agree that if the most affluent people banded together, global poverty can altogether be abolished. However, I definitely cosign the fact that, what I work for is mine, what I own is mine and I am entitled to it. John Arthur suggests that equality and entitlements are both of equal importance when the topic is our social moral code, which is a system that we follow to guide us and that we use to make decisions. For example, as a full time college student, I work 35 hours a week, getting paid an inadequate amount, - which is besides the point - I see a homeless man begging for money, and my options are to either take the Peter Singer approach and give him money, because I feel the need to lessen global poverty even though it’s a small step towards improvement, or I can take the John Arthur approach and simply keep it moving and not even bother to contribute whether it be to lessen or worsen the issue of global poverty. It may sound selfish, but it is what it is and I simply see it as I’m entitled to my earnings. I’m more inclined to choose the option of not increasing or decreasing the problem at hand because I feel if roles were switched it wouldn’t even be an option for someone to help me even in the slightest way. We are all equal but however, that doesn’t mean financially or physically, it is in terms of we are all
There are many rich and poor people in the world today, in our own country and in others. We have classified by how much they can afford and they are put into a class system. It’s hard for everyone in a country to be equal in the sense of how much money they make. Adriana Delgado says, “The vast differences between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, will be the catalyst for the best intentions to be rewarded with ungratefulness and contempt, creating resentment and mistrust between the classes.” there is always going to be problems between the rich and poor, because one sometimes is held higher than the
The goal of the government monetary compensation was to provide a more stable economic situation for the families that depended on these people for the majority income. Ripley interviewed a colourful array of people, all of whom had different opinions, especially those who were outraged by the amount they received. Needless to say, the vast majority blamed the government for an unequal and unjust way of going about the distribution of money, bringing in the actual value of life, rather than the financial compensation. For example, a woman who was killed in the Pentagon left no dependants and therefore her parents were eligible for money. Her father claimed, ‘“I guarantee she loved her daddy as much as she loved her mom.... ...
..., a person who earns $25,000 is happier than a person who makes $125,000 and an employee who makes $500,000 is only slightly happier than someone who makes $55,000. Lastly, there are more important things in life that and make you happy, for example, friends. They don’t come with a price tag, and if they do, you definitely need new friends. Money won’t make you happy since good times can’t be bought. You don’t need a fancy vacation to have a good time; it’s just a matter of who you spend it with. Over the years, humans have blown the value of money way out of proportion. People make it seem like if you’re not filthy rich, then you won’t live a good life but it’s not true. You can lack money and yet still live a perfect, happy life.