Life Worth Amanda Ripley Analysis

1287 Words3 Pages

What is a human life worth? Most people make a personal choice to value life differently, rather than just thinking about it on an economical mindset. When it comes to death, there is nothing you can do. After a tragedy, depending on if you have life insurance or not, the government will compensate for your loss to aid your family financially, not emotionally. When determining life value, the government must take into account the many factors that could affect how much a life is worth. The way we think we should be valued is very different from how the government and insurance companies believe. It is fair that the government puts a dollar value on human life, we are not all equal. All life has value but when it comes to compensation, it should …show more content…

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 …show more content…

“What is a human life worth?” will always be a question that I don’t quite know the answer to. No matter what you do, how you chose to value your life is entirely up you. Everyone lives life differently so the monetary value of a person will be different. Whether you believe all lives should be handled as equal or if you chose to invest in life insurance, you cannot find the true value of life when thinking of all those legalities. Happiness is what the value of life ultimately should be all

Show More
Related

  • Argument for The Abolishment of Capital Punishment GCSE

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    Do two wrongs make a right? That is the question you should ask yourself. How can one life be worth more than another?s? Would you like to have your dignity, and even your basic human rights to stripped away from you at the flick of a switch or the pull of a trigger?

    Read More

  • 9/11: The Value Of Life

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    When situations arise and people die or become ill a value has to be placed on their life to determine if they are going to be healed or if their family is going to be compensated for their loss. The value of life has a variety of interpretations based on the approach a person decides to take. Some people think of human life with an economic point of view which can led to certain deceased citizens receiving more money for accidents than others. The economic view also says that if a surgery is going to cost the government to much money then the person who needs the surgery should not get it. On the other hand, some people look at it emotionally and say that everyone should get an equal amount of money for incidents that occur. People who look

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

    648 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ng prisoners on death row alone costs 90,000 dollars a year for housing and staffing extra guards.(3) Thirteen years is the average time a person will spend on death row so that is slightly over a million dollars that will be spent on one person coming out of the taxpayers money. Even the morally ambiguous are being affected by the decision to keep this practice in place. In any era, even outside the economic downturn our country is facing right now, that is too much money to throwing down the toilet.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Physician Assisted Suicide

    1224 Words  | 3 Pages

    They should have a right to their body and die with dignity if they choose. While I do agree that every person should have dignity. The right to death is not really a human right at all. Washington v. Glucksberg in the US Supreme Court Majority Opinion on June 26, 1997:

    Read More

  • It's Time to Kill the Death Penalty

    2443 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many say that the cost is not a reason to end the death penalty, and that regardless of the high price, it is necessary. Some say without question that over time life without parole cases cost more than death penalty cases (Top 2 of 4). This is because these prisoners have to be paid to be taken care of for many years whereas the death penalty inmates spend less time in prison. A multitude of studies have stated that death penalty cases cost more than life without parole cases, however “Justice for All estimates that LWOP cases will cost $1.2 million-$3.6 million more than equivalent death penalty cases.” The way the person is executed is one of the biggest factors that accounts for the considerable cost of the death penalty. Other methods of execution exist that are cheaper such as hanging and then re-using the rope or having a firing squad using volunteered guns (Does 2 of 5). It has also been said that if the steps of the execution are handled properly and effectively, that the cost of execution is less than caring for a murderer for life. In th...

    Read More

  • Hamlet And Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every life is priceless; there is nothing as valuable and as genuine as a human being. No matter the color, gender, religion, beliefs, I think that if you are alive and breathing, you still have value. Many people choose to see the value of people in what they have accomplished, what they have invested, or the obstacles they face, but in reality the value of life is not in materialistic things, or issues we go through, but it is our dignity we all withhold within us. Overall, it is vital to apprehend that when looking at the value of life, we are able to see in a view that surpasses all of the mess ups, failures, and setbacks. That looks past all of the achievements, accomplishments, and profits.

    Read More

  • Pojman Death Penalty

    1270 Words  | 3 Pages

    Do you believe that an individual with a learning disability, or a coma patient, or a person who has been institutionalized all their life has any less right to life than you or I? How about drug addicts, soldiers who come back with PTSD and struggle with emotional issues, or people who commit vehicular manslaughter on a snowy, dark night? These individuals either at fault or not, but no one would doubt they all have the right to a life. There are no exceptions to the rule, and there is no reason anyone’s right should be stripped

    Read More

  • Summary Of Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

    490 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Abortion: A Matter of Human Rights and Safety

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    sanctity of life or whether one life is more valuable than another, it gives us something to

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Right To Die

    1856 Words  | 4 Pages

    Life or Death? I see it fitting to start off by actually explaining what “Right to Die” is. The Right to Die is a principle based on a person’s choice to terminate their life or to endure voluntary euthanasia. The two Supreme Court cases that relate to the constitutional Right to Die are Cruzan by Cruzan V. Director, Missouri Department of Health and Washington V. Glucksberg . The first of these cases is based on the constitutional right of the state to interfere with medical decisions. Whether the state has a right to withhold the parent’s decision to remove life-sustaining support from their child. While the second case argues whether the state has a right to restrict a patient’s decision to partake in Physician Assisted Suicide.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay Against Capital Punishment

    1522 Words  | 4 Pages

    One cannot deny that maintaining the prisoners with food, health care and other basic needs is expensive, but the long and complex judicial process makes the capital punishment more expensive. The cost of defense and prosecution of the prisoner with the death penalty is almost three times higher than that of non- death penalty prisoner. Each year, hundreds of million dollars are spent on the death penalty cases which could be better be used in providing support to the victims’ families. It also directly affects the economy of government. The cost of death penalty are different according to the states, California being the most expensive state. According to the fact sheet organized by Death Penalty Information Center, the cost of the death penalty in California has totaled over four billion dollars since 1978 and if the Governor commuted the sentences of those remaining on death row to life parole, it would result in an immediate savings of 170 million dollars per year, with the savings of 5 billion dollars over the next 20 years (“Costs of Death Penalty”, 2010). Besides that, the provision death penalty is discriminated against the poor because they cannot afford effective, high powered lawyers. Hundreds of people are put to death across the USA every year, the evidence suggests that the poorest are paying the highest price. A study found that the average cost of defending a

    Read More

  • The Benefits of the Death Penalty

    1105 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another controversial topic rendering to the death penalty is cost. Is it really more expensive to keep a criminal in prison for life or is it worth while to sentence them to death? Statistics show that the cost of sentencing an individual to life imprisonment and sentencing an individual to the death penalty are generally equivalent to one another. It is the actual act of the execution that raises the costs. To many people the costs seem strange and useless, but to those who lost a loved one to that criminal find it relieving knowing that there is no way he will ever return. In fact, in a survey conducted in 1995, 74% of people support capital punishment even if th...

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Abolish Death Penalty

    1395 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the many reasons the death penalty should be abolished it is because it is too expensive. It does cost money to keep someone alive and in prison, but it is nothing compared to the death penalty. Yes, if you keep a criminal alive, you have to provide health care, food, and other things such as dentist care. When a case involves the death penalty as punishment, it also involves lethal

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment Should be Abolished

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    If a criminal is sentenced to life in jail, then the cost of their imprisonment would be many times this. In the USA, the average cost per prisoner annually in jail is $29,000. The cost of the drugs used for the lethal injection is believed to be $86.08. This is far less than the cost of keeping a prisoner in jail, and would save the government money that could be used to try and make the community a better and safer place. Secondly, many believe that capital punishment is right because of the justice given to the victim’s family.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On The Death Penalty

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    The effectiveness of the punishment is also in question. According to a survey done by the Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee, “they found that defense costs for death penalty trials averaged $395,762 per case, compared to $98,963 per case when the death penalty was not sought”. In California, they have spent more than 4 billion dollars on the death penalty since it has been put into place in 1978. Additionally the state has 184 million dollars in the cost of security on death row, the trial, and the legal representation. It is believed that by 2030 the cost of the death penalty will reach a staggering 9 billion dollars. (Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee, 2014) This means that since the death penalty has been in place, the cost of everything involved in the case is significantly higher than life in prison. Life in prison is the more cost efficient way to handle people who are sentenced to

    Read More

More about Life Worth Amanda Ripley Analysis

Open Document