The Best Things In Life Are Free

951 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

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...

... middle of paper ...

...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.

Show More
Related

  • Judith Thomson Killing And Letting Die Problem Summary

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem,” Judith Thomson confronts the moral dilemma of how death comes about, whether one meets their demise through natural causes or by the hands of another (Shafer-Landau 544). If one does in fact lose their life through the action or inaction of another person, a second dilemma must also be considered. Does it matter whether a person was killed or simply allowed to die? The moral debate that arises from these issues is important because if forms opinions that ultimately sets the tone for what is socially acceptable behavior. Social issue such as legalization of euthanasia, abortions, and the distribution of medical resources all hinge on the “killing vs letting die problem”.

    Read More

  • Amanda Ripley What Is A Life Worth Analysis

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    To truly answer if a value should be put on a human life, Amanda Ripley, author of “What Is a Life Worth”, wrote on how human lives after September 11th, 2000, were placed into a monetary value chart so as to “compensate” the families for their loss. “Is a poor man's life worth less than a rich mans?” Ripley wrote ( Ripley 56). A man by the name of Feinstein had to create a chart that “accurately” calculated the life of a human being.

    Read More

  • Amanda Ripley's What Is A Life Worth?

    1516 Words  | 4 Pages

    A great deal of people within a mass of different cultures contain talents and special abilities of all shapes and sizes. In many cases, the way people perform these specialized talents directly correlates with how they value their lives. Amanda Ripley, author of the article, “What is a Life Worth?”tackles the topic of defining whether a price or value can be placed on a person’s life. By using statistical data and anecdotal evidence from the attacks on 9/11, she touches on each side of the argument efficiently. Although she does mention that a value may be a necessity when granting compensation to loved ones of the victims of national disasters, I personally believe that this action is impossible. The value of each person’s individual talents and unique abilities forms an inability to place price tags on human life. These special gifts, although priceless as is, provide worth to extraneous areas of life as well. For example, my greatest talent in life is my ability to pitch a baseball. By pitching well, I contribute to winning many games for the teams I play on, and by winning games, my team brings joy to themselves and to the fans enjoying the game. Because a price tag cannot be placed on emotions, my ability to pitch, which brings joy or sadness to different people, is also impossible to be priced. Because the personal abilities of each and every person add to the productivity in a seemingly unending amount, it is improbable that a value can be placed on the life of a human

    Read More

  • Life Worth Amanda Ripley Analysis

    1287 Words  | 3 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

    Read More

  • Case Analysis: The Profit In Death

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    We all know that living is an expensive experience. You’re required to pay taxes, pay for food, and pay for shelter. The counterpart of living, however, can also be quite expensive. In fact, Death is one of the most profitable events in life generating about 15 billion dollars a year (Qtd. In Crawford). With profit, however, comes greed and the Mortuary business has it’s fair share of corruption. Although a profit is necessary to maintain a business the extent to which some morticians go to maximize their profits is disgusting. While laws that Morticians must follow exist, their lack of enforcement renders them useless. That being said, these issues need to be addressed and solved.

    Read More

  • Active Euthanasia: Physician Assisted Suicide is Wrong

    1511 Words  | 4 Pages

    The issue at hand is whether physician-assisted suicide should be legalized for patients who are terminally ill and/or enduring prolonged suffering. In this debate, the choice of terms is central. The most common term, euthanasia, comes from the Greek words meaning "good death." Sidney Hook calls it "voluntary euthanasia," and Daniel C. Maguire calls it "death by choice," but John Leo calls it "cozy little homicides." Eileen Doyle points out the dangers of a popular term, "quality-of-life." The choice of terms may serve to conceal, or to enhance, the basic fact that euthanasia ends a human life. Different authors choose different terms, depending on which side of the issue they are defending.

    Read More

  • Ethical and Professional Implications

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cantor, Norman L.. "Twenty-Five Years After Quinlan: A Review of the Jurisprudence of Death and Dying." Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 29 (2001): 1073-1105.

    Read More

  • What it Means to Be Free

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Nineteenth century, most people had one goal that they wanted to obtain more than any other. It wasn’t immense wealth, health, or even material goods, even though that was probably what some had in mind. It was the freedom. There are numerous ways in which freedom could be defined such as: having the “rights” of a white adult male, having a voice in the community/ government, not being owned by another human, being able to speak, write, and practice whatever religion one may want without consequences. The list of what it was like to be free goes on and on. All of these qualities of being free still hold true today. Many of those who were not free spoke out against the oppression they were facing. Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs were two African American writers whose pursuit for freedom caught the eye of many Americans. These two writers attacked what Americans in the Nineteenth century painted freedom to look like and the reality of what it really was. They lived in a time where Americans talked about all men being equal, yet they owned slaves. Both being born into slavery, Douglas, Jacobs and other slaves were not meant to read and write like those of the white race. Something as simple as literacy was important root to the idea of freedom. Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs used their personal life experiences to show their readers why freedom was and still is so much deeper than the characteristics named earlier. These writers struck the hearts of Americans and redefined freedom as a treasure that allows one to be a self-governing, literate, and a self-reliant individual.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Alan Goldman's The Refutation Of Medical Paternalism

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... value ordering. Goldman says life does not hold value in itself; instead most individuals derive the meaning of life from their accomplishments and happiness to the point where individuals may even risk their health and lives to attain those. As established before about paternalism in a medical contest, it is only the patient’s true values that can be primary determinants of their futures.

    Read More

  • Life

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    Urofsky, Melvin I., and Philip E. Urofsky. "The Current State of the Law in the Netherlands." Definitions and Moral Perspectives: Death, Euthanasia, Suicide, and Living Wills. Vol. 1. New York: Garland Pub., 1996. 111-12. Print.

    Read More

  • Assisted Suicide Should Not be Legalized

    1627 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the main reasons assisted suicide should not be considered for legalization is the fact that it reduces the value of a human life. If this act becomes legal, many people who are sick are going to begin believing that because they are ill, their life is not worth living anymore. This alone i...

    Read More

  • A Defense of Euthanasia

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    Urofsky, Melvin I. Lethal Judgments: Assisted Suicide and American Law. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000. Print.

    Read More

  • Death Penalty Position Paper

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    Locke, Mandy. “Study: End Death Cases, Save Money.” The News and Observer (2009). ProQuest. Web. 22 February 2010.

    Read More

  • Value of Life Essay

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    Human life is full of meaning. As humans, we assign value to many things. However, what happens when we assign a specific value to a human life? This is the issue being presented in the article, “What is a Life Worth,” by Amanda Ripley. The government is determining a monetary value to a human life, and it does not appeal to the masses. There are many problems with the cold calculation, and most people cannot see the other side of the numbers. The economic value of a human life is calculated based on the income the person was receiving, but when the check is given to a loved one of a small amount, the compensation is misinterpreted as an overall value of the human life. The true value of a human life should not be combined with the monetary value that is determined by the government, or the value of life would be worth very little.

    Read More

  • Personal Values Essay

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    During everyone 's lifetime, there is always something we hold closest to our hearts; it maybe our principles we live by, values, and even our own beliefs. Values are those things that are very important to us but never really realize how much we actually value them in our life. Have you ever been asked to define three of your main values and rip them up? I have and I never noticed how much they meant to me. Each and every one of us believes in our own personal values. These values are what gives us strength and strive us to do what makes us happy. These values are very important to us and are standards that we live by whether we realize it or not. Everyone has something we value including me. Some of the values I might think highly of,

    Read More

More about The Best Things In Life Are Free

Open Document