How much, in monetary terms, is a human life worth? Not a good human or a bad one, but any human.
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
Human worth
- Thread starter Spinrad
- Start date
KrimsonDraegon
Well-Known Member
I believe that Man is created in God's image. I also believe that Man was given God's breath to bring life into us. Therefore a Human is worth much more than an animal, or a plant, or anyother life form you wish to include. So, in a sense you are trying to sell a beloved piece of God. God values Man over all other life forms, this is apparent since He sent His Son to die for us. How do you put a price tag on something that God considers priceless?
Amaboea = $.02
Chicken = $4.00
Horse = $4,000.0
Human = Priceless.
Amaboea = $.02
Chicken = $4.00
Horse = $4,000.0
Human = Priceless.
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Spinrad said:
That depends entirely on the human. I don't own your life to place a value on it; only you do, and so your life is worth exactly as much money as you would be willing to take for it. If somebody else sells your life for money, then they stole it from you, and what they're really selling is their willingness to steal.
That is to say, if I steal a $2,000 TV and sell it for $20, that doesn't mean the TV is worth $20. That simply means that theft is worth $20 to me. With human life, the principle is the same.
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Spinrad said:
Do you? It's quite simple in theory -- simply take the monetary value each human places on his or her life, add them all together, and divide by the total number of humans. Of course, many humans will place infinite value on their lives, so you're likely to come up with an undefined number.
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Spinrad said:
Ok -- well, for my own life I would take a pill that would resurrect me immediately after I died, plus a million dollars. So however much that would be worth. You see, whatever you pay me has to be at least enough to get my life back, or else I won't be able to enjoy my blood money.
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I am not talking about what a life is worth to the owner. I am talking about to the world at large.
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Spinrad said:
You mean, you want to know what the world at large would pay for a human life? On average, probably very little. A human life is fairly useless to others. What would you do with it? Now, the use of a body might be worth quite a bit, or services performed by a living human might be worth a lot, but a human life? Essentially, you're asking what people would pay to get to kill a random person (unless you're asking what people would pay for a specific human life, in which case, you need to specify which one that is). Since very few people have any desire to kill a random person, the value would be quite low.
The difficulty of obtaining a human life doesn't lie in the monetary cost but in the fairly univeral social injunction against buying somebody else's life. If somebody were to put a price on a human life, virtually all of the charge would be for the risk involved.
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jayem
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A buddy of mine who's an attorney told me a while back that, in our area, the average jury award in a wrongful death case was about $325,000. That was a few years ago, and it may be higher now. Will probably also be higher or lower in other parts of the country. But I think that's as good a benchmark as any as to what monetary value society in general places on a human life.
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psychedelicist
aka the Akhashic Record Player
Depneds if you want an old clunky model or the newer perkier models. Unlike cars, there's only so much fixing up you can do to an old person, however. So choose wisely.
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419gam
Veteran
It varies depending on what industry you are in, and your individual companies situation. Say you have a factory where five people a year are killed in industrial accidents. If you could reduce that number to one or two people, but it would cost ten million dollars to do so, would you?. Some would and some wouldn't.
Some consider it immoral to place a value on life, but it happens every day. Not just in regards to monetary amounts, its done with things like time as well. More people are killed in traffic fatalities but highway users experience less opurtunity cost since the national speed limit of 55 was eliminated. I for one am happy with the trade off, ask the family of a crash victim they might disagree.
Some consider it immoral to place a value on life, but it happens every day. Not just in regards to monetary amounts, its done with things like time as well. More people are killed in traffic fatalities but highway users experience less opurtunity cost since the national speed limit of 55 was eliminated. I for one am happy with the trade off, ask the family of a crash victim they might disagree.
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