Preview

Value of life

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
363 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Value of life
Is it possible to put to value of an actual amount of money on someone’s life? Many have different opinions. The author from “what is a life worth” asked the question “Is a poor man’s life worth less than a rich man’s?” To answer this question, there is no definitive answer. Our society has placed a dollar amount on life; however, I think the value of a person’s life should be determined by themselves.

The article “what is a life worth” attempts to balance the perspectives of suffering families against the difficulties faced by the government in trying to do the “right” thing which is giving them money. “The charts, while functional, are brutal, crystallizing how readily the legal system commodities life” (Ripley). There are charts made up by government which is used to determine the amount of money each family will receive by the tragedy. The chart tried to be helpful but it’s not. It makes people disregard the true value of life. Money is not everything; it can not buy a life.

Our society has the wrong view of life. We think that who had more money are “worth more” than the people who do not had as much money. If money can’t buy happiness then how do we, as a society, put very high price-tags on celebrities who live miserable lives and only pretend to be happy when there’s a camera in front of us? Happiness is priceless. Although shopping may make a person happy, the happiness is temporary, it won’t hold for a long time. After the happiness the person got from shopping, is emptiness. No matter how much money you have and spend, you can’t get the real happiness from heart.
Everybody's life is different, and therefore, of different value. Some people are successful and are motivated to live their lives to the fullest and to enrich the lives of those around them. Other people simply idle away their lives and do not care what comes of it. It is not society's job to necessarily "assign" us a value for living because it comes down to each individual

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Everyone has their own way on how they value life whether it’s cherishing friends, traveling around the world, or learning as much as you can before the day it all ends. Some people take minutes figuring out how they value this human life and some people take hours. There are so many voices that are very confident in their opinions such as Roger Ebert, Hamlet, Steve Jobs etc. Chris Jones interviews Roger Ebert after Ebert had surgery to remove his cancerous tissue near his right jaw. In the article “The Essential Man”, Roger Ebert shows how he values life and what he does everyday to expand his movie critiques.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is hard to imagine a society in which we would place a monetary value on human life. The practice of slavery in early American history was a disturbing example. Beginning in the early seventeenth century, the demand for labor became increasingly important as plantations in the South were on the rise. Slaves were considered a cheap form of labor and highly valuable. The output they provided far exceeded the input of resources. According to History.com, African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. Following on this principle of economics, the acceptability of slaves as a value of a transaction encouraged the spread of the system. The rationale was that, the more and higher the quality of…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The reason money doesn't buy happiness is because celebrities or rich people end up as worthless, horrible things such as drugactics, they start losing…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Value is based on the amount of money that people will make in their lives. In the article, “What is a Life Worth?” by Amanda Ripley, after the catastrophic accident, the government attempts to compensate by giving money to victims’ families; however, the system it distributes money is unacceptable. When Ripley reveals, “That means a broker’s family will qualify for a vastly higher award than a window washer’s family” (Ripley 8). An individual’s life worth less than others when he or she had a low paying job. The lives of all people should be valued at the same price regardless of their jobs. However, the government views profession is a critical matter when it comes to identifies how much his or her life value is not only after the death but also when he or she is still alive. Furthermore, the author of the article “What Is the Value of a Human Life?”, Kenneth Feinberg, who also agrees with Ripley’s perspective. According to Feinberg, “Mr. Feinberg, my husband was a fireman and died a hero at the World Trade Center. Why are you giving me less money than the banker who represented Enron?” (Feinberg 3). Although they are in the same accident, the amount of money that they received is totally different. People began to raise the question why some family gets more than others. As a consequence of the government response, people believe their life worth nothing when they have low- paid jobs. One might object here that compare the value of life in jobs how much they are worth is fair. If people want to get treated equally, then they should work hard to earn respect from others. People should value life, not by how much money they make, but by how much they enjoy their…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Money isn’t the source of making someone happy. Happiness is achieved by people accomplishing their goals in life and becoming successful. In the book, The Great Gatsby, the main character Jay was dedicated to being rich, but that wasn’t his goal. In order to reach his goal in life and be truly happy he needed to be with the one person he loved and that was Daisy. Similar to this idea in the book, The Wolf Of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort the main character always wanted more and more as he could never settle for what he had. Because of this, he continued to get wealthy. Even with all the money he made, Jordan realized that to actually be happy he wanted to have power over everyone and be able to do what he wanted. Money can always buy materialistic…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The value of life is different for many people because it can mean anything depending on people’s belief. There’s people in the world that base the value of life on money and make people’s life seem to be worth less than the next but is completely wrong. In the article “What is a life worth?” by Amanda Ripley, she explains that in a tragic accident like 9/11 it isn’t fair that based on people's income the government would total up the earnings for the victims lifetime and give it to the family because not every family is the same.…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ebert and Hamlet

    • 651 Words
    • 2 Pages

    value of his own life differs. A person’s life cannot be valued in money no matter what the…

    • 651 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout history, people have been trying to settle the matter of how to properly establish the value of one man’s life. A task such as this is undeniably difficult because of the vast diversity and uniqueness between every person on planet Earth. Egomaniacal and deviant individuals have come and gone believing that they hold such answers nevertheless, acting as self-appointed appraisers of whether or not one man is worth more than the next. Is preparing a monetary or economic figure appropriate, or does ascertaining this amount require something deeper? A common response to this quandary is to not place importance on the value of a man’s life, but rather what is of value in said life. While many in today’s America get caught up with lucrative and self-serving desires, true value is dictated by how happy we are, the experiences we have, and the relationships we acquire. Two landmark films in American cinema, Citizen Kane and It’s a Wonderful Life, touch upon the topic of the valuation of a man through different means and character development. Along with the television series The Simpsons, both of the aforementioned works expounds upon where value genuinely lies in American culture.…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The cost to execute a person is much more than it costs to put the person in prison for life without a chance of parole. In California, a study shows that death penalty trials are more than twenty times as expensive as putting someone in prison for life without the possibility of parole. California spends over $184 million on the death penalty each year, and many other states follow suit. If the death penalty is discontinued, the cash used on it could benefit the families tremendously. Families could use this cash to obtain counseling and other assistance to help them put their lives back together. Also, remaining cash can be used in other public assistance such as education, drug and alcohol treatment, and child abuse prevention…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Human Worth

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What is a life worth? In today’s society the people take an unbias approach towards the, issues regarding the value of a person’s life. There’s compelling articles and evidence provided by , Amanda Ripley, and The Human Life Value Calculators, that conclude logic, and emotion to impact how the value of a person is determined.…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    People say money doesn’t buy happiness but today we live in a generation where people seem to think money makes the world go round. Previously the root of the American dream was “the story of doing well, of conquering disease and going to the stars and defending freedom” as said by Roosevelt in his first inaugural address. But that value that Americans used to cherish so greatly has altered. “The fast life I done seen on the screen is addictive. Money and clothes I done dreamed about…” this is proof from one of the great rappers of our generation, Jermaine Cole, that society has programmed its youth to be more materialistic and to have thoughts that revolve around money.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The author of the book, Michael Sandel is considered today as a modern day philosopher and is professor at Harvard University. In this book Sandel looks at the ethical and moral aspects of the market system today. He talks about what how life as a whole has been turned into a market system where everything can be bought and sold including things that ought not to be. Sandel takes up some examples in aspects of life in society like betting on someone’s life, were characteristics of the markets are used in controlling those aspects. He looks at whether it is morally right or wrong for these areas of life in society to be treated like a market system were everything is up for sale.…

    • 2142 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Living in a more developed country allows people to be more exposed to popular culture. Since the growing obsession with fame in the 90s, people have strived to be rich and famous. In this day and age, money can buy happiness. Whether showing off the latest Prada bag over social media or throwing money at a company or politician to gain favor, people use money to find their happiness.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyone grows up with different values and way of living their lives. I grew up being taught that the finer things in our lives are what make us whole. They are not tangible possessions, yet sensations and feelings. I believe that to embody a life worth living we must be active in our faith and give thanks for the life we are given and the beautiful world we live in. I believe that to lead a good life, is to enjoy every second you have with the people you love the most. I believe that we as humans need our God, our family and an open heart to have lasting happiness.…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There are many cases of assisted suicide, and legislation overseeing it, but the few examples I will give will show the stance that America has taken on the subject of assisted suicide. Jack Kevorkian was the front runner for euthanasia, advocate for a pro-choice death, and leader of one of the most controversial hot button issues of the late 1980s to 1990s. He fought for the legalization of assisted suicide in terminal patients and was known for saying “dying is not a crime”. He’s an important figure in this movement because he couldn’t be convicted until he was aired on 60 minutes as personally injecting the patient with the drug, instead of having them commit the suicide themselves. The importance of this distinction is that when Jack himself did not inject the…

    • 3576 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays