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