The Categories of Value

Its easy to assign Importance factors or risk categories to inanimate objects such as buildings, bridges, airplanes, dams, cars, and buses. It is agreeable to say that the structural integrity of a hospital is more important than that of a single family residence especially, in the case of an emergency. When assigning importance or value to individual lives, we are confronted by an overwhelming social dilemma How does society assign value to someones aliveness?The essence of vivification or simply living and give the opportunity to become a contributing member of society is priceless and has an unsurmountable monetary value however, within the constraints of the society we live in, we are squeeze to assign a monetary value to an individual life. If we strip away what makes us human our souls we can assign value and categorize human life by the sum of their component parts to society and the impact their absence would make. Those that commit horrible crimes and contribute negati vely to society go to the commencement exercise division.Those who contribute very tiny or havent had the chance to contribute to society belong to the second category. Those contributors whose sudden absences affect a small amount of people belong to the leash category. Those whose sudden absence affects more people belong to the stern. Finally, those whose sudden absence can affect an entire society for generations to come belong to the fifth category. Murderers and individuals who wish harm on innocent people belong in the first category. They are in the first category due to their lack of contribution and harm to our society.Truly without them there would be less damage and fear in todays world. You can easily distinguish the disparity between the first and second category in the perspective of comparing them to someone in the second category, such as children and individuals whose lives were cut short, and sadly unable to even beat to contribute to society the ones in the first category are the ones who usually end up in prisons for violent crimes or serious violations, while the ones in the second category generally contains young people who havent had a chance to make a difference in society.Individuals in the third category would be the ones whose deaths would affect a small amount of people such as a blue collar worker who supports their family with their salary. The sudden passage of this person would be saddening but only the immediate family leave typically need monetary honorarium to cover any expenses left behind. In comparison, the ones in the fourth category whose deaths would affect a much larger amount of people such as, owners of important businesses whose death may result in the layoff of many employees.The individuals in the fifth category are the ones who have a huge contribution to our society, such as individuals who find cures to devastating diseases, physicist on the verge of devising a great breakthrough, world leaders, and important policy makers. Without them our society let alone the whole world, would not be the same, they are the ones who make a difference in peoples lives. In the article, What Is the Value of a Human Life? by Kenneth Feinberg, he explores the moral problem with assigning different set to different members of society.The author finds it troubling that the compensation for someones death be related to that persons financial situation. For example, someone in the fourth category mentioned above will most likely be a wealthy business owner while the person in the third category may be a modest middle class individual and would receive compensation accordingly. At the end of the article he states that in the future, he will provide equal compensation regardless of the persons financial circumstances or status in society.I believe that monetary compensation should only cover funeral expenses and enough income to allow their immediate families time to adjust to the loss and becom e self-sustaining. It is okay for a society that is based on capitalist economy to compensate and assign a monetary value to individuals. It is our souls and humanity that will always be in conflict with manmade laws and forged societies. That is why this debate will never end. The day that currency becomes obsolete will be the day that society will truly discover that the only thing worth valuing is life itself, not money.