This always makes for some interesting conversation... 
Some say that a human's life is priceless. I say there's a price that each and every person could identify for themselves as to what another human's life is worth.
Take the following scenario, as unrealistic as it might be: Say that an unknown person, somewhere in the world, is being held captive, and will be killed if you do not pay some ransom. You do not know this person now, nor will you ever know this person in the future.
Also say that the ransom must be paid out of your own money. You cannot ask for donations or contact your rich uncle to pay for it - it must be paid in full by you. You CAN get a loan to cover for the money, but this loan follows you everywhere and cannot be erased through any sort of bankruptcy procedure. You would have to pay on it a reasonable minimum payment for the dollar amount of the loan until it was paid off. As a technicality, say the loan has an APR of 5%, and you must pay a 6% minimum payment each year.
Now, would you be willing to pay $50 to save this unknown person's life? I sure would.
What about $100?
What about $500?
What about $5000?
Now these amounts might not affect your life drastically, but what about an amount much higher?
What about $50,000? This would be equivalent to about $900/month in payments for the next 5 years. Would you do it?
What about $500,000?
What about $5,000,000? This would mean you'd be in debt for the rest of your life, and your entire paycheck would go towards paying interest on the loan, unless you somehow managed to make more than $300,000/year.
Now, this isn't meant to be a political discussion, more of a philosophical or psychological discussion. So what is your answer? What is the most you would pay to save a random person's life? Do not respond with "I couldn't put a specific number on it," because that's a lamesauce answer.
Some say that a human's life is priceless. I say there's a price that each and every person could identify for themselves as to what another human's life is worth.
Take the following scenario, as unrealistic as it might be: Say that an unknown person, somewhere in the world, is being held captive, and will be killed if you do not pay some ransom. You do not know this person now, nor will you ever know this person in the future.
Also say that the ransom must be paid out of your own money. You cannot ask for donations or contact your rich uncle to pay for it - it must be paid in full by you. You CAN get a loan to cover for the money, but this loan follows you everywhere and cannot be erased through any sort of bankruptcy procedure. You would have to pay on it a reasonable minimum payment for the dollar amount of the loan until it was paid off. As a technicality, say the loan has an APR of 5%, and you must pay a 6% minimum payment each year.
Now, would you be willing to pay $50 to save this unknown person's life? I sure would.
What about $100?
What about $500?
What about $5000?
Now these amounts might not affect your life drastically, but what about an amount much higher?
What about $50,000? This would be equivalent to about $900/month in payments for the next 5 years. Would you do it?
What about $500,000?
What about $5,000,000? This would mean you'd be in debt for the rest of your life, and your entire paycheck would go towards paying interest on the loan, unless you somehow managed to make more than $300,000/year.
Now, this isn't meant to be a political discussion, more of a philosophical or psychological discussion. So what is your answer? What is the most you would pay to save a random person's life? Do not respond with "I couldn't put a specific number on it," because that's a lamesauce answer.
) that a study done a while back using the correlation between workplace risk and salary amount to extrapolate a value we put on our own lives. If I remember right this was about $3mil USD. this was a few years ago now though so the value may have changed (inflation and recession).
