9/11: The Value Of Life

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When situations arise and people die or become ill a value has to be placed on their life to determine if they are going to be healed or if their family is going to be compensated for their loss. The value of life has a variety of interpretations based on the approach a person decides to take. Some people think of human life with an economic point of view which can led to certain deceased citizens receiving more money for accidents than others. The economic view also says that if a surgery is going to cost the government to much money then the person who needs the surgery should not get it. On the other hand, some people look at it emotionally and say that everyone should get an equal amount of money for incidents that occur. People who look …show more content…

Because of this shortage, we have to put a monetary value on the amount of help or compensation a person or their family will receive. So many people died in 9/11 that if you were to give every family the same amount of compensation without lowering a family’s standard of living, the government would be even deeper in debt. To compensate families for losing loved ones in 9/11, the government decided to give families a sum of money based on the deceased member’s income and how much life insurance they had (Ripley 75). The reason that people receive different amounts of compensation is because some people contributed to society and the economic stability of the country more than others. When you think about it, which life is worth more economically, a 50-year-old convicted rapist or a 23-year-old doctor in the prime of his career? Obviously the 23-year-old doctor is worth more because he contributes to society by saving lives. Sometimes people deserve more compensation based on the job they had. Firefighters, police officers, and military soldiers deserve quite a bit for compensation because they risk their lives every day for other people. When “four Marines drowned because the beach was not protected by lifeguards or public security” the families of the Marines got $50,000 for their deaths (Fontaine 4). The reason they only got $50,000 …show more content…

Firefighters, police officers, and military personal should be compensated more than other people because they risk their lives every day to keep citizens safe. It is never right just to view people as dollar signs because when you do this, you do not treat them like a humans and have no regard for their families. Taking both into consideration can account for the lack of resources while also understanding the emotional distress the families will go

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