Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The 7,000,000 Dollar Person

In the following blank write, in dollars, how much you feel your life is worth: ______________________. Do you believe others are more or less valuable than you are feeling? Is a child worth nearly than an adult? Is a sanitation worker worth nearly than a mayor? Is an Australian bushman worth more of less than the one that will be the next president of the country?

You may have read that the Environmental protection agency (EPA) just lowered entertainment a human life in the united states from $8. 04 million to $7. 22 million. I have no idea why your life and my life currently lost value or the actual EPA arrived at such values.

The value in terms of a human life is put in the cost-benefit analysis the particular environmental projects. In determining the value of a project, the EPA calculates a project cost and a bare-skinned cost; if the sum total of the project is scarcely the projected cost of each and every human deaths, the task doesn't make sound be your own boss sense. There's something about this formula which enables me feel type of uncomfortable.

This has been bugging me since I heard it on the news. I assume these types of calculations can be used as making other decisions too. For example, a country make use of such calculations to explain a war, or a corporation can use them to decide whether to consider risk that a worst product will generate more revenue any potential liability resulting over any harm or death associated with its use.

Recently a woman loyal suicide because her home was breaking into foreclosure. Somehow she down loaded really confused; she felt her home was worth higher than her life. She believed that her family would value in order to home instead of sport her daily presence. Is any home or object worth more than a life? It's absolutely frightening and will be offering dispiriting to feel that i am applying the principles of capitalism in to the valuing of life.

Sometimes I question, "Did I accomplish anything of value today? " And I are admit that my save isn't always making several noise. So maybe for some days, the $7 million can be an true gift, but are we missing the point by narrowing my view of life to only items that produce dollars? Should I be requesting dollar credits once bolster the spirits coming from the friend or my wife after having a long hard of the work day? Are these actions to be used valued for their return on investment (ROI)? What about couples who stays home and will be offering nurtures her children, who then move to become caring and to blame adolescents and adults? How valuable are those labors of love?

Are we missing the richness and the price of life's purpose? By taking a look at the ROI of life so are we decreasing our human bank accounts and creating compassion lack? Maybe the economic recession is a compassion recession.

Have we become several calloused to the tragedies d from lives being lost g war, genocide, and climate change and to people's buildings being lost to house? Haven't some banks and credit card companies become more intent on exits than caring whether families can then the payments on his or her's loans? This same ROI mindset enable you to account for why life span of a Tutsi mother in Darfur is in fact of far less value your $7. 22 million you and i are worth.

I can't stop the EPA or any other government or corporate dress up party from assigning a cost point to my life, and trying to stop them may be a waste of my life. What I hope so is this when I die people seems that I contributed making use of 7 million dollars of value to the world - not in dollars furthermore the integrity, compassion, and gratitude I knowledgeable others. I will have obtained my life's purpose if a person say, "He made me feel like I was worth $7. 22 million dollars. "



Tom Wojick specializes in assisting leaders and don't organizations in developing emotionally intelligent methods to their human performance dissimilarities. For aditonal information talk with Tom at

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