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What
Are You Worth?
According
to a recently released Associated Press article, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined
that an American life isn’t worth what it used to be
five years ago. In
2004, the EPA reckoned the “value of a statistical
life” to be $7.8 million in today’s dollars.
Now the Agency has calculated that the value of
a human life has dropped to $6.9 million.
One
must admit that to many, a human life is not even
worth that much!
Why
would the EPA try to put a monetary value on a life
anyway? The
practice is utilized to weigh the costs of some
lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule versus the
value of human life.
The AP article provides an example:
“Consider,
for example, a hypothetical regulation that cost $18
billion to enforce but will prevent 2,500 deaths.
At $7.8 million per person, the lifesaving
benefits outweigh the costs.
But at $6.9 million per person, the rule cost
more than the lives it saves, so it may not be
adopted.”
How
does the EPA determine the value of a life?
The methods are complicated.
The figure is not based on people’s earning
capacity, their potential contributions to society, or
how much they are loved and needed by their family and
friends. “Instead,
economists calculate the value based on what people
are willing to pay to avoid certain risks, and on how
much extra employers pay their workers to take on
additional risks,” according to the AP report.
EPA
officials say that the adjustment of almost $1 million
less was based on better economic studies.
According
to the EPA, people shouldn’t think of the number as
a price tag on a life.
But, it does cause one to ask: “What
IS the value
of a human life?”
Observe
God’s answer: "For God so loved the world
[all human life] that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Even when our lives have been defaced by our
sins, God demonstrated “His own love toward us, in
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us” (Romans 5:8).
God
values us so much that He gave His Son to die for us
so that we might have the forgiveness of our sins
(Ephesians 1:7) and so that we might live (Romans
6:23)!
In
order to receive the benefits of Jesus’ atoning
death, we must: believe
in Him (Acts 16:30-31), turn from our sins in repentance
(Acts 17:30-31), confess
Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized
(immersed) in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins
(Acts 2:38).
No
one can put a price tag on the value of human life!
Only when we recognize how much God loves us
can we fully understand how valuable we are to Him –
not because of what WE have done, but because of what
HE has done for us!
Won’t
YOU give your life to the
One who loves you – and find the life that He wants
you to give to you?
--
David
A. Sargent,
Minister
Church
of Christ at Creekwood
1901
Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
* “AP IMPACT: An American life worth less
today.” Associated Press,
7/10/08.
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