The Daily Cow

The supposed response to Jinghao's question below would probably be this: More than yours. Of course, such an offhand response is one that calls for disrespect, but I think in general, life is worth more than $50,000. Simply, you cannot put a price tag on life.

In a world though where ideologies are dominated by self-interest, I think the worthiness of life is subjective, but judged by superlatives -- that is, I value person A more than person B because I have some affiliation with person A. This is to say, I've met Jinghao, hung out with him and interacted with him, and I care about him.

Whereas, I have never met any of his EECS buddies. In a sense, I really could care less about what happens to his EECS buddies because they have nothing in common with me. Now if what happens to his EECS buddies affects Jinghao, I may care to a certain degree. I suppose part of the argument has to do with degrees of separation as well: The further I am away from you, the less I care what happens. If a stranger gets hit by a car, I may pay attention to the news segment and walk away with the "that's too bad" mentality, but if that stranger's accident happens to hamper my afternoon commute, I might have the affinity to comment on why that stranger didn't bother to look both ways before he or she crossed.

I think this is how everything plays out in the simplest sense, neglecting the impacts of economics. In another example, you can look to elephants, a species that exhibits very community-like traits. If someone within the core group passes away, then the group mourns for that individual elephant. However, if a stranger elephant dies nearby, they probably won't care. This personality definitely applies in the human world. I probably used too many examples, but you get the point. In short, you can't measure life through money, but only through relative relationships.