Kenneth Feinberg's WTC Victims: What Is A Life Worth?

Life is a very broad, difficult topic to speak about. Often times, people have conflicting thoughts on what they think the value of life is, what the point of life is, or what life is really supposed to mean. Should it be based off of materialistic possessions? Should who a person is or what they do with their life define them? Or should humans simply live as they desire and not put a price tag on another person until after they are dead? Life is something that is gifted with no instruction manual; it comes with no sense of its true meaning and what should be done with it. These questions are left for the individual to decipher. In Amanda Ripley’s article “WTC Victims: What is a Life Worth?” she writes about a man named Kenneth Feinberg. Feinberg has been entrusted by the government to disperse its money to those who lost a family member in the September 11 tragedy. In this system, each deceased person isn’t treated as equal; but is instead issued their monetary value through a series of questions regarding their former job and income, and how much family they would need to support. This, in itself, is absurd. While there is some understanding to their method- it isn’t meant to be sensitive or emotionally gentle, it is simply meant to evenly distribute money- it is difficult to believe that any one person can simplify the …show more content…
It’s the plague of high-school students striving for “likes” on their pictures, “followers” on their social media accounts, or approval from others regarding the designer pattern stitched onto the back of their jean pockets. It’s the false advertising of products intended to make you “beautiful”, or weight loss regiments intended to make you “thin”. These are the things that seem to make up a sense of self-worth for so many people within the last decade. Nobody seems to stop and realize that these things will not stick with you for a