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An American Life

Blogs > redtooth
Post a Reply
rredtooth
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
5459 Posts
April 23 2012 08:19 GMT
#1
To my fellow Americans: How many lives is an American life worth?

I’ve cowardly fled from this question since I couldn’t bring myself to answer with any degree of confidence. If you think about it, though, this question shapes how US international policy works. Our leaders have to decide a course of action that will best serve the country and those decisions often come down to 'how many lives will be lost to accomplish ____ goal?' Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and Libya seemed to prioritize the preservation of American life. Normandy and Korea showed that some causes are worth dying for.

But this question extends beyond the exchanging of humans lives and into the realm of money. Unfortunately we live in a world where a budget is limiting and money has to be divided between important projects. So we can rephrase our question to: How many dollars is an American life worth?

The answer probably differs depending on the person in question. The Secret Service is a multi-million dollar operation that works to protect only a handful of people. The military wouldn't think twice before sacrificing a Predator drone to bail out one of their infantryman. Even people on the street are protected to a large extent by social welfare. I guess the answer would be that an American life is worth "a lot of money". The government may not follow up on ensuring happiness but they sure do a good job on making sure our hearts keep beating.

So that leads us to the next question: How many dollars is a non-American life worth? Only a very limited portion of the national budget is devoted to foreign humanitarian aid. If someone were a bit more motivated, they could measure out the number of lives needing saving and divide that into the total humanitarian budget and come up with a dollar value. But that isn't the point of the blog so we'll move on to the next question.

How much American utility is a non-American life worth? By choosing to build a bridge in Kentucky, we are choosing not to send that much money to someone starving in some other country. By ensuring that the mail arrives on time, we are choosing not to provide medication to very curable diseases. By ensuring that Social Security works, we are choosing not to help other nations.

The tone of my writing may come off as condemning but I really don't know if this train of thought is right or wrong. I'm definitely not saying we should abolish all domestic policy in favor of a purely humanitarian government. But let us consider the following scenario:
- A child is stuck under a bridge and the only way to reach and save her is to demolish said bridge.
- A child is sick and dying in a foreign country and you have a limited budget, part of which is currently allocated towards building a bridge. You have the option of not building the bridge and instead providing lifesaving aid for the child.
Surely anybody can point out why these scenarios are different. Yet the two possible outcomes are identical for each scenario: one leads to life, the other to death. How can the changing of a few details make such a difference regarding whether life-saving action is taken? Does your decision differ if that child is American or Armenian? Does it differ if that child is a blood relative? Does it differ if you are the person stuck under the bridge?

Does it differ if you are the sick and dying?

Maybe it’s best that we don’t take such an idealist approach to this problem. There will always be people suffering, there will always be people more fortunate. It isn’t fair to call for the normalization of everybody’s well-being. It’s an impossible goal anyways and pursuing it just fills you with despair. Maybe inaction is excusable.

But maybe too many people are like me. Maybe too many people are fleeing from a problem that is too tough to answer, that highlights our subtle cruelty to the world. Maybe we're committing heart-wrenching atrocities while turning the other way.

I don't know.

*****
[formerly sponsored by the artist formerly known as Gene]
Lightwip
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States5497 Posts
April 23 2012 08:50 GMT
#2
If we had dedicated everything to helping others, we wouldn't even have the resources at our disposal to help others because our quality of life wouldn't ever have improved.
There's a time and a place to help foreigners. But there are often better places to use resources.
If you are not Bisu, chances are I hate you.
Danglars
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States12133 Posts
April 23 2012 09:35 GMT
#3
Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and Libya

One of these does not fit. Care to answer the question remaining in every one of your reader's minds?

Normandy and Korea ... fight wars that affect all of us? I mean, do you buy into the domino effect, for Korea? That the spread of communism throughout southeast Asia was worth opposing with armed forces?
Or maybe that the third reich's conquest of Europe needed to be ... reversed?
Your introduction leaves me with major questions as to your evaluation of the events described. You're glossing over too much.

I also don't have a good idea how you progress from human life to money in the context of your post. I mean, we also live in a time where policy decisions are made by the political weight carried by each decision. In a freely elected government, the cost of wars in human life will affect your chances to be re-elected. The accumulation of debt by your government is a little more swept under the rug. But, hey, I'll leave this aside from now. I continue with a third or fourth look at your post with severe reservations.

Secret service people protect the leader of USA from attack and killing the leader of a superpower will lead to more deaths than can possibly be imagined. Kinda out of left field, but you do start to connect the point that money is spent to secure one man's life. But then again, in the world of international trade and cooperation, a nation's figurehead is important to many, many lives.

Without bringing up religion, I cannot hope to answer to you my opinion on what a life is worth. My concept of why it would matter to anyone stems from moral and religious grounds. I give to organizations specializing in foreign aid from it, I personally travel to foreign countries helping orphanages and food distributors from it. I would say my rational brain says that my country's success is tied to my welfare and therefore its interests are of primary importance. I also say, from an economic standpoint, than any forcible confiscation + giving at a national level makes no sense and only serves to move the money from a load of poor American people to rich, foreign corrupt individuals. But individual giving and the private religiously inspired giving out of your own pockets is laudable. Is there evil in this world and are you tasked with doing something about it? Is there no such thing as good and evil and because you can't fill every man's need for food & shelter, then that means none should be attempted. In the omniscient bridge-builder example, a god that kills the child for the building of a bridge is unjust, barring other explanations. But, I don't play god.
Great armies come from happy zealots, and happy zealots come from California!
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