"Paul F. Dietz" wrote in message
...
Charleston wrote:

I qualified my statement. I said it was way up there in the
stratosphere as
a sarcastic reference to the point at which the Columbia crew may well
have
perished. You OTOH, immediately qualified your value system in terms of
money alone. Money is not the only thing of value in life, hence my
reference to the word cavalier.

When you grow up, you will discover that the value of a life is regularly
measured in dollars. This is done routinely in torts, in making
regulations,
and in establishing government policy. This isn't cavalier, it's business
as usual.

When you grow a heart perhaps you will see that there is more to life than
money and lawsuits and...

Look Paul, there is no reason to insult each other and I only responded as I
did above to make a point. There are some intangible things in life that
are bigger than the dollar. My job often involves environmental disease
investigations. In the end a judge often assesses the value of human pain,
suffering, and death. When a two year old child is maimed permanently by an
undercooked hamburger, the value in terms of a normal life are often
difficult to assess. An 81 year old man who has six months to live, but
then dies due to the negligence of others some three months earlier, may be
a lesser loss, but there is still loss. When negligence is involved, judges
often weigh and attach punitive awards to the damaged or their surviving
kin. When human suffering or death is caused by the deliberate acts of
others and sometimes just their plain stupidity, people are often placed in
prison for a life lost through negligence. When the loss of one life alters
the life of others in the form of suffering, what is that indirect cost? I
dare say it often goes unmeasured. All of these items add to the value of a
life. While you can average out the value of a human life, in strictly
financial terms in a court of law, you can't place a tangible price on the
very real damage done to the victims families, and those colleagues who
sometimes unknowingly send others off to death. I hope that makes sense. I
certainly know where you are coming from. I just hope you can see my points
too.

--

Daniel
Mount Charleston, not Charleston, SC