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Dec. 29, 2005 According to the CIA’s World Factbook, online, the annual GDP per capita in the United States at present is about $40,100. According to Wikipedia’s article on the subject, the average life expectancy at birth in the US at the end of the twentieth century was 77 years. So, at the current rate, the lifetime GDP per capita in the US is $3,087,700, which we get by simple multiplication. In other words, we might say that a human life is worth $3,087,700 in the US today. We may assume that people at all times and places have been of about equal inherent value, on the average, and that it is only the current economic situation that allows us to estimate the value of a human being’s life in terms of the dollar-amount mentioned above. If we could fetch a baby from a different country or a different century and bring him here now, he would probably fit in as well as any baby actually born here and now, even if market conditions at the time and place of his life could be rationalized to make him worth only $100,000 or $500,000 or $1,000,000. Now let us take a look at the Second Book of Kings, Chapter 2, Verses 23 and 24, where the prophet Elisha, in the name of the Lord, curses 42 little children who had mocked him for being bald. Forty-two she-bears came out of the wood and tore the forty-two little children. 2nd Kings 2:23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 2nd Kings 2:24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. If those little children lived here and now, their aggregate worth then would be $129,683,400. Whether a modern life-insurance company would insure them for that amount or award such compensation is a question I cannot venture to answer, but there have been cases of wrongful death or injury when the beneficiaries or their heirs and assigns have been awarded more than $3,000,000. Of course, Elisha’s destruction of the little children for so slight an offense as telling him that he was bald is undoubtedly just another Biblical tall tale. As a rule, bears do not come down out of the wood to defend prophets’ honor by mauling children. If they maul children, it is because they are ferocious, vicious brutes. Whether Elisha was a real person is anyone’s guess. He was supposed to have held the office of prophet of Israel for 60 years in the ninth century BC. Sometimes, when I see the motto, “God is Love,” painted on a mountain or a building, I think of Elisha, and I wonder what ‘love’ means. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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