They say life is priceless. Yet everything points the other way, starting with our own choices.
In a globalised market where people speculate on just about everything, from wheat to Pokémon cards, almost everything that exists has been financialised.
And it’s not entirely senseless.
Money was originally invented to make trade easier. Putting a price on something makes it easier to understand: it gives everyone a common yardstick.
So here’s the question: does life have a price?
The old saying suggests not. And yet living things are already heavily financialised. Some countries allow the sale of organs, others let you patent organisms (GMOs, viruses and so on). Every time, the same ethical questions come up, which a great philosopher once summed up perfectly:
“Who wants to live forever?”
But however legitimate the bioethics debates are, human lives already have a price. Not only is that normal, it is extremely useful.
Foreword : this article is cold and analytical. It deliberately sets social niceties and emotions aside to focus on numbers. It relies on rational facts and studies, and strips all emotion out of the analysis. That is obviously a strong bias, but a deliberate one.
Nothing written here condones any form of violence, under any pretext or in any way, and at no point does it express an opinion on any past or present issue, news story, event, current affair or individual.
Without the slightest value judgement, I advise against reading this if you find it hard to step back from your emotions when analysing a subject.
Any comment passing a value judgement on a policy or an opinion will be deleted immediately, and any hateful remark reported.
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