$2,909,130
Upon seeing the web site HumanForSale.com I was able to value myself at $2,909,130. I felt like a cheap discount at a 1 dollar store. How can they just value me at such a low price? According to the web site the highest male was just over 4 million dollars while the average male was worth $2,106,266. I guess I'm a little above average but, not quite top commodity material.
I live in the United States where the average income is $40,000 per year. If the average person works 30 years they would have generated $1,200,000 just being average. If they invest in themselves they can increase income. If they invest some more wealth will be generated.
10% of $40,000 is $4000 per year. If I take that $4000 and invest it for 10% return on investment compounded annually I would realize $793,571. Then the average American person's worth is then $1,993,571 after 30 years. (Calculating this way a human being is not worth much.) Maybe there is a different way to value human beings, maybe there are some factors missing in this way of calculating.
Betty Grable
Troy Polamalu
Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team has his hair insured for $1,000,000 by Lloyds of London (The same company who insured Betty Grable's legs) Hedi Klum had her legs insured for $2.2 Million. I wonder what the difference is from Betty Grable's legs? I think Betty's are worth more than Hedi's after you account for the value of 1940 dollars in today's dollars. (1940-->$1 Million = 2012-->$16.5 Million in real price)
It was kind of a tongue-in-cheek joking around with the celebrities insurance policies, but still you have to think these people are insuring what can be lost if these parts of their bodies are lost. Betty Grable was making about $300,000 a film when she was insured. So basically she was insuring herself for three films and some poster sales.
Really Betty was selling herself short, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't trade her legs for 1 million dollars. They are worth more to Betty than 20th Century-Fox who insured her legs. While the studio was only looking at the revenue side of what they would lose if Betty lost her legs, I'm sure Betty herself would be looking at the quality of life and her loss of mobility.
This makes the point you are worth more to yourself then others think you are worth. It also points to the idea people are worth more then meets the eye. What a human being is worth is directly related to the impact they had on others. Even Betty Grable's legs was worth a lot to many G.I.s in WWII, some who may have kept their moral up enough to make it home alive. Betty's legs motivated some moviegoers to buy tickets to see her movies which provided jobs for many people in the movie industry. How many movie industry people supported their families because of those ticket sales?
It is like the proverb "For Want of a Nail" but, in a more positive way Betty Grable was able to impact many people by having kept nice legs. Something like nice legs is relatively small but, think of the impact.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost; being overtaken and slain by the enemy,
all for want of care about a horse-shoe nail.
-Benjamin Franklin
(The Way to Wealth 1758)
You don't just have to be some movie star or celebrity to make an impact you just have to add value to someone's life other then your own. Your value depends on the value you are to other people. Think what a parent is to a child.
Priceless is what a human being is worth because you can always add value to someone else's life.
