Many years ago, I managed a car dealership. One day we spotted police cars at the house across the road. We later learned an old man had accidentally run over his wife and killed her. He was blamed for hitting the gas instead of the brake.
A few years later, it came out that his car model had a fault. The car company did the math and it made more sense to just settle future lawsuits rather than recall all the vehicles.
In other words, they murdered his wife for a few dollars of shareholder profits.
What is an American worth?
$10 million?
$1 million?
$100,000?
Surely there has to be a dollar figure.
After all, we no longer live in the age of Imago Dei, where the vast majority believe humans are made in the image of God, âendowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.â
What utter nonsense in 2023.
We really shouldâve scrubbed it out of the Declaration of Independence long ago. Jefferson clearly didnât know what he was talking about.Â
We know better now. We shed the spiritualist mindset and its silly ideas like rights and love and hope and faith and meaning and the difference between good and evil.Â
We wear the materialist mantle nowâââonly the physical exists. Hurray for sex without love, interactions without relationships, wealth without meaningful contribution, and living without purpose. Give me hard science or give me deathâââweâre just a bag of worthless cells anyway. You, dirt, whatâs the difference?
Material is ultimate; humans are subordinate. Material is god; humans serve material. With this new mindset, humans, too, are just material. Not souls or spirits, just a collection of atoms. Objects. Things.
A thing can be treated as a tool. A thing can be treated as capital. A thing can be used. A thing can be mistreated. A thing can be surveilled. A thing can be controlled. A thing can be consumed. A thing can be ignored and abandoned. A thing can be destroyed.
But most importantly, a human thing can be used as a profit center, a homo sapien cow to be milked for labor and spending until itâs all dried up.
This is the most important calculation in 2023.
So what is an American really worth, in hard U.S. dollars?
The TLDR: Not much.
A little more nuance: It depends.
The seeker asks: On whom does it depend?
The answer: Corporations and their shareholders, obviously.
The value of an American life differs from industry to industry, so itâs important to know how much each value you.Â
Weâll look at 9 predators in this articleâââland-lorders, âhealthâ-âcareâ, big pharma, big oil, fast food, the gun industry, universities, and big tobaccoâââto see who wants to squeeze the most life out of you, versus who wants to squeeze it out fastest.
The Land-lorderâs Equation
Net profits: ~$373 billion
Annual deaths from homelessness: 40,000
An American is worth: $9.3 million
Note: Before all the land-lorder-loving sycophants start whinging in the comments section, consider the factsâââfor-profit land-lording is nothing more than the monopolization of property for the purposes of extracting maximal profits under the threat of homelessness. To wit, 41% of land-lorders have a vacancy on an annual basis and 6% of all rental propertiesâââ1.06 million properties that could house the homelessâââare unoccupied at any given time.Â
Our calculation also doesnât include the fact that the financialization of property massively pushes up the living costs for everyone, causing completely unnecessary added hardship and poverty for tens of millions of Americans. Considering the US experiences hundreds of thousands of deaths each year due to poverty, and the stupidly high cost of shelter is a leading factor, American lives are more likely worth <$1.5 million to land-lorders.
The Corporatized âHealthâ âCareâ Equation
Net profits: ~$66 billion
Annual deaths due to lack of corporate healthcare insurance: 45,000
An American is worth: $1.46 million
Big Pharmaâs Equation
Net profits: $81.9 billion
Annual deaths from drug overdoses: 100,000
An American is worth: $819,000
(Note: Nearly 600,000 people have died from the opioid epidemic, but to the Sackler family who made $12 billion in profits, Americans are worth ~$20,000.)
Big Oilâs Equation
Net profits: $1 trillion globally
Annual deaths from fossil fuel pollution: 8 million globally
An American is worth: $125,000
Fast Foodâs Equation
Net profits: ~$25 billion
Annual premature deaths: ~300,000
An American is worth: $83,333
The Gun Industryâs Equation
Net profits: $2.2 billion
Annual gun deaths: 40,000+
An American is worth: $55,000
Post Secondaryâs Equation
Net profits: $136 billion
Annual debt serfs added: 3.2 million children carrying a newly minted $120.2 billion in unbankruptable interest-bearing debt for decades to come.
An American is worth: $42,500
Big Tobaccoâs Equation
Net profits: $35 billion globally
Annual premature deaths from smoking: ~6 million globally
An American is worth: $5,833
In conclusion
The most profitable of the nine American predators listed is land-lording.
American lives are worth the least to Big Tobacco.
All told, nearly 1.5 million Americans die per year to create profits for these 9 predators alone.Â
Thatâs 503 9/11s attacks.
Think back to the morning of September 11/2001.
Remember it.
The crashes. The flames. The jumpers.
Now imagine that happening every single Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, plus two every Saturday and two every Sunday.
But remember: This is a good thing.
Weâre materialists now.
People are just things.Â
Profit centers.
Profit is all that matters.
You and your children are just sheep to be slaughtered on the altar of corporate profits.
If youâre lucky, youâll earn enough to âput your money to work for youâ and actually reap some of those unearned suffering-derived profits into your retirement accounts.
Good for you.
In the materialist world, rights donât actually exist.Â
But if there is one, itâs the right to private profitâââall others be damned.