Why is value more important than price?

The greatest anomaly in contemporary times is that a celebrity's bag, a politician's yacht, and a boxing champion's cars are given more value than human life. Today's human society worships luxuries, vanities, and wealth more than it values the lives of people. And this could be the curse of humanity.

It is well-known in social media that a senator's celebrity wife, Heart Evangelista, has a Hermes Faubourg Birkin Bag reportedly bought at a price tag of ?2.6 million. It is now priced between ?20.5 million to ?21.1 million on third-party resellers and auction sites. That is talking about prices. On the other hand, when one trapo and warlord wants someone killed in order to eliminate a potential rival in the next local elections, all he has to pay is at most between ?10,000 to ?50,000. Are these the values of life nowadays? How on earth can a bag command a much higher price than the life of one human being?

Luis Chavit Singson owns a $12-million or ?679,080,000 yacht named M/Y Happy, which was used to ferry all the Miss Universe candidates to Pico de Loro in Batangas sometime in 2017. Again, that is talking about price. Now, a beauty contestant from Batangas in another beauty contest, just in the last quarter of last year, has been reported missing and a police official has been tagged as a suspect. This was even investigated by the Senate where the said police official was declared in contempt and detained. If it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that someone is guilty of kidnapping, detention, and murder, what is the worth of the life of that woman who was a teacher? Beyond monetary consideration, isn't it? How much in damages would the felon pay the family of the victim?

Boxing legend, Manny Pacquiao owns an amazing car collection that includes a £180,000 Ferrari and another £130,000 Porsche Cayenne Turbo. In Philippine peso, the Ferrari carries a price of ?12,873,319.56 while the Porsche has a price of ?9,297,397.46. Manny also owns a number of multi-million dollar Bugattis, Paganis, and Koenigseggs. He also owns the most expensive Mercedes Benz SL 550, the latest generation of AMG SL. It has a super standard all-wheel drivetrain manufactured for the first time in history and custom-built at that with a folding soft top roof. It is the most potent version with a 577 horsepower 4.0 liter bi-turbo V8 engine. No one else owns that kind of car in the whole country and perhaps in the whole of Asia.

Well, we have nothing against Heart Evangelista, Chavit Singson, and Manny Pacquaio. They are all decent and honorable Filipinos. They must have labored hard to earn billions in order to afford those luxuries. Our beef is that while human society puts a lot of premium on luxuries, there is an alarming pattern of not valuing human life the way and the extent that lives are worth. We hear of young boys being summarily executed by the police on suspicion of drug use or drug trafficking. We hear of journalists being shot and killed in broad daylight, of poor prisoners who mysteriously die inside prison hospitals allegedly due to suicide. We even hear of infants being left behind by unwed teenage mothers inside comfort rooms in some gas stations.

Values are more important than prices. A human life commands a value beyond money. A luxury bag, a yacht, and cars have prices. They cannot be more valuable than a single human life. This generation should do a lot of reflections on these. We should know what really matters most.