Humans are more than money

Humans are worth more than the contents of their bank accounts.  That should not be the only criteria we judge them on. Humans are part of society. Humans are activists, speakers, community members, idea incubators, balls of potential that given the right prompting can transform into something new.

Humans are somehow more than their relationships to each other. Humans can make art that creates inexplicable feelings. Humans can imagine new infrastructures. Humans can devise new experiments to test new hypotheses.  Humans can transform their landscapes, for better or worse.

When governments are looking for scapegoats, they will often point to groups of strangers and decide their value based on monetary contributions. This is not representative of humans any more than a single cell is representative of the body.

Obituaries are more than just a list of names and total numbers. Societies are made up of more than bank accounts and taxpayers. Humans’ total contribution cannot easily be measured on spreadsheets. When we decide on the rules for admittance to our society, we would do well to remember all this.