So it randomly occurred to me the other day that I was probably worth my weight in gold. It must have been a God thing, because I don't naturally come to conclusions like that. But I was curious to see if that was actually true. It order to figure that out, we need to establish the value of the two items in question. One is quite easy. At 145lbs, with current prices, my weight in gold would be worth about 2.7 million dollars.
But am I worth $2.7 million? Obviously it can be a philosophical question what one life is worth, and there are many answers. Biblically one is worth more than all, so a human life or soul is worth more in the eyes of God than anything else in creation. Another way or determining value is to evaluate how much something costs to create. By that measure, we add up all of my parents' expenses in raising and caring for me, plus college tuition, as well as how much the government has paid in tax deductions and insurance companies have paid out in claims. I doubt that would surpass $2.7 million in my case, but that is not usually how value is determined anyway.
Value is usually determined by what people are willing to pay for something. Hence Biblically humans are worth everything because God was willing to pay his life for them. But if we look past that issue, at a more limited scope of our impact here on earth, how would we determine one person's value? If someone wanted to buy me, they are essentially buying my time, since that is all I really have to sell. That is essentially what slavery is, so while I don't foresee myself going down that road anytime soon, let's examine it hypothetically. If someone else could buy my productivity for the rest of my life, what would that be worth?
Our worth in that regard is not necessarily determined by how much we are paid, although that is usually a related variable. Our work must be worth more than our wages in order for our employment to be worth something to our employer. This is why we have unemployment when wages are artificially raised to a "minimum level." Some people's work is worth more than others, based on their skill set and talents. So what is my work worth?
The value of my work depends on what I am doing, because my tasks vary greatly, and I am usually on the spending side of the ledger instead of the income side. I have had some periods at work where I was very aware of the fact that I was saving my company at least $1000/day, so my work was worth at least that much. But that was only during times of major expansion where my innovations can be compared to the usual ways of doing things in my industry. Other times it was less significant, but still valuable. Based on my pay and the economics of what I spent my time doing, I would estimate that I was worth at least $100K/year to my company when I was working full time. If my work was worth $100K/year, I would hit $2.7 million in value before I turned 50, assuming I started after graduating college. Therefore, at least in the video technology world, I am worth my weight in gold.
Of course by that measure my "value" decreases as I get older, so at some point that would cease to be true. Fortunately our value does not decrease in the eyes of God as we grow older. And we are worth far more to him than our weight in gold. But it does make for an interesting examination of value.
