What is an appropriate reward for saving a life?

What's all this about a reward?
The gift certificate was a gift, as in, a token of appreciation for the kid's actions.
The reward for saving a life is the life being saved.
How pathetic the being that doesn't find that sufficient.

2 Replies

@wayne,

wayne wrote:

What's all this about a reward?

Its that after a reward was WELL EARNED,
the rescuer was screwn out of his.

wayne wrote:

The gift certificate was a gift, as in,
a token of appreciation for the kid's actions.

A token of very little appreciation.

wayne wrote:

The reward for saving a life is the life being saved.

So, according to u,
the reward is supposed to turn around like a boomerang
and go back to the (deadbeat) victim? HE gets the reward (his life),
leaving the rescuer with nothing, right ???? or toss him a $25 gift certificate,
which costs $17.50,
or maybe just throw him a nickel and tell him
to be grateful for the generosity.

wayne wrote:

How pathetic the being that doesn't find that sufficient.

Pathetic enuf that he did NOT do the life saving job?

Was he THAT "pathetic" ????????

Maybe the rescuer shoud have negotiated
before he FINISHED the job.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Well, that is the way they do it at sea, maybe negotiate an open contract.
Is there life after capitalism

1 Reply

@wayne,

Very well said.

1 Reply

@wayne,

Is life worth living WITHOUT it ????

1 Reply

@Ceili,

Every day people save other people's lives - often times without realizing a small deed likely saved some one's life.

Once when I was waiting to cross a busy crowded street - the light changed to walk, I (without looking which was blame old dumb) immediately walked into the cross walk. This woman next to me screamed, grabbed my arm and pulled me back. Within seconds, the taxi cab came barrelling around the corner. She saved me by mear inches. Being so caught off guard, I mumbled a little thanks. And went on my way. Not until later did the true potential really hit me and alas the woman who saved me gone.

I saved a friend from drowning once - just by pulling her up out of the water - she could stand as the water was not deep enough to be over her head, but for some reason she couldn't get up. When she got her senses back - she thanked me for saving her. I just shrugged it off, because really it was a simple reaction without thought on my side.

I'm sure every one on here has saved another life in one sense or another at some point.

2 Replies

I gave a dollar to a clerk for someone else's hot dog the other day and I considered that to be sort of life-saving. She didn't have enough money and would have had to go hungry Smile

0 Replies

I tried that once. There was a dog lying on the sidewalk
next to the NY State Supreme Court, in the Bronx.
I bought him a hot dog, but he sniffed it,
without interest. He was shutting down his systems, on the way out.

0 Replies

@Linkat,

My point exactly. I consider it an honour to have helped people, to be given the chance to make a difference. A heartfelt thank-you is a reward but uneccessary. I could never put a price on a life and I wouldn't even consider it, as I'm sure most would.
Nobody get's up in the morning thinking today is the day I'm going to save a life. It's human nature to help and if I hadn't done so, I would have lived with the regret. And that, would have been unimaginable.

1 Reply

@Ceili,

Ceili wrote:

My point exactly. I consider it an honour to have helped people, to be given the chance to make a difference. A heartfelt thank-you is a reward but uneccessary. I could never put a price on a life and I wouldn't even consider it, as I'm sure most would.
Nobody get's up in the morning thinking today is the day I'm going to save a life. It's human nature to help and if I hadn't done so, I would have lived with the regret. And that, would have been unimaginable.

That does NOT change the fact that the boy earned a good reward;
not the insult that was foisted on him.
Thay deserved to have it thrown back at them.
I suspect that thay thought that thay coud
get away with that, because of the rescuer's age,
for which thay had contempt.

David

0 Replies

@Linkat,

I think it is enough that one saved another's life and have that gratitude. But to put a monetary value really degrades the heroism. The father giving $25 shows how much he values his son and is a cheapskate. He shouldn't have offered any money and showed his gratitude in other ways such as a dinner or movie together as it is a very important event.

0 Replies

David, why do you think he DESERVED a reward? It was a natural thing for him to have done and the fact that he helped surely is reward enough. On the money issue, I don't think $25 is cheap for an 11 yr old - I think it's the thought that counts. Come on... we all do things every now and then that make a huge difference to someone and we don't even know it. Maybe that kid he saved will save the future President, who knows? Just be grateful and pass it on.

2 Replies

@Mame,

Pass it on.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw97CfZtyGw&feature=player_embedded

We should all try something like this - this weekend.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Oh I love that! Thank you, Linkat.

0 Replies

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

David, why do you think he DESERVED a reward?

In the law, we call that: "quantum meruit"
the reasonable value of his services.

Mame wrote:

It was a natural thing for him to have done and the fact that he helped surely is reward enough.

I deny that he was rewarded enuf.

Mame wrote:

On the money issue, I don't think $25 is cheap for an 11 yr old - I think it's the thought that counts.

The victim's life was worth $25 dollars (discounted from a gift certificate)?

Mame wrote:

Come on... we all do things every now and then that make a huge difference to someone and we don't even know it.

Maybe that kid he saved will save the future President, who knows?

THAT can be good or bad,
depending on the President.

Mame wrote:

Just be grateful and pass it on.

2 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

David, you're too funny.

First of all, you can't put a price on someone's life, so how high should he have gone? He was probably going by his wallet and the kid's age. Come on.

And secondly, it could be reward enough. Why do people expect rewards for common decent human behaviour? If I'd saved someone's life, their gratitude would be enough, more than enough, for me, and I wouldn't need that... just knowing that I'd helped someone would be it. I'd decline any kind of monetary thank you. So, maybe this kid's the same. It was an instinctive thing that he did, not manipulative. That's not the word I was looking for but close enough. It wasn't .... you know, where he did it because he thought he'd get something out of it.

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

David didn't seem to like it, too bad.
I think the kid saved all his classmates from that ominous empty chair.
They all shared in the reward.

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@OmSigDAVID,

I don't know; What's a sunrise worth?

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

The victim's life was worth $25 dollars (discounted from a gift certificate)?

In actual fact, hopefully the victim's life was priceless/precious to his father. What would you want him to do - sign over his house to the little boy?
How about if I saved your life? Would you give me your gun and coin collections?
I know it's a Bible story, so may be unpopular - but the message is the same.
Do you remember the one where the rich people only gave a small percentage of what they had while the poor beggar woman gave a few coins - but that was ALL she had? And how her gift was worth more than all the money - many times more than what she gave- that those rich people just casually pulled out of their pocket and blythly threw around?

This story just reminded me of something I probably should have done and didn't.
When my kids were little and we lived in Maine, I used to take them to this lake and I would put my chair down at the edge of the water and watch my daughter splash around in the shallows. Well, I was watching her and I noticed this little girl, about the same age as my daughter (3) toddling into the water - looked around to see if there was an adult watching her - nope.
She toddled in a little deeper and I got up and started following her, just as she tripped and stumbled into water that was over her head.
I ran in and scooped her up - took my own daughter's hand and said to the little girl, 'Where is your mom or dad?'
She said, 'Up there,' she said pointing up into the trees.
We walked all the way up the hill to this woman lying asleep and oblivious on a towel - you couldn't even SEE the lake through the trees where this woman was.
I woke her up and said, 'Here's your daughter. I just pulled her out of the lake- she would have drowned.'
The mother said, 'Get over here Katie' - or whatever the girl's name was and started berating the girl for wandering away and going in the water.
I said, 'You know - you really might want to stay awake and watch your little girl when you take her around deep water - or for that matter - anytime and anywhere in the future.'
She said '**** you lady...' and grabbed the girl's hand from mine.

I should have reported her. I hope that little girl made it through childhood with that woman.

1 Reply

@aidan,

aidan wrote:

Quote:
The victim's life was worth $25 dollars (discounted from a gift certificate)?

In actual fact, hopefully the victim's life was priceless/precious to his father.

In your lexicon, $25 (discounted) = precious ??

aidan wrote:

What would you want him to do - sign over his house to the little boy?

That 's a better reward than a discounted gift cert.

aidan wrote:

How about if I saved your life? Would you give me your gun and coin collections?

If u demanded them, in payment.
U 'd have earned them. With life, thay can be replaced.

aidan wrote:

I know it's a Bible story, so may be unpopular - but the message is the same.
Do you remember the one where the rich people only gave a small percentage of what they had while the poor beggar woman gave a few coins - but that was ALL she had? And how her gift was worth more than all the money - many times more than what she gave- that those rich people just casually pulled out of their pocket and blythly threw around?

This story just reminded me of something I probably should have done and didn't.
When my kids were little and we lived in Maine, I used to take them to this lake and I would put my chair down at the edge of the water and watch my daughter splash around in the shallows. Well, I was watching her and I noticed this little girl, about the same age as my daughter (3) toddling into the water - looked around to see if there was an adult watching her - nope.
She toddled in a little deeper and I got up and started following her, just as she tripped and stumbled into water that was over her head.
I ran in and scooped her up - took my own daughter's hand and said to the little girl, 'Where is your mom or dad?'
She said, 'Up there,' she said pointing up into the trees.
We walked all the way up the hill to this woman lying asleep and oblivious on a towel - you couldn't even SEE the lake through the trees where this woman was.
I woke her up and said, 'Here's your daughter. I just pulled her out of the lake- she would have drowned.'
The mother said, 'Get over here Katie' - or whatever the girl's name was and started berating the girl for wandering away and going in the water.
I said, 'You know - you really might want to stay awake and watch your little girl when you take her around deep water - or for that matter - anytime and anywhere in the future.'
She said '**** you lady...' and grabbed the girl's hand from mine.

I should have reported her. I hope that little girl made it through childhood with that woman.

1 Reply

What is an appropriate reward for saving a life?

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