The Six Million Dollar Man

The six million dollar man

By Harold J. Morowitz

This essay looks at how much it would cost to make a human being. One answer is 97 cents. This is what it was said in a birthday card sent to the author.

The author decided decided to check this statement. He looked up the cost 36 dollar per gram, another cost 12,000 dollar per gram and 175,500,000 dollar per gram.

The author tries to explain the difference between the 97 cents figure in the birthday card and his calculation that the cost of human being is six million dollar. One reason for the difference is the chemicals cost much more than unpurified blocks of chemicals.

However, even if the author bought all the chemicals, he knows he would not have a human make up the human body. Even if he could do this, the result would not act, make love or complain likes a human being. It becomes clears to the author that human being does not have a cost they are priceless.

An important idea in this essay is that some t things are worth more than sum of the cost of their parts. For example, a car is made from steel and rubber but a finished car costs is much more than unshaped piles of rubber and metal.

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