We don't afford people. you can't put a price on human life. What we can't afford is the loss of human life. Syntax is quite important here since inverting it is not the same sense.
A lot of companies put prices on people. Some whole jobs are to put prices on people (e.g. Insurance). The way that I intended it to be received was "I have you now and you make me money, so now I can't lose you."
Your argument that "you can't put a price on human life" is false. Earning potential and accident potential allow us to put prices on human life. Plus slavery still exists, which literally turns people into property. Of course, I'm not supporting any of this, I'm just pointing out its relevance.
Still, you are not affording people. You afford their aptitudes, you afford their company, you afford their academic prowess. What you can afford is their labor (dedication, talent, devotion, time) and their ideas, not people. Even insurance companies aren't pricing people quite literally.
As a Business student, I would know. For us in business this nuance in words between affording people vs affording our mental capacities (quite literally our ability to write ideas and read ideas) it's quite important since, as you pointed with slavery, affording people does denote not to mental capacity, but to physical and mental exploitation (which is a problem of capitalism and any economical model).
You said the way you re-arranged the sentence (which, really, its just a verse from a song) was more accurate, but it seems to me that it's not accurate at all if you misinterpret it by thinking it reflects on ideas or thoughts people from the XVI century would have had.
Can't really say its more accurate when human thinking has changed so much since the renaissance during our post-modern society, as we process thoughts completely different. My point is: relevance ≠ accuracy.
Of course its relevant, needless to say, but the context of the sentence, the lyrics of a song, are reflecting on the value of life (this being priceless), which, indeed, is completely a much modern way of thinking about life, that those who had slaves never could think of. Therefore, I don't think its more accurate, really, nor think its in context to relate the different ways of thinking here.
When I first said this, I just wanted to see what you would say. You did not disappoint. It's cool that you are a business student. I'm actually becoming a lawyer myself. I love seeing intelligent people who can defend their beliefs well. (Just in case you still have doubts, I 100% agree with you)
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