You know we live in an age of declining humanity when a study is conducted outlining the price of a human life. More specifically, when the value of a specific nationality is formally measured as though one ethnicity is more precious than another.

A study revealed that the death of an Iraqi person costs the US government $2.40 each. In other words, an Iraqi costs as much as a value meal from McDonalds.

What is more shocking than the degrading price tag is the deconstruction of a human being entailed within this study. The miracle that is the human body, a complex system of nerves, organs and bloodstreams that house a soul is completely disregarded. The person's value to others as a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, lover and companion is completely undermined. This study reduced a human being, composed of flesh and spirit, into an inexpensive, discardable commodity.

Instances such as this only reaffirm my suspicion that the end of man will precede the moment of divine judgment promised by multiple beliefs, since man himself will cause it.

Admittedly, this is perhaps a highly cynical, slightly paranoid, and borderline blasphemous belief of mine. But when we live in an age in which people find it acceptable (and possible) to quantify the cost of human beings, can I be blamed?

The condition of the human race as a whole has become so sickeningly desensitized that it has come to a point in which it is able to calculate the monetary value of another human.

And what has instigated this epidemic of desensitization is the birth of a new religion in the 20th century.

The economy, an entirely human construct in which sanctity is bestowed upon a 6x3inch paper bill, is now the most influential belief system.

Its followers wear their money's worth as ceremonial robes; brand names and logos displayed as honorary badges. They kneel at the altar of megamalls. They attend sermons held by high priests and priestesses, urging them to consume as much food, entertainment, clothes, state-funded media, gadgets, garbage as possible; and when money is exhausted and credit cards are maxed out so no more things and stuff can be consumed, people are urged to consume one another.

Its prophets strategize their crusades based on what will be most beneficial for their almighty economy (or rather their personal bank accounts). Having an army of devotees with bellies and minds bloated to the brim with inorganic junk and subdued spirits makes the execution of their holy wars all the more possible.

These prophets also possess the miraculous ability of transforming the nonexistent into such a detailed reality that one could swear it's tangible. They have constructed a reality in which the world wholeheartedly believed (still believes?) that Al Qaeda caused the 9/11 tragedy, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that Iran's nuclear power is apocalyptic, that Mordechai Vanunu is a very naughty man and that the Mossad is run by the Care Bears.

They perpetuate this reality in order to disguise their true intentions from the rest of us normal folk without the slightest worry of being exposed and/or stifled. Dumbed down by over consumption, most of the world's population has lost its ability to think critically and freely. As for those who are aware, they are few and far between so can be silenced very easily.

Their true intention, as I'm sure people reading this know already, is the moneys.

So when the driving force behind the world's current affairs, when the nature of diplomatic relations, and when the subliminal undercurrent behind the hundreds of messages communicated to us daily is money, you know that humanity is taking a turn for the worst.

To put into perspective just how brutally the importance of money triumphs over that of the human condition, here are a few examples from the past year alone:

A billion dollar home was built in India on the same street where poverty and destitution can be found in devastating abundance.

A 60 billion dollar weapons deal is granted from the US to Saudi Arabia, quadruple the sum of money the UN Millennium Development Goals estimated is needed to eradicate world poverty.

The United States' 2010 federal budget specified $663.7 billion (18.74%) for the Department of Defence alone, while the Department of Education received only 1.32% of the total $3.55 trillion budget.

As for examples of billions or even millions of dollars being spent on the people's health, education, development and infrastructure? I'm drawing a blank.

We are no longer regarded as living, breathing, valuable individuals but as animated piggy banks. Our worth is no longer measured by the impact of our actions but by the influence of our bank accounts. The crumbled bits of paper in our wallets, which speak louder than our voices, are attentively listened to while our shouts and cries go unnoticed.

Everything has a price now and the word "priceless" is near obsolete. While material wealth is the holy grail of the masses and is displayed so proudly, more abundant forms of prosperity such as spiritual enlightenment and wellbeing are neglected.

The world is in such a state of moral decay that the resulting cavities, digging holes through the fabric of humanity, are not regarded as signs of our impending downfall. Instead, like the opportunistic vultures they are, the economy's profiteers' regard the cavities as voids to be filled with as much of their political dogma as possible.

And with price tags on our heads, our livelihoods in their hands, all we can do is gobble it all up.