Vox Pop: What Would You Save?

"If your house was on fire and you could save one thing, what would you save?" This was the question I asked various people of all backgrounds. I was asking this hard question to see if people took monetary worth into account in an emergency situation such as a house fire. To see the presentation, click here.

I asked this question mainly because I was curious to see what the responses would be. A stereotype of today's society is that people are materialistic and greedy. I, however, felt that in a situation like a house fire, monetary value wouldn't be a factor in what each person would save. I asked people of different ages, backgrounds, and economic statuses.

I found that the answers fell into two "categories". The first, that they would save photographs that held memories that they wished to save. One answer I received was that she would save her pictures because they have many years of memories that you can't get back.

This young woman would save her photographs.

The second category that the answers fell into was saving an item that held memories of someone that he or she had lost. One powerful object that a man said he would save was the American flag that was given to him at his father's funeral for his service in the Air Force.

This young man would save the flag from his
father's funeral.

After completing this Vox Pop project, I came to the conclusion that in an emergency situation such as this, the concept of monetary value isn't a factor in what a person would choose to save, it is the emotional worth of the item that the owner finds so dear to them.