The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 192
What makes something valuable? How do we determine value? One hypothesis on value is famously forwarded and relied upon by the Marxists. It is called the “Labor Theory of Value,” and it insists that labor is what transforms raw materials into something “humanized” and therefore of value. Therefore, in this theory, labor is what makes something valuable. Of course, this theory has not proved to be adequate for economic purposes, which is just another part of why Marxism is an abject failure even as an economic doctrine (aside from everything else). The question, however, remains. In this fun episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay takes a casual stab at a different answer: a problem–solving theory of value. This would be the idea that value is determined in relation to a good, commodity, or service’s capacity to solve problems for people, particularly their consumers. Join him on this exploration to think about some things in a new, different way.
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1 comment
I subscribe to two theories of value.
First the theory of value that is relevant to the market is the DESIRE Theory of Value. This says that the value of something is proportional to the total desire of people (with access to that item) for having that thing.
Second, and I think separate (though not unrelated) to this is the INVESTMENT Theory of value: This says the value of a thing is equal to what one has invested in it. This version is relevant to moral, intrinsic value. Why are you valuable as a human? Because God has invested in you. He has invested the blood of his son, so in fact you aren’t “merely” valuable, you are very, very valuable — probably more than you can conceive. At creation God invested his image in you, by which the bible surely means he has invested some small part of his character as a being so that your relationship to him is weakly analogous to that of a child to a parent. It is, of course, for this reason that God was willing to invest his own son for you.