How do I know the value of a coconut oil jar or a set of pearl earrings? Is the value in the price tag at the store or in the mind of the user? Maybe there’s a value to the society that I purchased a jar coconut oil, that is bigger than the three euros and ninety nine cents I pay to the cashier. The definition of a value seems very complex and easily changeable.
I think that the value is in the minds of people. The value that a person gives to a item changes with time, as the item may become more sought after or there might be a story to a particular item that makes the item more valuable generation after generation. The value of items in a museum can be priceseless as they are irreplaceable, as they are the only items that are from a certain period of time that is historically important. For example a shell from a bullet that killed Kennedy can be exactly the same as a shell from a same kind of bullet, but without the historical meaning the lastly mentioned shell is worth pennies.
There are value in other things than physical items; for example a good deed can have a deep value to a person – in total opposite of (shallow?) value of an physical item, that might be considered as “just a thing” and “not replacing the emotional need”. I have seen movies, where the father of a child is never around, but gives the child money/material goods. The father of the child is trying to show affection by things, not by being with the child, thus giving the child a thing that he/she values less.
If I think the issue of value from another perspective, I can see that some of the things have a very steady value. The whole idea of exchange economy relies on the fact that the thing that is used to exchange for services and/or products, keeps its value the same (or very similar) all the time. This being said, the stock exchange is a perfect example of the value change. Even as the item or service doesn’t change, the value changes. How would you explain that the stock prices change from one minute to another? Is it that the product/service gets better and worse by the minute? Surely not.
At the end of the day, I think that value is all in the person\’s mind. If a person “gives more value” to a car than a house, that person is not wrong. There isn’t any “right value”. The achievements of one person might be valued by only two other people. This doesn’t mean that the achievements are somehow worse than the achievements of a person, whose achievements are admired by millions. The matter is within the person.
What do you value?
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