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A comment on A catalog of wealth-creation mechanisms (2009). Parent comment

Re:A catalog of wealth-creation mechanisms (2009) by mellavora on Thursday October 07, 2021 @08:48AM (#28785531)
There is a telling insight from David Graeber, I think it is in his great book Debt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years

He starts with the reasonable postulates that economic value is a function of desirability and uniqueness.

and then observes that the things which make us the most human are by definition shared among all humans, ...

thus essentially of zero economic value.

Of course, he is also arguing against traditional definitions of economic value by showing how ridiculous they are, much as you point out.

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Re:A catalog of wealth-creation mechanisms (2009) by HPsquared on Thursday October 07, 2021 @10:07AM (#28786428)
I'm a fan of the Austrian school's idea that value is subjective and situational.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_theory_of_value

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Re:A catalog of wealth-creation mechanisms (2009) by cowbellemoo on Thursday October 07, 2021 @02:50PM (#28790579)
I'm a fan of Marx's idea that value is created by labor and the free gifts of nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_theory_of_value

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Re:A catalog of wealth-creation mechanisms (2009) by imtringued on Thursday October 07, 2021 @04:09PM (#28791444)
People definitively value their own work, others may not.
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