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Re:How much do things really cost? by shrubble on Saturday April 02, 2022 @05:45PM (#30891952)
So what would happen to the water in the tomato, if the tomato was never grown? This whole concept seems prone to "imaginary dollars" being considered as real.
Re:How much do things really cost? by toper-centage on Saturday April 02, 2022 @06:01PM (#30892051)
What is your point? Tomatoes are grown in sunny locations and usually watered artificially. So ungrown tomatoes are unwatered tomatoes.
Re:How much do things really cost? by dsr_ on Saturday April 02, 2022 @06:45PM (#30892348)
Tomatoes grow really nicely in New Jersey with much less artificial irrigation. But New Jersey real estate is much more expensive than the California desert.
Re:How much do things really cost? by forum_ghost on Saturday April 02, 2022 @06:18PM (#30892172)
imaginary accounting isn't bounded by the consensus reality.

you could really paint the picture either way you like, given enough effort.

Re:How much do things really cost? by 6510 on Saturday April 02, 2022 @06:53PM (#30892386)
A better question is to wonder how we can at least visualize externalities. On the one hand it is impossibly hard, on the other it is easy to improve over the current lets not talk about them approach.

I had pondered itemized bills so that we may at least make that data available but it wouldn't be very useful compared to what it costs to gather the data. It just wouldn't fit in our attention span. The shooting from the hip approach taken by De Aanzet is good enough to expand the attention all the way up to HN and beyond.

Re:How much do things really cost? by thanatos519 on Saturday April 02, 2022 @07:25PM (#30892595)
There is no such thing as non-imaginary dollars.