When you are bragging about cheapness, but it takes nine months of your full time labor to do the work, is that really cheap?
Labor doesn't have a dollar value unless you are paying or being paid for the work.
Re:Build a house for less than $5000
by jessriedel on Monday February 13, 2012 @10:10AM
(#3585825)
It has an opportunity cost, as well as a fair-market value.
Re:Build a house for less than $5000
by freehunter on Monday February 13, 2012 @10:26AM
(#3585904)
Everything has an opportunity cost. In this case, he managed to both go to work and build a house. He gave up his hobbies and in return built a house for "free" (gaining a new short-term hobby). How much are you and I giving up by reading HN right now? It's very, very difficult to attach a dollar value to opportunity cost when you weren't going to be doing anything money-making with that time anyway.
Agreed, but then the headline should have been "Guy has a fun time spending 1,000 hours building a neat looking house."
What bothers me is the bait and switch. It's bad journalism, but I would bet that the people who find this economically or ecologically "good" would be disinclined to change the headline because something to the effect of "dude has fun hobby" doesn't have the same "social good" connotations as the current headline.
This statement could be used against almost anything falling under DIY, hacking, hobby work, etc. I mean, sure, you are technically correct, but who counts that, if you are having fun doing something for yourself.