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Author Topic:   Economics: How much is something worth?
nwr
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Posts: 6412
From: Geneva, Illinois
Joined: 08-08-2005
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 8 of 330 (660981)
05-01-2012 9:11 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Percy
05-01-2012 7:12 AM


Percy writes:
In economics the question "How much is something worth?" has a simple answer: what someone is willing to pay.
There is no answer to "How much is something worth". There could not be an answer.
Sure, we might be able to answer "How much is X worth" with "$5". But that begs the question of how much is a dollar worth. And there is no answer to that, because there is no measuring scale by which to judge worth.
It is a relativity problem. We can ask "How fast is the earth moving?" but there is no possible answer. If Einstein taught us anything, it is that there is only relative motion. There is no such thing as absolute motion.
It looks as if the same is true of worth. There is only relative worth, not absolute worth. So if I say "X is worth $5", I am only stating a relative worth, comparing the worth of X with the worth of a dollar.
The relative worth of X compared to Y changes over time.

Jesus was a liberal hippie

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Percy, posted 05-01-2012 7:12 AM Percy has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 9 by Percy, posted 05-01-2012 9:21 AM nwr has seen this message but not replied

  
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