The above title was a thought that fell out of my fingers on another site, and it's kinda stuck in my cranium. ("and he saw that it was good etc etc")
Thing is, it seems to be a nutshell phrase. Value, as I've burbled about previously, is in the eye of the seller. When posting items sold on eBay (oooh a product placement issue!) the nice lady in the Post Office (and another!) asks me the value of the item I'm posting.
In response, I give her the amount that the customer paid for it, as, to them, that is its value. It then strikes me that to me it is worth less, as that is why it's being sold.
Some garlicky descrepancy then lurks within this kiev of transaction. I have no doubt that disturbingly clever people with beards and calculators (and that's just the women) could tell me how much every item I've sold cost to produce, so that would be one value.
But that someone else out there can re-value it according to what they're willing to pay, means that all intrinsic value is entirely arbitary, and it becomes a wonderful meld of philosophy and finance.
Which sounds less and less wonderful as I contemplate it, I must admit.
Is all money an existential question now? Beyond the physical existence of the spare change I have rattling in my pocket, how much tangible currency is there?
The proof of value is now in the minds of others, yours and mine. It is an etherial construct of desire and microchip, one keystroke whim from ascension or destruction.
It is a suspicion of mine that the current economic crisis is the result of this ghastly realisation hitting home.
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