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Re: How to expect the unexpected

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I think the reason people are working more is that they are working for money not value.

When I work, I get paid in money. So the more money offered the more I will want to work.

However, money is not the fundamental aspect of an economy. Many people think it is, but it really isn't. This can be demonstrated with two simple questions: Does money have a value? Does value have money?

The first question shows that money is not fundamental because it has a value If it was fundamental, then money would not have any properties but itself.

The second question at first glance seems like nonsense (and it is in a way). If value was not fundamental then it could conceivably have a property which is money (or some other property). But value seems to be an aspect without a property, so it appears that value is a fundamental aspect of economies.

So Value is a fundamental property of an economy, and in fact you can view an entire economy as the movement and generation of value (not money or goods). This view of economics has many useful advantages, one of which is a way to view trade.

When two people come to trade, they set a value on what they have, and they set a value on what the other person has. If they value what the other person has more than what they value what they have, then they are willing to trade. If both parties are willing to trade, then a trade can take place.

Now, if we were to look at this just using money, then the first person has money and the second person places a price on their good or services they are trading. If the first person values the goods/services more than they value the amount of money set for the price, then they will be willing to trade.

In this case, just looking at the money, when the trade takes place, the value of the money that the first person has is given to the second person and this should match the value of the goods. This would mean that there is no net gain in this system. What one gains the other looses. One might do better out of the deal, but for this to happen the other has to do worse.

But, if we look at it with Value as the fundamental property, then the situation is very different. Because each person values what the other has more than what they have, then when they trade, their total value goes up. From this you can see that there is a big difference between Value and Money.

This is also the key to a post-scarcity economy. It is not the price of the goods and services that is important, but it is the value gained by both parties in the trade that is important. It means that you can give something away for $0, but in that trade it would be possible to gain value.

In a way, many business do this already. they will sell their main product at a loss because doing so gives them value which they can exchange to money later (or other things of value). This is essentially how game console companies operate. they sell their consoles at a loss, but make it up in licencing fees and game sales. Selling the console at a loss means more people will have the console, and thus more people will buy the games for it.

It is also why LL gives their viewer software out for free (and why they made it open source for a while). It meant more people will be able to get it and thus generate more potential customers.


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