[jplr8922]

The labor theory of value is an old marxist economic theory which is not used by serious social scientists in their field.

The modern approach is called the opportunity cost, and by definition is a counterfactual scenario. It is triggered by a choice you actually have. Otherwise it's called science fiction.

This article does a very average job at explaining the whole thing... Even the Elon Musk example is not accurate. The value of Tesla in the ''without Elon'' scenario is wrong, because in that case Elon would be *replaced* by another overconfident nerd. Just think of Apple without Steve Jobs ; he got replaced by something different, and the firm is still standing strong today...

Good counterfactual thinking is super important, but I do not feel that the author is a master of the art.