[ggm]

Me too with a sad twist: no matter how often I put a sign on my council kerbside collection e-waste saying "works" some metal scavenger on a copper hunt cuts the powercord and moves on. They're trashing value to extract the one bit they care about.

[pfdietz]

If it were actually valuable they wouldn't do that.

[ggm]

Value is a word which is used in two senses. One is yours: what $ can I get for it. The other is use-value: the object can be used to perform it's role.

What they do, to extract $ value, is destroy use-value. The use-value didn't interest them, but waking at 4am and driving round before anyone ELSE sees the copper and takes it, interests them mightily. Consequently, anyone who is interested in finding things, finds broken things, not useful things.

[corobo]

Different people hold different values, humanity isn't a hive mind yet

[pfdietz]

They'd pick it up and resell it. What, it's too difficult to find the person who would want it and be willing to pay? Then it isn't actually valuable.

[corobo]

Do you know the value of every object in existence?