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by serverholic 1253 days ago
Worth and value are inherently subjective. Price is an attempt to assign an objective value to something subjective. It kinda/sorta works, but it also kinda doesn't.

Let's imagine there is no minimum wage in America. Now let's say that workers in America demand $10/hour and African workers ask for $2/hour for the exact same job. What's the correct value for that labor? It's a non-sensical question.

You could say it's the minimum value at $2. But then some other worker asks for $1. Did you make a mistake? Was it not actually worth $2 the whole time?

1 comments

> Worth and value are inherently subjective

If they are inherently subjective, why are you claiming we're not paid what we're worth? This statement is meaningless, isn't it?

> It kinda/sorta works, but it also kinda doesn't

In what way it doesn't work? Clearly it has more utility than other attempts at measuring value. I can agree it's not perfect (nothing is), but that's very different from not working.

> let's say that workers in America demand $10/hour and African workers ask for $2/hour for the exact same job. What's the correct value for that labor?

The correct value is whatever someone is paying for that labor on a free market.

> You could say it's the minimum value at $2. But then some other worker asks for $1. Did you make a mistake?

The only mistake is treating value as inherent and static.