[vikp]

The interesting part (for me at least), and the real reason that you guys are having a debate at all, is because our notion of value is so far abstracted from human necessities these days that its hard to put a finger on what value is.

There are a few things that we inarguably need -- food, shelter, water, and so on. See the bottom two tiers of Maslow's pyramid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs .

It's the middle tier and above when things start to get fuzzy and hard to define. When most people globally were engaged in work towards the bottom, it was easy to understand the value that was being added (I grow food! I help myself and others survive!).

Now, when most people (at least in developed countries) are doing things towards the top of the pyramid or off of the pyramid entirely, its harder to define value. Money is one proxy (which you are using), but its probably a poor one. I would love to see better ones.