this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
931 points (98.8% liked)
A Comm for Historymemes
1711 readers
1075 users here now
A place to share history memes!
Rules:
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
-
No fascism, atrocity denial, etc.
-
Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
-
Follow all Lemmy.world rules.
Banner courtesy of @[email protected]
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You contradict yourself immediately in your first sentence. It can't be both worth 1 and 2000 at the same time. Someone willing to pay a high price does not set that price for others. We are talking about setting fair prices, not just for a single outlier.
Your definition equates to "my wares are worth whatever I can convince someone they are worth." Is that a fair way to set prices?
That actually hits the nail on the head and I believe that is a perfectly acceptable way to set prices for luxury items like a Gucci bag.
ETA:
It can, because people value things differently. One person might not regard a single item as being worth $1 and $2,000 at the same time, but two people could. And, as long as both people exist, the guy who thinks it's worth $2,000 is who the company is going to sell it to.
I understand its based on perspective, I'm saying that you can't say an item holds a certain worth objectively. A Gucci bag is only worth 2000 if you can find someone to pay that. I think the word "worth" is doing extra work it doesnt need to.
We may have different understandings, be referring to different definitions of, or be applying our own connotations to the word "worth". I'm using it as a noun meaning "material or market value", while I think you may be thinking of it like "The quality that renders something desirable, useful, or valuable", or even as an adjective meaning something like "Deserving of or meriting".
If that's the case, I get what you're saying and agree, I don't personally think a Gucci bag is worth what people are willing to pay for it, nor do I think any part of its production justifies that price. Unfortunately, some people have more cents than sense.
Edit: added a word for grammar's sake
I think I'm assuming the majority of people use worth the way I am rather than you, but I have no evidence to back that up. Anecdotally, people around me seem to refer to inherent worth rather than subjective worth, but that doesnt make them right just because its common.
I think the problem I have with the phrase is when its used as an intrinsic value like you said. People justify buying things on sale using that logic, and dont realize they aren't saving money but spending it. Maybe thats a slightly different issue though.
I wonder what it is about humans that makes us want to put everything into such firm boxes, and ignore the nuance of things. It seems rare that things are truly without nuance so I dont quite understand the dissonance there.