It seems we know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Ebay helps us to establish price but not value.
Freecycle helps us to establish value but not price.
Oxfam online succeeds by creaming off the best of the donations and selling them online at a higher price than might be achieved in their shops.
Today I tried to donate a printer to a charity shop, complete with lead, CD, all the paperwork and the original invoice.
It was refused.
The truth is however that the reason the printer is surplus to requirements is that I bought a new one.
The reason that I bought a new one is that when I went to the store to buy replacement cartridges I noticed a new wi-fi printer selling for less than the cost of replacement cartridges so I bought a new one.
Of course the printer companies are following a well trod strategy first developed by companies selling razors.
Sell the razor for less than it costs to make and make your profits from selling the replacement blades.
So what is the value of a printer compared with the value of an ink cartridge?
The price is clear, about the same or possibly less, but the value?
This equation between price and value runs right through our economy.
In continental Europe a cup of espresso coffee, 'normale' in Italy or 'solo' in Spain, is less than a Euro, in Carlisle recently I paid £2 10 for a cup of espresso coffee.
The undercover economist argues that the price you pay is not for the coffee itself but is rent for the seat you sit on to consume the coffee.
This is a rational argument and it may be that the rent will rise depending on the location, but then sitting outside in a cool wind in a damp northern city ought in practise to cost less than sitting beside the ocean in seventy degree sunshine in southern Spain?
It is possible to argue from the price of coffee to the value of Trident.
The cost of war to the value of peace.
The cost of bankers bonuses to the value of jobs for young people.
The cost of welfare to the value of safety and security for the sick, the elderly or the poor.
Or as Faust discovered the cost of selling your soul to the value of eternal peace.
Ebay helps us to establish price but not value.
Freecycle helps us to establish value but not price.
Oxfam online succeeds by creaming off the best of the donations and selling them online at a higher price than might be achieved in their shops.
Today I tried to donate a printer to a charity shop, complete with lead, CD, all the paperwork and the original invoice.
It was refused.
The truth is however that the reason the printer is surplus to requirements is that I bought a new one.
The reason that I bought a new one is that when I went to the store to buy replacement cartridges I noticed a new wi-fi printer selling for less than the cost of replacement cartridges so I bought a new one.
Of course the printer companies are following a well trod strategy first developed by companies selling razors.
Sell the razor for less than it costs to make and make your profits from selling the replacement blades.
So what is the value of a printer compared with the value of an ink cartridge?
The price is clear, about the same or possibly less, but the value?
This equation between price and value runs right through our economy.
In continental Europe a cup of espresso coffee, 'normale' in Italy or 'solo' in Spain, is less than a Euro, in Carlisle recently I paid £2 10 for a cup of espresso coffee.
The undercover economist argues that the price you pay is not for the coffee itself but is rent for the seat you sit on to consume the coffee.
This is a rational argument and it may be that the rent will rise depending on the location, but then sitting outside in a cool wind in a damp northern city ought in practise to cost less than sitting beside the ocean in seventy degree sunshine in southern Spain?
It is possible to argue from the price of coffee to the value of Trident.
The cost of war to the value of peace.
The cost of bankers bonuses to the value of jobs for young people.
The cost of welfare to the value of safety and security for the sick, the elderly or the poor.
Or as Faust discovered the cost of selling your soul to the value of eternal peace.
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