I just read this essay that adds some depth to the pricing exercise we did in class on Thursday. You were assigning value and price to my "precious" items. And we in no way came to an equilibrium price. The author of the essay points out:
There is no unified theory in our popular understanding of value: there are the market values of goods and then there are our “values” which we consider to be some of the most personal and even sacred aspects of ourselves. Once people emerge from the realm of necessity or being driven by what seems to them to be compulsions of various kinds, they may feel that they are then making decisions which draw to some degree on their ethical or personal values. People often have the impression that most of their financial dealings have little to do with their personal ethics; the realm of market interaction is viewed for the most part as an area of life controlled by forces outside the self or motivated by our insistent drives for self-preservation and pleasure.
You can read more at:
Via Government’s Fiscal Policy and Regulatory Oversight, Ethical Values Shape Monetary Value - New Economic Perspectives
Interesting reflection on why we consume what we do! Specifically, I can relate to the statement “the realm of market interaction is viewed for the most part as an area of life controlled by forces outside the self or motivated by our insistent drives for self-preservation and pleasure.” When reading this statement I thought about what I consumed today and why. Before writing this post I made a trip to Walgreens and the gas station. I would consider the gas I purchased to be a consumption outside the self. I need to get around, and to do so I need to put gas in my car. But most of the items I bought at Walgreen (milk, carbonated water, toiletries, etc.) are self-driven purchases that enhance my pleasure. Having these items gives me comfort, so I accept the price in exchange for the utility I am receiving.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the article provided, I would like comment on the paragraph about politics affecting our morals and furthermore our consumption:
“In civil society, many people attempt to express some of their personal values via politics, in which, often though not always, a clash of different conceptions of “the good” confront each other. There are ethical ideals embedded in political ideas which unfortunate are not discussed openly enough or publicly enough discussed. People donate to political groups and causes as a means to express their personal values, again beyond and above the market value of the goods and services they buy every day.”
Though this may be true for some people I do not agree with the paragraph in general. It makes the assumption that everyone today in civil society is political affiliated and makes decisions based on their affiliation. It also disregards people’s consumption based on religion, gender, sexuality, or any other way a person might define oneself. On the topic of morality and consumption, people are who they are because of the how they were raised or the environment around them.