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Originally Posted by DaleDe
Value and cost are not the same thing.
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Actually, one of Merriam Webster’s definitions for value is the monetary worth of something and I believe I used it correctly in that context.
You have chosen to use another definition of value, that of relative worth, utility, or importance. Hence, your usage and references are no longer economic, but of a philosophic nature.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaleDe
The value of something is not necessarily related to its availability.
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Perhaps in a philosophic sense, but not in the context of economics and the definition I have posted under.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaleDe
Not everything is based on supply and demand IMHO. Some things are valuable even if they cost nothing.
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Such as …
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaleDe
All software in your mind would have zero or close to zero value yet a computer is worthless without software.
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This could be the eureka moment for you (and hopefully everyone else.)
1 – You have correctly asserted that a computer is worthless without software,
2 – Yet we can agree that computers are a scarce resource (an apparent economic contradiction),
3 – Hence, the reason computers have any value at all is because of software, a digital good in unlimited, non-infringing supply (of the Open Source variety.)
The worth of software does not come from in and of itself or the discs and tapes it may reside on, but in its transformative ability to turn a scarce resource of little value into one of great value.
Dumas