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1426 sats \ 5 replies \ @siggy47 30 Jan \ on: On Providing Value econ
The person voluntarily engaging in the transaction decides if it has value, financial or otherwise. Period.
Any non-coercive transaction is done with an expectation of profit.
I'm reading Knut Svanholm's Praxeology, and one thing I've learned from it so far:
Profit is not only monetary, it can be things you can't put a monetary value on, like love, family, friendship, happiness, joy etc.
For someone shooting up heroin, the (however temporary) easing of suffering it brings them is a profit, and it doesn't matter that someone else (e.g. someone with a lower time preference) would view it as harm.
Similarly, someone committing suicide does it for profit.
IMO people have the right to seek profit and anyone trying to stop them is a tyrant.
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I tend to have strong opinions, but one thing I find fascinating about praxeology is that it doesn't judge, it just studies why people act the way they do.
As soon as a judgement or opinion is pushed, it ceases to be science.
However, it does attract libertarians. I think that's because it reveals facts in a cold, logical, objective way; facts tyrants love to hide - by appealing to emotions, propaganda etc. Once the facts are revealed, people can see things in a different light and form their own, better informed opinions, regardless of where they stand emotionally.
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Period
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Taking a step back, I read this statement as, "it is objectively true that value is subjectively defined."
I can imagine a world view in which there is only subjective value. In this case, the universe is happenstance and we only have the illusion of value (maybe kind of like Sartre). However, there's no "Period" at the end of this statement, because without any actual intrinsic value at all, even instrumental value is an illusion. I can also imagine a world view in which all values are objectively true. This is maybe what is alluded to in the last paragraph. It is predicated on the belief of something outside our universe by which we're all dependent. The article argues that most values are subjective as determined by the market, but others might be part of that second category. However, the idea purported here is elusive to me. Am I missing something that makes objective inclusion of the "Period" make more sense?
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