CDZ Some Thoughts on Price, Value and Worth

[JimBowie1958]

worth noun
\ ˈwərth \
Definition of worth (Entry 1 of 4)
1a: monetary value
farmhouse and lands of little worth
b: the equivalent of a specified amount or figure
a dollar's worth of gas
2: the value of something measured by its qualities or by the esteem in which it is held
a literary heritage of great worth
3a: moral or personal value
trying to teach human worth
b: merit, excellence
a field in which we have proved our worth

value noun
val·ue | \ ˈval-(ˌ)yü\
Definition of value (Entry 1 of 2)
1: the monetary worth of something : market price
2: a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged
3: relative worth, utility, or importance
a good value at the price
the value of base stealing in baseball
had nothing of value to say
4: something (such as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable
sought material values instead of human values
— W. H. Jones
5: a numerical quantity that is assigned or is determined by calculation or measurement
let x take on positive values
a value for the age of the earth
6: the relative duration of a musical note
7a: relative lightness or darkness of a color : luminosity
b: the relation of one part in a picture to another with respect to lightness and darkness

price noun
\ ˈprīs \
Definition of price (Entry 1 of 3)
1 archaic : value, worth
2a: the quantity of one thing that is exchanged or demanded in barter or sale for another
b: the amount of money given or set as consideration for the sale of a specified thing
3: the terms for the sake of which something is done or undertaken: such as
a: an amount sufficient to bribe one
believed every man had his price
b: a reward for the apprehension or death of a person
an outlaw with a price on his head
4: the cost at which something is obtained
the price of freedom is restraint
— J. Irwin Miller

We live in a stupid, lazy Age of Convenience and no less so when it comes to the precise meaning and nuance of words. The words 'worth', 'value' and 'price' used to have different nuance in meaning, but our Age of Great Stupidity is dumbing down everything to the point that one day all words will have the same meaning and what they would mean at any given time would depend instead on context and will be of no more intelligence than a grunt accompanied by a finger point.

But I want to look at these three words in terms of the economic meaning and import, and try to pull some nuance of meaning out of our current Great Mire of Stupidity.

I have read a little bit about the 'fair price' of a thing in economics and it really seems to me we are talking about three different things on the whole; worth, price and value. To do that I must make an analogy.

When I got out of the Army back in '83, one of the first things I did was to go to some garage sales to get some basic things, like a belt, pocket knife, comb, etc. this is far cheaper than buying things at a Good Will store, and I had like $50 total to my name at the time. I found this pocket knife that had a Damascus steel blade, nickel silver end pieces and Walnut scales.

The lady only wanted 25 cents for it. It had belonged to her husband and he had passed away, so she was getting rid of all his things. I told her the pocket knife was worth a lot more than 25 cents, the Damascus steel alone would be well worth more. She said that in that case she would take 50 cents for it.

I felt uncomfortable buying the knife for so little. I felt like I was exploiting her emotional desire to be rid of her husbands memories, or what ever the case, to get a good buy, so I said I would not pay less than $5 for it, as I couldn't find it a comfortable purchase in terms of living with my conscience to pay less than $5. She agreed to sell it for a dollar and she did not want my charity, so I bought it for $1, and eased my mind that I did try to make a fair buy.

I have never tried to argue up a persons price for a thing before so that I would pay more for it, and have only done it once since then, talked a guy up from $100 for a car to $300 because the car's Blue Book at the time was around $3000 and there was really nothing seriously wrong with it, just a lot of paint oxidation and the oil needed changing. But the pocket knife experience got me to thinking more about the difference between the price of a thing, its value and its worth.

Now if one is content to treat them as all synonymous with each other, then fine, go play in the great Mire some more, but I think that there is a functional difference in nuance that is worth maintaining and helps to alleviate some of the confusion about what the price of a thing is vrs its value or its worth.

Adam Smith I think it was came up with the water-diamond paradox of value. Water has more utility than diamonds but diamonds fetch a much higher price than water per ounce. So this is a well recognized and long debated topic, and here is my take.

The price of a thing is whatever it is currently being sold for, so in the case of my knife it was finally a $1. The value of the thing after that was probably about $50 to get me to sell it, though the price was $0 because I really needed it and wasn't trying to sell it. The worth was more than that because to get a hand made knife with a Damascus steel blade to replace it would cost around $200 at the time IF you could find someone willing to do the work and you gave him the materials.

Today we have a lot of Etsy marketers of handmade items so a similar knife now could be bought for probably $30, but I wouldn't sell the knife for that because the sentimental value is much higher to me.

So to draw some points of discussion from all that I get:
1) Price, value and worth are all dynamic, Price being much more so, and value being more subjective. Worth I think points to a more abstract quality that suggests a common community exchange rate. A thing that is priceless is worth a great deal, but a thing that is worthless has a price of $0 unless you can find a sucker.

2) While you might sell a broken brass clock for a $5 price to some Third World person who likes shiny things, It is of considerably less value as a clock, unless you can repair it, and its worth might be whatever the materials in it sells for to a buyer. The three things seem to be different in nature from one to the other.

3) While Price is whatever you can barter for a thing, and value is the cost of acquiring it that you wouldn't go less than, the worth is more abstract and suggests a more universal exchange rate for the item. A cheap $5 pick axe might sell for $1000 in a gold rush, but what would it sell for in Manhatten? I would think barely more than the cost of making it. But what is it worth in Manhatten if there is not use for it other than occasional subway work? \

I would say the price for the axe sold in a gold rush is more than the price it fetches in Manhatten, but price is what you can get for a particular thing in a particular place, value is more of a typical normative price in each locale, and worth is what the abstract bearer is willing to part with a thing universally.

Hence a 'priceless' thing is of huge 'worth', as there is no price the owner is willing to take in exchange for it, and it is not worthless at all, and its 'value' is transitory depending on the locale market and what the average offer for it would be.

What do you all think about the topic? Are the difference in nuance worth keeping and does it shed any light on the economics of price?

 

[JimBowie1958]

This topic reminds me of a discussion I had with a watch collector on a cruise ship to Alaska. I had exchanged a watch I had paid $200 for, in part really because the thing was said to have an MSRP of over $2000, and I was curious about what was it about a watch that would make it so expensive. Upon acquiring it, I was completely unimpressed and traded it for a watch with an $800 MSRP for $100 and change. We talked about MSRPs and how they helped to keep prices up with perception of value, how most watches only cost about $5 to make, and how a watches price was mostly marketing and retail mark up.

He said that he got most of his watches free by making occassional trips to Japan where he had friends that worked in some kind of research department with Seiko, I think it was. They would give him gifts to impress him and he would buy them dinner and all the drinks they could keep down. He showed me one that had what looked like diamonds encrusted on it and asked me what its value was, since he had not paid anything for it? $0? The value of the gems, which were synthetic perfect diamonds? What was the value of his watch?

To this day I have to say I have absolutely no idea.

 

[dblack]

tl;dr

But I think I get the gist. Economically, value is entirely subjective. It depends on who's doing the valuing.

 

[Ringel05]

worth noun
\ ˈwərth \
Definition of worth (Entry 1 of 4)
1a: monetary value
farmhouse and lands of little worth
b: the equivalent of a specified amount or figure
a dollar's worth of gas
2: the value of something measured by its qualities or by the esteem in which it is held
a literary heritage of great worth
3a: moral or personal value
trying to teach human worth
b: merit, excellence
a field in which we have proved our worth

value noun
val·ue | \ ˈval-(ˌ)yü\
Definition of value (Entry 1 of 2)
1: the monetary worth of something : market price
2: a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged
3: relative worth, utility, or importance
a good value at the price
the value of base stealing in baseball
had nothing of value to say
4: something (such as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable
sought material values instead of human values
— W. H. Jones
5: a numerical quantity that is assigned or is determined by calculation or measurement
let x take on positive values
a value for the age of the earth
6: the relative duration of a musical note
7a: relative lightness or darkness of a color : luminosity
b: the relation of one part in a picture to another with respect to lightness and darkness

price noun
\ ˈprīs \
Definition of price (Entry 1 of 3)
1 archaic : value, worth
2a: the quantity of one thing that is exchanged or demanded in barter or sale for another
b: the amount of money given or set as consideration for the sale of a specified thing
3: the terms for the sake of which something is done or undertaken: such as
a: an amount sufficient to bribe one
believed every man had his price
b: a reward for the apprehension or death of a person
an outlaw with a price on his head
4: the cost at which something is obtained
the price of freedom is restraint
— J. Irwin Miller

We live in a stupid, lazy Age of Convenience and no less so when it comes to the precise meaning and nuance of words. The words 'worth', 'value' and 'price' used to have different nuance in meaning, but our Age of Great Stupidity is dumbing down everything to the point that one day all words will have the same meaning and what they would mean at any given time would depend instead on context and will be of no more intelligence than a grunt accompanied by a finger point.

But I want to look at these three words in terms of the economic meaning and import, and try to pull some nuance of meaning out of our current Great Mire of Stupidity.

I have read a little bit about the 'fair price' of a thing in economics and it really seems to me we are talking about three different things on the whole; worth, price and value. To do that I must make an analogy.

When I got out of the Army back in '83, one of the first things I did was to go to some garage sales to get some basic things, like a belt, pocket knife, comb, etc. this is far cheaper than buying things at a Good Will store, and I had like $50 total to my name at the time. I found this pocket knife that had a Damascus steel blade, nickel silver end pieces and Walnut scales.

The lady only wanted 25 cents for it. It had belonged to her husband and he had passed away, so she was getting rid of all his things. I told her the pocket knife was worth a lot more than 25 cents, the Damascus steel alone would be well worth more. She said that in that case she would take 50 cents for it.

I felt uncomfortable buying the knife for so little. I felt like I was exploiting her emotional desire to be rid of her husbands memories, or what ever the case, to get a good buy, so I said I would not pay less than $5 for it, as I couldn't find it a comfortable purchase in terms of living with my conscience to pay less than $5. She agreed to sell it for a dollar and she did not want my charity, so I bought it for $1, and eased my mind that I did try to make a fair buy.

I have never tried to argue up a persons price for a thing before so that I would pay more for it, and have only done it once since then, talked a guy up from $100 for a car to $300 because the car's Blue Book at the time was around $3000 and there was really nothing seriously wrong with it, just a lot of paint oxidation and the oil needed changing. But the pocket knife experience got me to thinking more about the difference between the price of a thing, its value and its worth.

Now if one is content to treat them as all synonymous with each other, then fine, go play in the great Mire some more, but I think that there is a functional difference in nuance that is worth maintaining and helps to alleviate some of the confusion about what the price of a thing is vrs its value or its worth.

Adam Smith I think it was came up with the water-diamond paradox of value. Water has more utility than diamonds but diamonds fetch a much higher price than water per ounce. So this is a well recognized and long debated topic, and here is my take.

The price of a thing is whatever it is currently being sold for, so in the case of my knife it was finally a $1. The value of the thing after that was probably about $50 to get me to sell it, though the price was $0 because I really needed it and wasn't trying to sell it. The worth was more than that because to get a hand made knife with a Damascus steel blade to replace it would cost around $200 at the time IF you could find someone willing to do the work and you gave him the materials.

Today we have a lot of Etsy marketers of handmade items so a similar knife now could be bought for probably $30, but I wouldn't sell the knife for that because the sentimental value is much higher to me.

So to draw some points of discussion from all that I get:
1) Price, value and worth are all dynamic, Price being much more so, and value being more subjective. Worth I think points to a more abstract quality that suggests a common community exchange rate. A thing that is priceless is worth a great deal, but a thing that is worthless has a price of $0 unless you can find a sucker.

2) While you might sell a broken brass clock for a $5 price to some Third World person who likes shiny things, It is of considerably less value as a clock, unless you can repair it, and its worth might be whatever the materials in it sells for to a buyer. The three things seem to be different in nature from one to the other.

3) While Price is whatever you can barter for a thing, and value is the cost of acquiring it that you wouldn't go less than, the worth is more abstract and suggests a more universal exchange rate for the item. A cheap $5 pick axe might sell for $1000 in a gold rush, but what would it sell for in Manhatten? I would think barely more than the cost of making it. But what is it worth in Manhatten if there is not use for it other than occasional subway work? \

I would say the price for the axe sold in a gold rush is more than the price it fetches in Manhatten, but price is what you can get for a particular thing in a particular place, value is more of a typical normative price in each locale, and worth is what the abstract bearer is willing to part with a thing universally.

Hence a 'priceless' thing is of huge 'worth', as there is no price the owner is willing to take in exchange for it, and it is not worthless at all, and its 'value' is transitory depending on the locale market and what the average offer for it would be.

What do you all think about the topic? Are the difference in nuance worth keeping and does it shed any light on the economics of price?

Boiled down;

Price is a number someone puts on a thing, value is desire, worth is what someone is willing to pay for something.

 

[Olde Europe]

As has been said before:

Conservatives know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

One might add, that defines what they are worth.

 

[alang1216]

worth noun
\ ˈwərth \
Definition of worth (Entry 1 of 4)
1a: monetary value
farmhouse and lands of little worth
b: the equivalent of a specified amount or figure
a dollar's worth of gas
2: the value of something measured by its qualities or by the esteem in which it is held
a literary heritage of great worth
3a: moral or personal value
trying to teach human worth
b: merit, excellence
a field in which we have proved our worth

value noun
val·ue | \ ˈval-(ˌ)yü\
Definition of value (Entry 1 of 2)
1: the monetary worth of something : market price
2: a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged
3: relative worth, utility, or importance
a good value at the price
the value of base stealing in baseball
had nothing of value to say
4: something (such as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable
sought material values instead of human values
— W. H. Jones
5: a numerical quantity that is assigned or is determined by calculation or measurement
let x take on positive values
a value for the age of the earth
6: the relative duration of a musical note
7a: relative lightness or darkness of a color : luminosity
b: the relation of one part in a picture to another with respect to lightness and darkness

price noun
\ ˈprīs \
Definition of price (Entry 1 of 3)
1 archaic : value, worth
2a: the quantity of one thing that is exchanged or demanded in barter or sale for another
b: the amount of money given or set as consideration for the sale of a specified thing
3: the terms for the sake of which something is done or undertaken: such as
a: an amount sufficient to bribe one
believed every man had his price
b: a reward for the apprehension or death of a person
an outlaw with a price on his head
4: the cost at which something is obtained
the price of freedom is restraint
— J. Irwin Miller

We live in a stupid, lazy Age of Convenience and no less so when it comes to the precise meaning and nuance of words. The words 'worth', 'value' and 'price' used to have different nuance in meaning, but our Age of Great Stupidity is dumbing down everything to the point that one day all words will have the same meaning and what they would mean at any given time would depend instead on context and will be of no more intelligence than a grunt accompanied by a finger point.

But I want to look at these three words in terms of the economic meaning and import, and try to pull some nuance of meaning out of our current Great Mire of Stupidity.

I have read a little bit about the 'fair price' of a thing in economics and it really seems to me we are talking about three different things on the whole; worth, price and value. To do that I must make an analogy.

When I got out of the Army back in '83, one of the first things I did was to go to some garage sales to get some basic things, like a belt, pocket knife, comb, etc. this is far cheaper than buying things at a Good Will store, and I had like $50 total to my name at the time. I found this pocket knife that had a Damascus steel blade, nickel silver end pieces and Walnut scales.

The lady only wanted 25 cents for it. It had belonged to her husband and he had passed away, so she was getting rid of all his things. I told her the pocket knife was worth a lot more than 25 cents, the Damascus steel alone would be well worth more. She said that in that case she would take 50 cents for it.

I felt uncomfortable buying the knife for so little. I felt like I was exploiting her emotional desire to be rid of her husbands memories, or what ever the case, to get a good buy, so I said I would not pay less than $5 for it, as I couldn't find it a comfortable purchase in terms of living with my conscience to pay less than $5. She agreed to sell it for a dollar and she did not want my charity, so I bought it for $1, and eased my mind that I did try to make a fair buy.

I have never tried to argue up a persons price for a thing before so that I would pay more for it, and have only done it once since then, talked a guy up from $100 for a car to $300 because the car's Blue Book at the time was around $3000 and there was really nothing seriously wrong with it, just a lot of paint oxidation and the oil needed changing. But the pocket knife experience got me to thinking more about the difference between the price of a thing, its value and its worth.

Now if one is content to treat them as all synonymous with each other, then fine, go play in the great Mire some more, but I think that there is a functional difference in nuance that is worth maintaining and helps to alleviate some of the confusion about what the price of a thing is vrs its value or its worth.

Adam Smith I think it was came up with the water-diamond paradox of value. Water has more utility than diamonds but diamonds fetch a much higher price than water per ounce. So this is a well recognized and long debated topic, and here is my take.

The price of a thing is whatever it is currently being sold for, so in the case of my knife it was finally a $1. The value of the thing after that was probably about $50 to get me to sell it, though the price was $0 because I really needed it and wasn't trying to sell it. The worth was more than that because to get a hand made knife with a Damascus steel blade to replace it would cost around $200 at the time IF you could find someone willing to do the work and you gave him the materials.

Today we have a lot of Etsy marketers of handmade items so a similar knife now could be bought for probably $30, but I wouldn't sell the knife for that because the sentimental value is much higher to me.

So to draw some points of discussion from all that I get:
1) Price, value and worth are all dynamic, Price being much more so, and value being more subjective. Worth I think points to a more abstract quality that suggests a common community exchange rate. A thing that is priceless is worth a great deal, but a thing that is worthless has a price of $0 unless you can find a sucker.

2) While you might sell a broken brass clock for a $5 price to some Third World person who likes shiny things, It is of considerably less value as a clock, unless you can repair it, and its worth might be whatever the materials in it sells for to a buyer. The three things seem to be different in nature from one to the other.

3) While Price is whatever you can barter for a thing, and value is the cost of acquiring it that you wouldn't go less than, the worth is more abstract and suggests a more universal exchange rate for the item. A cheap $5 pick axe might sell for $1000 in a gold rush, but what would it sell for in Manhatten? I would think barely more than the cost of making it. But what is it worth in Manhatten if there is not use for it other than occasional subway work? \

I would say the price for the axe sold in a gold rush is more than the price it fetches in Manhatten, but price is what you can get for a particular thing in a particular place, value is more of a typical normative price in each locale, and worth is what the abstract bearer is willing to part with a thing universally.

Hence a 'priceless' thing is of huge 'worth', as there is no price the owner is willing to take in exchange for it, and it is not worthless at all, and its 'value' is transitory depending on the locale market and what the average offer for it would be.

What do you all think about the topic? Are the difference in nuance worth keeping and does it shed any light on the economics of price?

You're over thinking it. They all mean essentially the same thing. You shouldn't get too hung up on language, it is a fluid thing that has always been changing from generation to generation.

 

[martybegan]

worth noun
\ ˈwərth \
Definition of worth (Entry 1 of 4)
1a: monetary value
farmhouse and lands of little worth
b: the equivalent of a specified amount or figure
a dollar's worth of gas
2: the value of something measured by its qualities or by the esteem in which it is held
a literary heritage of great worth
3a: moral or personal value
trying to teach human worth
b: merit, excellence
a field in which we have proved our worth

value noun
val·ue | \ ˈval-(ˌ)yü\
Definition of value (Entry 1 of 2)
1: the monetary worth of something : market price
2: a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged
3: relative worth, utility, or importance
a good value at the price
the value of base stealing in baseball
had nothing of value to say
4: something (such as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable
sought material values instead of human values
— W. H. Jones
5: a numerical quantity that is assigned or is determined by calculation or measurement
let x take on positive values
a value for the age of the earth
6: the relative duration of a musical note
7a: relative lightness or darkness of a color : luminosity
b: the relation of one part in a picture to another with respect to lightness and darkness

price noun
\ ˈprīs \
Definition of price (Entry 1 of 3)
1 archaic : value, worth
2a: the quantity of one thing that is exchanged or demanded in barter or sale for another
b: the amount of money given or set as consideration for the sale of a specified thing
3: the terms for the sake of which something is done or undertaken: such as
a: an amount sufficient to bribe one
believed every man had his price
b: a reward for the apprehension or death of a person
an outlaw with a price on his head
4: the cost at which something is obtained
the price of freedom is restraint
— J. Irwin Miller

We live in a stupid, lazy Age of Convenience and no less so when it comes to the precise meaning and nuance of words. The words 'worth', 'value' and 'price' used to have different nuance in meaning, but our Age of Great Stupidity is dumbing down everything to the point that one day all words will have the same meaning and what they would mean at any given time would depend instead on context and will be of no more intelligence than a grunt accompanied by a finger point.

But I want to look at these three words in terms of the economic meaning and import, and try to pull some nuance of meaning out of our current Great Mire of Stupidity.

I have read a little bit about the 'fair price' of a thing in economics and it really seems to me we are talking about three different things on the whole; worth, price and value. To do that I must make an analogy.

When I got out of the Army back in '83, one of the first things I did was to go to some garage sales to get some basic things, like a belt, pocket knife, comb, etc. this is far cheaper than buying things at a Good Will store, and I had like $50 total to my name at the time. I found this pocket knife that had a Damascus steel blade, nickel silver end pieces and Walnut scales.

The lady only wanted 25 cents for it. It had belonged to her husband and he had passed away, so she was getting rid of all his things. I told her the pocket knife was worth a lot more than 25 cents, the Damascus steel alone would be well worth more. She said that in that case she would take 50 cents for it.

I felt uncomfortable buying the knife for so little. I felt like I was exploiting her emotional desire to be rid of her husbands memories, or what ever the case, to get a good buy, so I said I would not pay less than $5 for it, as I couldn't find it a comfortable purchase in terms of living with my conscience to pay less than $5. She agreed to sell it for a dollar and she did not want my charity, so I bought it for $1, and eased my mind that I did try to make a fair buy.

I have never tried to argue up a persons price for a thing before so that I would pay more for it, and have only done it once since then, talked a guy up from $100 for a car to $300 because the car's Blue Book at the time was around $3000 and there was really nothing seriously wrong with it, just a lot of paint oxidation and the oil needed changing. But the pocket knife experience got me to thinking more about the difference between the price of a thing, its value and its worth.

Now if one is content to treat them as all synonymous with each other, then fine, go play in the great Mire some more, but I think that there is a functional difference in nuance that is worth maintaining and helps to alleviate some of the confusion about what the price of a thing is vrs its value or its worth.

Adam Smith I think it was came up with the water-diamond paradox of value. Water has more utility than diamonds but diamonds fetch a much higher price than water per ounce. So this is a well recognized and long debated topic, and here is my take.

The price of a thing is whatever it is currently being sold for, so in the case of my knife it was finally a $1. The value of the thing after that was probably about $50 to get me to sell it, though the price was $0 because I really needed it and wasn't trying to sell it. The worth was more than that because to get a hand made knife with a Damascus steel blade to replace it would cost around $200 at the time IF you could find someone willing to do the work and you gave him the materials.

Today we have a lot of Etsy marketers of handmade items so a similar knife now could be bought for probably $30, but I wouldn't sell the knife for that because the sentimental value is much higher to me.

So to draw some points of discussion from all that I get:
1) Price, value and worth are all dynamic, Price being much more so, and value being more subjective. Worth I think points to a more abstract quality that suggests a common community exchange rate. A thing that is priceless is worth a great deal, but a thing that is worthless has a price of $0 unless you can find a sucker.

2) While you might sell a broken brass clock for a $5 price to some Third World person who likes shiny things, It is of considerably less value as a clock, unless you can repair it, and its worth might be whatever the materials in it sells for to a buyer. The three things seem to be different in nature from one to the other.

3) While Price is whatever you can barter for a thing, and value is the cost of acquiring it that you wouldn't go less than, the worth is more abstract and suggests a more universal exchange rate for the item. A cheap $5 pick axe might sell for $1000 in a gold rush, but what would it sell for in Manhatten? I would think barely more than the cost of making it. But what is it worth in Manhatten if there is not use for it other than occasional subway work? \

I would say the price for the axe sold in a gold rush is more than the price it fetches in Manhatten, but price is what you can get for a particular thing in a particular place, value is more of a typical normative price in each locale, and worth is what the abstract bearer is willing to part with a thing universally.

Hence a 'priceless' thing is of huge 'worth', as there is no price the owner is willing to take in exchange for it, and it is not worthless at all, and its 'value' is transitory depending on the locale market and what the average offer for it would be.

What do you all think about the topic? Are the difference in nuance worth keeping and does it shed any light on the economics of price?

You're over thinking it. They all mean essentially the same thing. You shouldn't get too hung up on language, it is a fluid thing that has always been changing from generation to generation.

To me price always implies some transaction, or action. Paying the price, paying a price, be it money, time, or moral scruples.

Value and worth are two more malleable terms. But I see value as more of an observation of something owned, and worth as more of an observation on something wanted.

 

[martybegan]

As has been said before:

Conservatives know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

One might add, that defines what they are worth.

That adds nothing to the conversation, and skirts the rules of the clean debate zone.

If you have nothing of value to add (lol), I suggest your worth (double lol) in this thread is minimal, and you should return to the regular forums as you refuse to pay the price (triple lol) of being in the Clean Debate Zone.

 

[JimBowie1958]

You're over thinking it. They all mean essentially the same thing. You shouldn't get too hung up on language, it is a fluid thing that has always been changing from generation to generation.

So your suggestion is to just dive into the Mire of Stupidity and get used to it?

Lol, no thank you Allan.

 

[JimBowie1958]

As has been said before:

Conservatives know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

One might add, that defines what they are worth.

That adds nothing to the conversation, and skirts the rules of the clean debate zone.

If you have nothing of value to add (lol), I suggest your worth (double lol) in this thread is minimal, and you should return to the regular forums as you refuse to pay the price (triple lol) of being in the Clean Debate Zone.

Some don't really abide by rules. It merely highlights where they want to explore next.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Price is a number someone puts on a thing, value is desire, worth is what someone is willing to pay for something.

So the priceless thing is of no worth by your definition, right?

I don't think that really works.

 

[Olde Europe]

As has been said before:

Conservatives know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

One might add, that defines what they are worth.

I have to correct myself:

Wilde's quote is the definition of cynics - a group not at all times co-extensive with conservatives: "A man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing."

Still: The price is expressed by a numerical you usually find on a price tag.

Value has to do with utility to humans, such as: The value of ecosystems to (the survival of) humankind is beyond measure.

"Worth", finally, is a moral qualification, as put into evidence, for instance, by being able properly to denote the difference between price and value, or as exemplified by, "It's an endeavor worth the efforts of the best."

 

[Ringel05]

Price is a number someone puts on a thing, value is desire, worth is what someone is willing to pay for something.

So the priceless thing is of no worth by your definition, right?

I don't think that really works.

I said boiled down, the essence of the meanings, all are subjective. Priceless is subjective value related i.e my wife is priceless to me, a specific item that has a very deep emotional meaning is priceless. Priceless art, etc always has a price it just depends if someone is willing to pay the price attached to it.
I can ask a million dollars for my artwork (subjective price based on subjective value) but if people are only willing to pay $100 then that is it's worth.

 

[badger2]

Calling something worthless gives it a value.

'What condemns the capitalist value system is that it is characterized by general equivalence, which flattens out all other forms of value, alienating them in its hegemony.'
(Guattari, Les trois ecologies [The Three Ecologies] 1989)

 

[Leo123]

Price is the value placed on an item by the seller. Worth is the monetary value PAID for that item by a buyer in an arm's length transaction. That's the way I see it.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Price is the value placed on an item by the seller. Worth is the monetary value PAID for that item by a buyer in an arm's length transaction. That's the way I see it.

I think 'worth' as a word goes way beyond merely monetary compensation for a thing.

The value of a hardened courageous soldier 'can prove his worth' but not his price.

The Hope Diamond is truly priceless due to its history and not just the fact it is a blue diamond of large size.

There is a worth people place on things due to historical context, religious faith or technological design.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Thanks, like thinking about this OP, is that value or worth?

Is pleasure a thing of worth, value or price?

 

[JimBowie1958]

Price is a number someone puts on a thing, value is desire, worth is what someone is willing to pay for something.

So the priceless thing is of no worth by your definition, right?

I don't think that really works.

I said boiled down, the essence of the meanings, all are subjective. Priceless is subjective value related i.e my wife is priceless to me, a specific item that has a very deep emotional meaning is priceless. Priceless art, etc always has a price it just depends if someone is willing to pay the price attached to it.
I can ask a million dollars for my artwork (subjective price based on subjective value) but if people are only willing to pay $100 then that is it's worth.

What price is our nations independence worth to you?

The Brit corporate CEOs seem to think it if little value.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Calling something worthless gives it a value.

If an item is put up for sale with a price of $0, it is worthless except as an incentive perhaps to get something else.

But the shotgun that has been in my family for five generations and I plan on it going to a 6th and 7th generation even more, it is priceless because it has a null price as it is n ot and never will be for sale.

A thing that is not measured has a null measure, n ot a zero measure. The same goes with price for something never to be sold.

 

[Ringel05]

Price is a number someone puts on a thing, value is desire, worth is what someone is willing to pay for something.

So the priceless thing is of no worth by your definition, right?

I don't think that really works.

I said boiled down, the essence of the meanings, all are subjective. Priceless is subjective value related i.e my wife is priceless to me, a specific item that has a very deep emotional meaning is priceless. Priceless art, etc always has a price it just depends if someone is willing to pay the price attached to it.
I can ask a million dollars for my artwork (subjective price based on subjective value) but if people are only willing to pay $100 then that is it's worth.

What price is our nations independence worth to you?

The Brit corporate CEOs seem to think it if little value.

At this stage of my life and knowing what I know? Very little, wouldn't matter anyway, it will go the way of all "super powers" throughout history and there's nothing we can do to stop it.
When you say "Brit" corporate are your referring to British CEOs? What do they care about American independence anyway?