Labour theory of value: Difference between revisions

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This is not to say price and value are independent — that would be too easy. Merchants are greatly assisted by the irrational psychology of scarcity and desirability: some items — paintings, for example — become ''more'' desirable the higher their price.
This is not to say price and value are independent — that would be too easy. Merchants are greatly assisted by the irrational psychology of scarcity and desirability: some items — paintings, for example — become ''more'' desirable the higher their price.
===[[SaaS]] and the [[LTV]]===
===[[SaaS]] and the [[LTV]]===
In any case, [[reg tech]] providers are wont to unexpectedly invoke the [[labour theory of value]] on prospective clients by way of justifying the outrageous rent they propose to extract: “this desultory code, which I commissioned from some java programmer in the Balkans I found on ''UpWork'' and which he knocked together over a weekend, will save you a million dollars a year in legal fees. Therefore you will be thrilled to hear that your licence is only $500,000 per annum, for up to 100 documents per quarter.”
In any case, [[reg tech]] providers are wont to unexpectedly invoke the [[labour theory of value]] on prospective clients by way of justifying the outrageous rent they propose to extract: “this desultory code, which I commissioned from some [[Bulgarian freelance coder|java programmer in the Balkans I found on ''UpWork'']] and which he knocked together over a weekend, will save you a million dollars a year in legal fees. Therefore you will be thrilled to hear that your licence is only $500,000 per annum, for up to 100 documents per quarter.”
===Does the information revolution validate [[LTV]]?===
===Does the information revolution validate [[LTV]]?===
In which [[JC|your correspondent]] no doubt goes over the front of his [[Skiing|ski]]s. But it seems to me, readers, that the information revolution presents our conventional model of value with a problem. For anything that can be automated can be replicated, algorithmatised, reverse-engineered and widely propagated without cost. However good it is, we know it can be generated cheaply, reliably, and non-exclusively. This is anti-scarcity: it necessarily affects our assessment of its value, and in any case where price is the right side of value that is not the end of it: then you must beat your competitors, all of whom have the same technology and the same ability to generate an equivalent product with minimal cost.
In which [[JC|your correspondent]] no doubt goes over the front of his [[Skiing|ski]]s. But it seems to me, readers, that the information revolution presents our conventional model of value with a problem. For anything that can be automated can be replicated, algorithmatised, reverse-engineered and widely propagated without cost. However good it is, we know it can be generated cheaply, reliably, and non-exclusively. This is anti-scarcity: it necessarily affects our assessment of its value, and in any case where price is the right side of value that is not the end of it: then you must beat your competitors, all of whom have the same technology and the same ability to generate an equivalent product with minimal cost.