“I know my worth.” “All humans have value.” “What is this property value?” “Of what value are you to me?” One of the biggest challenges with language is that the same word can mean several different things, and several different words can mean approximately the same thing. As such, the word “value” is used a lot when discussing relationships, politics, and economics, so it’s important to define it and not conflate the various definitions.
There are three forms of value at play in the above uses:
So let’s discuss what the definition of “value” is and how it came to have these various forms before talking about how they differ and why it’s dangerous to conflate them. Value is simply the degree to which a person cares about a person, place, or thing. By “care”, we are referring to someone having interest because it is necessary for their livelihood, it makes them happy, or it holds specific significance, meaning, or importance to them. All ethics come from values because what you care about you will set rules to protect or improve. For example, you value your life, so you will set boundaries that others are not allowed to harm you or you will harm them. You value your family, so you will care for them. You value your property, so you will protect and care for it. Because of that assignment of worth due to its importance, utility, or pleasing nature, you care about it.
So, how did this evolve into different forms? Well, it’s because of the fact that we have formed a society that combines universal human rights with free-market systems of trade. In the former, we have deemed all humans to have equal rights under the law (subject to their mental capabilities, which vary by age and mental fitness), so all humans have equal value in that regard. Therefore, one citizen cannot kill another citizen, even if it somehow makes the killer better off. Also, generally speaking, one person cannot have special privileges like being above the law when they violate societal rules. While this is an imperfect system because politicians and celebrities are typically treated differently via law enforcement because of the definition of “value” meaning significance or importance in society, the system usually works in modern societies so that all life is protected from physical harm equally via the laws that exist.
The confusion comes in that everyone values different things to different degrees, and so to maximize the total well-being of all humans, society has a market-based system that allows anyone to do what they want to do with their lives and trade the product of their labor for the product of other people’s labor. While you can still go live “off the grid” and do all of your own farming, house maintenance, water-gathering, and waste disposal, most people choose to exchange the product of their labor for those goods and services. Because different people value different things differently (redundancy intended) and because supply and demand for goods and services will vary over time, prices change to optimize consumption. As such, you might buy a car at $50,000, and someone else might buy the same one later for $45,000 when it goes on sale as the new model comes onto the market. The value of that good or service now becomes a price that someone is willing to pay for it.
The final wrinkle in the word “value” comes from things that are neither rights nor prices: utility. Now, technically, all utility could be translated into a price, but social norms and biologically intrinsic ethics tend to frown on certain things, such as organ transplants and relationships, to turn into price-based consumable goods (see laws against prostitution and organ marketplaces or the lack of direct payment for friendships and the social stigma of “sugar daddies/mommas” for examples). But even without a stated price, there is still a utility value that people are assigning to them. For example, if you don’t have fun around a person anymore, you might stop being their friend. If the thrill is gone from romance with a person, you might break off the relationship. If you loan a lot of money to a family member and he or she never pays you back, you might not speak to them anymore. Regardless of whether those elements of your life have a financial price, they have a value to you in terms of utility or happiness-generation that you are mentally assigning in a way that allows you to determine whether to continue your protection-from-harm/growth-fostering behaviors toward the other person.
And so that’s how we arrived at three definitions of “value” that are now being conflated to influence your ethical beliefs. The biggest one is during major events like the COVID-19 pandemic. Since you can’t put a price on human life, no amount of restrictions to your behavior—including quarantining you in your own home for months—is too much to some people if it even saves one life. Similarly, prices for things like healthcare get called into question because the consequences can be life-or-death. Finally, arguments for alternative socioeconomic systems like socialism or communism are made because they intentionally conflate the fact that because you have equal value under the law, the price of your labor should be equal no matter what you do with your life.
This is where things get confusing. As usual, it’s not my purpose with this blog or my book to lecture anyone on what ethics they should have, but I do not shy away from framing the decision objectively, either. In the COVID case, the choice is not “stay inside or kill grandma” guilt-tripping but rather the freedom of each person to decide what risks to take with their lives vs. force used to confine them in the name of public safety. With healthcare, it is not about “insurance companies deciding whether you live or die” or “the government deciding whether you live or die” but rather a realization that goods and services can only be allocated by lottery, rationing, or prices and so society has to decide what mix that they want because they can’t have the magical “everyone gets exactly what they need all the time no exception” because there will always be short-term scarcity with anything—whether it be doctors, money, resources, or even just your time. And with non-merit-based economic systems, it is not difficult to see that if you got paid the same regardless of what you did, then many people would either do nothing or something that provided no value to another human like playing video games or flying a kite (professionals who are paid to entertain people with their skills notwithstanding).
So the simple takeaway from this story is to make sure that you don’t conflate your value under the law with your use to other people or the value of a good or service in the marketplace. Just because you have equal value under the law doesn’t mean that you taking 5 hours to draw a picture has equal value to someone who spent those same 5 hours assembling 200 cars on an assembly line. Because one person might value that drawing at $1,000,000 and another wouldn’t take it for free, it will almost never have the same price or value in the marketplace as the auto worker. And just because you are also a human doesn’t mean that you deserve to get paid to exist while someone else works and has their money taken from them to give to you. Society can always set up rules to do those two things, but that won’t make the goods or service of equal value—just forcing them to cost the same amount to people who are forced to pay said amount for them.
Similarly, it’s an unfortunate reality that humans have various levels of utility to each other. Yes, when you begin to care about someone through human bonding like being someone’s relative or romantic partner, that value becomes more intrinsic and you would do anything for them, but people have limits even to that every day when, say, their child becomes a murderer and they turn the criminal in or you cut off a relative because they keep borrowing money or asking you for favors and never reciprocating. And we all know the reality of people of similar attractiveness levels getting together or the exceptions where high-status, high-wealth men are coupled with young, attractive women. This is just the utility definition of value at work: at some point, someone needs to provide a certain amount of value to you for them to have a relationship with you—their mere existence can have a strong influence, but poor behavior can override it.
I don’t mean to be depressing, so let’s end this on a positive note: once you understand these three separate definitions, you can now feel empowered to defend your own value as a human while maximizing your utility to others and value in the marketplace. This will maximize your own worth in the latter two ways while not being ill-treated under the first definition. When you know that you should be treated decently and not be harmed, you can defend yourself if someone violates your right to not be harmed or get away from someone who treats you poorly. When you know that utility makes you more valuable, you can groom yourself, work hard, and be a good, interesting/friendly person to improve your relationships. And when you know what people value, you can spend your time providing valuable goods and services to earn enough money to support the lifestyle that you want.
So don’t think that just because you have intrinsic value that people have to put up with you. They have just as much right to exist and not be harmed or bothered by others as you do. As such, if you are not providing value to them, they can’t hurt you but they can disassociate. Similarly, just because you might have high status or have a high income doesn’t make you worth more as a human than others. Yes, you can purchase special treatment and privileges, but that needs to stop in situations where your equal value should be respected, such as civic duties, first-come-first-serve lines, or other situations where you can’t pay for the privilege and so you shouldn’t get special treatment over others without said payment.
You have value as a person. But you don’t have value to others unless there is some sort of intrinsic relationship or you provide utility or a good or service to them. So don’t conflate these three definitions, or you might find yourself expecting special treatment or treating others poorly when you should be treated equally or expecting to be treated equally when someone else earned their privileges through years of hard work.