Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
| |||
|
| |||
| Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Samuel Bailey on Utility - Dictionary of Arguments
Rothbard II 113 Value/Subjective utility/Bailey/BaileyVsRicardo/Rothbard: Bailey demonstrates that value is not inherent in goods at all, but is rather always a process of subjective evaluation in the minds of individuals. Value, as Bailey pointed out, ‘in its ultimate sense, appears to mean the esteem in which any object is held. It denotes strictly speaking, an effect produced on the mind...’. Value is purely a ‘mental affection’. Furthermore, he profoundly states that value is not only a subjective estimation, but also that valuation is necessarily relative among various goods or objects; value is a matter of relative preference. Thus Bailey: When we consider objects in themselves, without reference to each other; the emotion or pleasure or satisfaction, with which we regard their utility or beauty, can scarcely take the appellation of value. It is only when objects are considered as subjects of preference or exchange, that the specific feeling of value can arise. When they are so considered, our esteem for one object, or our wish to possess it, may be equal to, or greater or less than our esteem for another... BaileyVsRicardo/Rothbard: But if value is subjective and relative (or relational) valuation, it follows that it is absurd for Ricardo to hanker after an invariable measure of value. In a scintillating and telling passage, Bailey displays the inner contradictions and absurdities of any objective, absolute theory of value, and specifically of the Ricardian quantity of labour variant. The Ricardians had lost sight of the relative nature of value, and... consider it as something positive and absolute; so that if there were only two commodities in the world, and they should both from some circumstance or other come to be produced by double the quantity of labour, they would both rise in real value, although their relation to each other would be undisturbed. According to this doctrine, everything might at once become more valuable, by requiring at once more labour for its production, a position utterly at variance with the truth, that value denotes the relation in which commodities stand to each other as articles of exchange. Real value, in a word, is on this theory considered as being the independent result of labour; and consequently, if under any circumstances the quantity of labour is increased, the real value is increased. Hence, the paradox, [quoting from the devoted Ricardian Thomas De Quincey] ‘that it is possible for A continually to increase in value – in real value observe – and yet command a continually decreasing quantity of B’; and this though they were the only commodities in existence._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Bailey I Samuel Bailey Money and its vicissitudes in value; as they affect national industry and pecuniary contracts: with a postscript join-stock banks London 1837 Rothbard II Murray N. Rothbard Classical Economics. An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Cheltenham 1995 Rothbard III Murray N. Rothbard Man, Economy and State with Power and Market. Study Edition Auburn, Alabama 1962, 1970, 2009 Rothbard IV Murray N. Rothbard The Essential von Mises Auburn, Alabama 1988 Rothbard V Murray N. Rothbard Power and Market: Government and the Economy Kansas City 1977 |
||
Authors A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Concepts A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
