Spencer Heath's
Series
Spencer Heath Archive
Item 613
Random taping by Spencer MacCallum from conversation with Heath
September 16, 1955
Few people know what they mean when they say value, even in economics (excluding esthetics), because in economics we confuse the symbol for the actuality. The value of anything is what one gets for what he gives. Inasmuch as he doesn’t get it immediately, except in barter, he gets a symbol which has a number on it, which states numerically how much he is entitled to receive when he does receive it out of the market. Sometimes, this symbol is pressed on money, or metal or something of the kind and has what is called intrinsic value. In such case, the value is partly received and partly yet to be received. So far as the intrinsic value is the same as the exchange value, it is the whole value, and so when he gets the money the transaction is finished; he gets the metal. But if any part or all of it is yet to be fulfilled, that is only a symbol of the value which he is to receive in return for that which he has given. The value is always the opposite side of a transaction, which is what the giver receives for what he gives. So that when men trade a horse for a cow, the cow is the value of the horse and the horse is the value of the cow, according to which side you look at it, that is, the value to him who is receiving respectively the horse or the cow.
Metadata
Title | Conversation - 613 |
Collection Name | Spencer Heath Archive |
Series | Conversation |
Box number | 5:467-640 |
Document number | 613 |
Date / Year | 1955-09-16 |
Authors / Creators / Correspondents | |
Description | Random taping by Spencer MacCallum from conversation with Heath |
Keywords | Value |