The nature of value and the methods of valuation as some of the trickiest areas of economics, social theory and psychology, as well as philosophical logic, ethics and action theory in philosophy as foundational studies.
For example, both Adam Smith and Marx were trained philosophers that specialized in "moral philosophy, which pivots on value theory. Smith adopted a labor theory of value in The Wealth of Nations, which set the tone for classical economics. Ricardo followed suit. Marx did not have a labor theory of value in the same sense but rather criticized the classical LTV, showing how value was expropriated from labor in a monetary production economy through profit conceived of as "surplus value" in Marx's theory of valuation. This encompasses what we now call "financial rent" and "monopoly-monopoly" rent.
Here are a couple of links on such issues in economics, the first regarding land value and the second the economic valuation of human life.
Classical economics was about preventing capture of land rent, which had been the basis of feudalism.
In putting numbers on the value of life, the risk is rent-extraction resulting from factors not considered in the scope and scale of the model — and usually not admitted.
How to Capture Land Values under the Current Rules
Andrew Lainton
Econospeak
The Value of Life and the Metaphor of Choice
Peter Dorman | Professor of Political Economy, The Evergreen State College
No comments:
Post a Comment