What is an item worth?

[Kazamoto]

Now, on about your comment on Walmart. What people see is that they put some mom and pop shop out of business. What I'm asking here is just to make a fair assessment. What about the cheaper price that benefits the consumers? Especially the lower income group?

Society will do what they can to assist these people...but most choose to go all "crybaby" on these structural changes when they fail to adapt, much like what we see in the MMO communities.

Those lower prices come at a cost. Those "Mom and Pop" shops generally had better wages than walmart and paid people a living wage. Walmart intentionally does not pay a living wage allowing society to pick up the slack.

Many of those in the lower income group, are there because of Walmart, or are kept there by abysmal wages.

"The study, “Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs,” found that the average Wal-Mart worker required $730 in taxpayer-funded healthcare and $1,222 in other forms of assistance, such as food stamps and subsidized housing, to get by."

"There is strong evidence, however, Wal-Mart produces no net growth in employment. The jobs created by its stores replace other, often higher-paying, jobs at existing businesses that are forced to downsize or close."

http://www.ilsr.org/new-study-finds-...ost-taxpayers/

So yes, I can buy Pacific Rim for $5 dollars less than any other store, but the true cost to me is likely higher.

Heck, steam engine is bad because of all the manual labor that it replaces! Autocad is bad because it reduces the number of drafters a company needs to hire! Accounting software is bad because it reduces the number of job demand for bookkeeper!

Actually, technological advances like these are a shift in the labor force, not entirely a reduction. Because while you need less manual labor, the demand for mechanics and engineers increases. While you need less drafters you need more programmers and IT staff. Same with the accounting software, it reduces the need for book keepers but increases the demand for IT support staff.

What economic studies is the effective distribution of scarce resource, and thus any way to improve that efficiency is good for the economy as a whole. Yes, those who failed to keep up will suffer, just like the mom and pop shops that Walmart puts out of business...but that's just evolution, and evolution is cruel.

Here is where the parallel exists between walmart and FF14 (I bet a bunch of you were wondering where it was). The resource being abused in both situations is Labor.

Walmart forces its competitors to close their doors as they cannot afford to compete at walmart's price points. In the current FFXIV market, labor has no value.

And I grant you, some, including myself have paid to level a craft, loosing money on exp crafts, but I would never cut my prices to half the current going rate, or a third of the materials cost. If I listed at (going rate)-5% it is possible I could still profit, or at least break even.

An Item should cost: Materials + - 5%
An item is worth: Materials + Labor
An Item will sell for: What the seller is willing to let it go for, and a buyer is willing to spend.

And, since I can constantly adjust my prices, with no penalty, its always a race to the floor.

I'm not particularly anti-walmart, but I still acknowledge the damage they do to the economy. Just as I know my car burns dinosaurs, but I still drive it. It's the hypocriticality of modern life. We do what is bad for us, because it is easier.

I guess that's the problem.