What is an item worth?

[Wazabi]

*snip*

Thanks for the article, it was a good read.

<off topic>
I won't debate the validity or take a morality stance on weather it is right or wrong for WalMart (WM)to pay lower wage and benefits to its workers. What I see however, is that there is a demand for low priced goods in the market, and WM found a way todeliver just that. If these workers could get a higher paying jobs by setting up or working in smaller stores, then why are they still working in a lower paying job? If the general public is willing to pay a higher price for their goods by shopping at somewhere else, then WM will be forced to change their corporate strategy. If its hapenning, good. If not, I couldn't really care much either. Someone is benefitting from WM now, and someone else is getting the shorter straw. If someone can show me a conclusive quantitative analysis on the net economic efficiency and deadweight loss, I'm all ears.

To me, it's just the market game, and as a trader/merchant/businessman, I need to determine how much is the market going to pay for a certian service/goods, and try to make that happen. When a new tech displaces a particular group of work force, yes, it encourages growth in another, but for those with the obsolete skill, their quality of life decreases as well...much like the WM case. If WM close shop tommorow due to the issues you've mentioned, I don't have any problem with that as well...just like my opinion towards displaced workers. It's a fact of life, it's survival of the fittest.

<on topic>
The game world is slightly different. To a certain extend, there are labors to exploit, mainly the gatherers...but you don't starve to death if you don't gather/craft. It also doesn't cost you anything but time to gather, which supplies the basic materials. Every item will have a cost...but the worth is debatable because it depends on each person's needs at different point in time...so there will never be a "worth" that everyone will agree about...and hence I think the act of trying to determine the "worth" of an item to be pointless.

Everyone has their own trading strategy...so whatever that works for them. Those that are better at trading will be able to guage the market sentiment, thus more likely to set a price that will clear the market. Couple that with inventory planning, business acumen and enterpreneur spirit, they'll how much to buy, how long to keep an item in their inventory, how much liquidity to maintain, and most importantly, have the balls to execute those trades. Those are the few key attributes of a successful trader/businessman...and a video game economy is far less complex to get these things right.