The way you are doing the accounting here, it's like the supplies used in manufacturing have negative utility -- they are a cost paid, "a clear loss for the man

The way you are doing the accounting here, it's like the supplies used in manufacturing have negative utility -- they are a cost paid, "a clear loss for the manufacturer". Work has positive utility when it creates something of value. Considering the money paid for it as coextensive with the work is a mistake because people can work to create value without getting paid, as sometimes happens to unfortunate people. It is no more reasonable to treat the work inputs into a good as having negative utility as it is to treat the money paid for it as having negative value.