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But that's not really a labor theory of value, it's just acknowledgement that subjective value varies from person to person, and we can both agree that's irrati

But that's not really a labor theory of value, it's just acknowledgement that subjective value varies from person to person, and we can both agree that's irrational. This student protester thinks your mother's sauce should actually be valued more than Ragu on the store shelf. And while you might value your mother's sauce more highly, few other people would share that same valuation. Her labor has no impact on its objective value -- the averaging together of all the subjective valuations of people who want to buy sauce.

dllthomas 12y ago
"subjective value varies from person to person, and we can both agree that's irrational." I dispute that it's irrational, on two counts: First, rationality is a question of how you pursue your terminal goals; it can't tell you what terminal goals to have. Second, perfectly rational agents with identical utility functions might disagree on the amount they're willing to pay for a thing if their circumstances differ. I think the above example is an example of both differing goals and circumstances.
dragonwriter 12y ago
> it's just acknowledgement that subjective value varies from person to person, and we can both agree that's irrational. Under what definition of rationality? I mean, the subjectivity of utility is part of the foundation of the rational actor model (and its one of the few parts that isn't a simplification, at best, or contradiction of reality, at worst.)