When the gift card and the scarf is left in a shop amongst many, its subjective value is lost. "If it were meaningful because of the amount of time spent on it

When the gift card and the scarf is left in a shop amongst many, its subjective value is lost. "If it were meaningful because of the amount of time spent on it, then it would be meaningful to anybody. Obviously that is not the case." Mr. Watson could have written a one-line letter or a ten-line letter, and it would be clear the latter would be more intrinsically valuable, because of the increased effort spent to write it; the increased amount of value is irrelevant to the amount of ink on the paper, and only partially relevant to what the words actually say. You named an example that is less relevant to time, but it doesn't mean time spent performing a work cannot be valuable in and of itself. For example, a mother spending time knitting a scarf for her child would produce a higher value in terms of intrinsic goods than if a mother went to Walmart to purchase a scarf for her child - even if the scarf she knitted and the one from Walmart are physically identical. The time spent knitting is valuable, intrinsically. You can compare the time as well - She could have knitted a small woollen finger ring, or a scarf - and it would be a clear the latter has a larger intrinsic value because of the larger effort spent. "Mainstream economics isn't missing anything, these students are just mistaken." If mainstream economic theory can't understand why people don't relocate to find jobs with $100 more worth of utility, in exchange for losing access to close family members, then is it not missing something? How is it not missing anything if it cannot explain why a child supported by $10,000 of goods and services purchased by its parents is better off than a child supported by $10,000 of goods and services purchased by the state, where intrinsic goods like value in having members of society supported by other family members, rather than by the state, is completely ignored? Mainstream economics theory cannot explain or value intrinsic goods like - kindness, generosity, acceptance, status, love of a parent, romantic attraction, being attractive. These are all things valuable and yet completely unaccounted for. In optimising society for a theory assuming perfectly rational actors, society will lose its irrationality, which is all that makes us human, and alive.