Say you're in a restaurant and are glancing over the wine list. You're with a date and he suggests you get a $100 bottle.
You politely refuse, saying that's way too much and you'll just get a nice $7 glass of Pinot, but he insists. Before you know it the bottle is being opened by a waiter talking about the subtle oak flavors and chocolate undertones you should be tasting.
You sip slowly, savoring, swirling it in your glass, breathing in the flavor of this very fine wine. You and your date discuss how great it is. Later that night you call your best friend and tell her you had a nice time, not forgetting to mention the $100 bottle of wine that your date treated you too. You feel like a queen for the rest of the night.
The next day you go grocery shopping and happen to notice the wine you had last night is there, on sale, for $10. I'm sure you'd be shocked, but what else? Dissapointed? Would your feelings about the wine change?
It's the same wine, it tastes the same no matter what it costs, but suddenly your experience last night doesn't seem all that special.
Or maybe your friend is cleaning out her closet, and gives you a dress. It's hideous, gaudy and loud and not at all your style. You glance at the tag and it says "CHOU" - a brand you've never heard of. You take it politely and as soon as you get home, stuff it in the back of your closet. A few months later you're looking through Vogue and notice the same brand on a lot of the models. Apparently CHOU dresses cost thousands of dollars. After doing some research you find out that the dress you were given cost $3500 and is owned by many beautiful celebrities.
You go to the closet and dig it out. Maybe it's not so bad after all! Actually, it's kind of fabulous and to think YOU own a CHOU dress!
What changed? Why do you like the exact same dress that you used to think was terrible - just because you know how much it cost?
Why do we care so much about the perceived worth, rather than just taking things for what they are?
It would seem that a person should either like something or not like something independent of what it costs, but I've noticed that isn't always the case.
If Hondas cost hundreds of thousands and Mercedes were affordable, but nothing else changed, would we see the rich and famous driving Honda civics around? I'm not sure.
Do you judge things based on what they cost? If you were in one of the situations above do you think you would have responded differently?
Comments (8)
The prudent and wise can differentiate between "value" and "cost". Just because the price for something is high doesn't automatically give it a corresponding high value, and the same can be said for low priced items. People can get the best deals by recognizing high value items that can be obtained for a low cost.
People who are slaves to "image" and what others think of them will more likely be the ones buying low value items at high cost.
really good post. it's the sole job of marketing ppl to add intangible brand value to products so that we'll perceive them as worth much more than their actual (raw) value. the honda and mercedes example you brought up is interesting. now one can argue that the mercedes is a higher quality car with more expensive raw parts but i'm sure one of the reasons they can charge such high prices for a mercedes is the perception of luxury and class that goes with it. so ppl are willing to pay more just for that brand image. you can't charge the same high prices for a honda cuz its brand is an affordable, everyman car.
With the date situation, I would have still felt special because the guy did spend all that money. But I would be pissed because he definitely got cheated out of his money. With the dress.. if I didn't like it at the time I wouldn't decide to like it just because it's a major brand. Honestly, I would sell it.
No, I do not have value, so nothing of value has value to me. I mean this in a genuine manner. I will trash anything nice and discard it fairly quickly. As for fine foods, I'm sensitive, so I enjoy things that are off. Usually, finer foods fit me, and this is bad. I don't enjoy it in the moment as being anything other than nourishment. I enjoy soda.
I wear scraps of clothing, what I find. I'm not fit for clothing anyway, not that I'm huge, just it will all look the same on me no matter. I'm certainly not vain, though I've had people hone in on this both ways -- that's how things go.
I spit wine onto a fire once. That was a nice experience of the dead.
Watching people, I would say that most people who have a lot don't really spent that much on big things unless they are new to having. Fun experiences are never worthy of that much. When someone shows they care, they do it in different ways.
I am so tired. I guess in order to survive, that I have to stack a bunch of coins in time. I don't think I'm going to make it. What is of value, what isn't and to who? I'll do it only to lose it all again, time wasted and myself enjoying the same end as always.
I think if I succeed, as a sign of art, that I'm going to dress up in a bunch of gold and crap and prance around someplace important, fling it at people then throw the biggest chunk into the water.
Nothing there.
http://wealthandhealth.co.cc/free_download
Yep ... Everything is worthless, and absolutely priceless ... Being able to evaluate something and somewhat objectively say what its worth is a great value to others ...
That bottle of wine might have been whatever dollars spent, but who cares if the date was absolute magic?
Price is determined by marginal value and marginal cost. So, the price that someone was willing to pay for the last item is its value as long as that amount is higher than the cost of producing that same item. There is, however, a huge difference between cost and value: that is, the difference between the amount of money to produce something and the amount of money that someone is willing to spend on that item to improve his or her life.
If people didn't value a Mercedes at $80,000--that is, if having that Mercedes is not better than having $80,000, that person wouldn't have bought it. The real difference is that a "dollar" has no real value because the amount its worth is different to everyone: they're worth less to people who have lots of them and to people who have fewer dollars, every dollar counts a lot.