Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 90551, member: 57463"]1. All values are subjective.  Even for those of us who subscribe to objective values, our preferences are rationally treated as subjective by the general market.  In other words, my preference for gold (or silver or copper or these two old banknotes from Washtenaw County 1837 and 1854) are not more or less "moral" than your preferences.  2.  No values are universal.  The standard of value (life) is universal as a standard: any sentient, rational being (computer program, Vulcan, Human, dolphin) will have the same standard of value.  How they apply that standard is not universal, but unique. 3.  In microeconomic terms, when some principality strikes coins of a certain size and weight and fineness, they can claim anything they want, but the markets of other people will assign other values.  This is the Higley Declaration: "I am good copper. Value me as you choose."  If the Republic of Florence wanted to pretend that a gold florin is "worth" so many silver coins, that conceit might not even hold as far as the city gates.  Gold and silver (like apples and salted herring) were worth different amounts of different commodities in different times and places, even within any narrow window, such as "Antwerp, July, 1386."[/QUOTE]