Value is a very subjective term when applied to goods and services. Who knows what an article for sale is truly worth? I have no idea why a banana costs much less than a Mumford and Sons CD. Surely a banana is more useful and even more entertaining? It can be eaten in a suggestive manner and afterwards its skin can be cast upon the sidewalk to provide hours of pratfall fun. A Mumford and Sons CD, however, can only be played, much to the annoyance, I might add, of anyone in earshot. There is always the drink coaster option, I suppose, but then what would you do with those old Elvis Costello CDs already protecting your furniture from unsightly stains? But anyway, my point is that you can buy roughly fifty really useful bananas for the price of a single, not very good Mumford and Sons CD. This is madness in the marketplace, if you ask me. No wonder our economy is in such poor shape.
Of course, it is a truism that something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Personally, I would gladly pay five dollars for a banana if I didn't know grocers selling them for twenty-five cents each. Perhaps I might even fight a gorilla for one. Would a teenage girl do battle with a gorilla for a Mumford and Sons CD? I think not. But then I doubt the gorilla would want the bloody CD in the first place, unless, perhaps, the gorilla were King Kong requiring soundtrack music for his clumsy and ultimately unsuccessful seduction of Fay Wray.
Alas, I have seen my own worth decline over the past few years. The esoteric knowledge and arcane skills I once employed to do my work have been replaced by downloadable software. I am getting old, too. Given the choice between my daily presence and a Mumford and Sons CD my boss could play in the lobby, he might choose the CD. So would I, in all probability. At least this blog is still free for people to read. I trust that it remains, like bananas, good value.
