Episode Synopsis "2. Value"

Why is it that things like bread and water which have high use values are cheap while on the other hand luxury items like diamonds are very expensive? This paradox was not solved until it became understood that people choose only a marginal unit - this loaf or this diamond. Value can be attached to a good only by individuals' desires to use it directly in the present or in the present expectation of selling to such individuals in the future. It is subjective only.Part 2 of 14. Presented in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University.

Listen "2. Value"

More episodes of the podcast Introduction to Microeconomics

• 1. Intro to Micro: Demand and Supply
• 2. Value
• 3. The Determination of Prices
• 4. Price Controls in the Oil Industry
• 5. Minimum Price Controls
• 6. Government Licensing of Industry and Minimum Wage
• 7. Mid-Term Review and The Theory of the Firm
• 8. The Firm
• 9. Monopoly and Competition
• 10. Government Cartels
• 11. The Structure of Production
• 12. Labor and Unions
• 13. The Labor Market
• 14. Interest Rates and Course Review