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Value is a funny word. It's simultaneously one of the most important concepts in economics, and also an idea that's so obvious as to be almost invisible. To put it a different way: when you think about it, value is almost a synonym for "price." Yet when you look around, all kinds of things seem to have value, even if they don't really cost anything. We can see this easily if we ask: What is the value of nothing? The answer is... nothing. Zero dollars or zero euros or zero gold coins or zero whatever. This is why we are always careful to distinguish between price (what something costs) and value (what we think of something). Nobody pays anything for nothing, no matter how much they like it! Thus, there must be some other type of value at work here…

The meaning of value
If you look up the definition of value, you'll find that it's a measure of how much something is worth. This gets us a little closer to the word's true meaning. It's a useful concept in many areas of life, from investments to relationships, so it's important to understand what it means. Remember: value is a measure of how much something is worth. It's not about how much it costs. This means that something might cost a lot of money, but not be very valuable, or vice versa. Value is a subjective concept that depends on the person judging it. Two individuals might disagree about the value of something: what one person thinks is worth a lot, another person thinks is worth very little.

Understanding economic value
Economic value is a measurement of the worth of something according to its utility. It's a very important concept in economics, and it's at the heart of how we make decisions about everything from what we buy, to what we do for a job. What's utility? This is a fancy word for usefulness. It's the extent to which something satisfies our needs. It's the reason we buy things in the first place: to satisfy some need or want. Utility is also the reason that something has value: without it, it would just be things. Now we get to the important part: you can have value, even if you have no price. When you think about it, it makes sense: we don't know about everything in the world, so we can't assign a price to it. Think about the Internet: even though it's useful to us, it doesn't have an economic value, because we don't know what it is, or how much it costs.

The problem with having no value
Let's go back to the value of nothing. If something has no economic value, it's as if it doesn't exist. In fact, it's worse than that, because it causes problems. If a thing has no value, then it's not worth anything to anyone. This means that nobody is going to care about it enough to take care of it. This is a problem because we rely on lots of things to stay in good condition. Medical equipment, houses, trains, books, and computers are just some examples. If these things are not taken care of, they might break down and become worthless. So, having things of value is important for our economy, and for maintaining civilization. Once something has no value, it's really hard to give it a new one. Think about the world's most famous artworks: the Mona Lisa, The Great Sphinx, the Sistine Chapel, and so on: these are valuable because people have been taking care of them for thousands of years.

When things have no intrinsic value
You might think that, once something has no value, it's gone forever. In reality, however, even when something has no economic value, it can still have some value. For example, if you have a friend who is depressed and suicidal, you might feel that you have no intrinsic value to them. When you feel this way, it's almost impossible to help them. You might even think that your presence is a burden to them because you provide no value to them whatsoever. But the truth is that even when you have no value to someone, they still need you. They need you because they need someone to talk to, someone to share their problems with. They need someone to be there for them, whether or not you can solve their problems.

How can we give something value?
If something has no value, we can't simply assign it a price and expect it to start making money for us. This doesn't work, because nobody is going to buy something that's not worth anything. To give something value, we have to make it useful to other people. Then we have to make sure that the people we want to use it know about it, and have access to it.

Conclusion
Value is a very important concept because if something has no value, it means that it's not worth anything to anyone. You can't just assign a price to something and expect it to start making money; you have to actually make it useful to other people. To do this, you have to make it something that they want or need, and make sure they know where they can find it. And remember: just because something has no price, doesn't mean it doesn't have value!