You’re reading Signal vs. Noise, a publication about the web by 37signals since 1999.

My initial response was to sit here and stare at the screen with the word ‘obvious’ floating around every thought.

From the point of view of the business: price is what you get, value is what you pay. Therefore, in a free market, wouldn’t the business want to have the highest price-to-value ratio? This would explain a whole lot of markets recently.

Of course, there is more tied into price than dollars and more in value than utility…

My university bus driver, an Army Vet, once told me about management, that you get what you pay your workers.

Price is what you pay. A positive expected value exchange is what you want. For you, a negative expected value exchange is what the seller wants.

A neutral expected value exchange is what never happens.

@Ross Hudgens: Since value is subjective, the seller does not need to expect a negative value exchange on your part.

The basis of commerce is having both sides of transactions with a positive increase in value.

kinda directed @Chris , I have found that if you pay crap, you get crap. But if you pay excellently, you dont always get excellence. I think that is part of why some/many businesses will take the crap route, Businesses try to shed risk, why risk paying someone excellently only to find out they’ve underperformed ? Better (from a risk perspective) to pay poorly and expect poor results and just get alot of crappy things

@Artur I think Ross is trying to say that in a zero sum game the seller is trying to usurp some value from the buyer. The question is if it’s truly zero sum? ie, if we all refuse to work for less than $50 an hour, and refuse to pay more than $40, then nothing will get done, but if well all agree to work for the same rate we receive, then we can trade all day, receiving value from the other, paying in time that might otherwise be idle.

This is why I think unemployment (and by extension, underselling of extremely low marginal cost goods) is a joke. Its not that people are un(der) employed. Its that they refuse to work for an amount of money they are being offered. If you walk up to any business and say “I will work for free”, you will be fully employed for your entire life. I would suggest the same is true if you would accept minimum wage. So really unemployment is caused by greed or too high expectations. Similarly too low marginal cost goods, if you want to sell all of your service, charge next to nothing and it will be all used up and your peers will enjoy the value of the service that would have otherwise been wasted/gone idle.

The basis of commerce is having both sides of transactions with a positive increase in value.

Historically, I would agree. But now in this crazy world we live in, you also have little things like propaganda and advertising affecting perceived value before and after the transaction precisely because value is subjective.

@Sean: Propaganda and advertising, if successful, increase “perceived value”, but since value is subjective and different for every individual, “perceived value” IS the value that the buyer receives.

Historically, I would agree. But now in this crazy world we live in, you also have little things like propaganda and advertising affecting perceived value before and after the transaction precisely because value is subjective.

If advertising makes me want Pepsi, then that isn’t just perceived, it is value. I think value can only be measured by the person handing over the money.

Reminds me of a quote on a woodworking teacher’s wall: “the bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of a cheap price is forgotten.”

Hmm. Don’t you evangelize about not being afraid of saying ‘NO’ ??? In your response it seems that you are afraid of saying NO. If I were that customer, I would have preferred to see a “No we can’t. Sorry.”

I thought you guys preach about saying an honest “No” to the customer. This post seems to be deviating from that core ideology.

While the second message is indeed more polite, I almost feel like it’s speaking down to the customer and seems like a boilerplate advertisement. I would have preferred you just be real with me.

Another way to clarify the difference is to add four letters to the end of each word.

Priceless is not the same thing at all as Valueless (or Worthless)