Clearest Value

An objective look at the value of everything.

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  • The value of Alcatraz

    Current Events Primer

    From time to time, Clearest Value will look at current events and stories from a value-perspective. Today, that means looking at the value of Alcatraz, because the president of the United States decided to declare that Alcatraz, the former prison which is now a global tourist attraction, should be converted back into a prison.

    Individual Value

    We have one very clear individual value assessment from Donald Trump. He believes that the best use of Alcatraz is to leverage its infamous history as a “symbol of Law, Order, and Justice” to deter criminal activity.

    We also have the individual value assessments of everyone who has ever visited Alcatraz for tourism. According to the National Park Service, Alcatraz welcomes over 1 million tourists every year. That is 1 million people per year that individually saw value (at the time) in Alcatraz as a place for tourism.

    Societal & Cultural Value

    It’s undeniable that Alcatraz has a significant history. Alcatraz has appeared or been the central location in a number of films, books, and video games, reaching huge numbers of people who have never set foot in the SF Bay Area. A prison filled with notorious criminals on a tiny isle can grip the imagination and create the setting for a compelling story.

    However, as always, we must be careful when we guess at the derived societal and cultural value. All we can say for sure is that some individuals believe Alcatraz is best used as a prison, and others believe it is best used as a tourist attraction. This sets the stage for a struggle of power over this federally-owned land, and for one side to win, the other must lose.

    Economic Value

    Alcatraz has a significant and known economic value. Citing the National Park Service again, Alcatraz generates roughly 60 million dollars per year in revenue.

    Revenue is not profit. It isn’t known what the yearly profit of Alcatraz is, but based on the article, we can assume that most of that revenue is spent maintaining the park, so the profit is close to zero.

    We cannot actually assess the economic value of Alcatraz, because Alcatraz does not exist or operate in a free market. As a government-owned entity, it isn’t subject to market forces that would dictate whether a privately-owned entity succeeds or fails.

    Intrisic Value

    Like all things, Alcatraz has intrinsic value. If you’ve been to Alcatraz, you know that is has a unique beauty with its signature blend of flowers, succulents, wildlife, concrete structures, and of course sweeping vistas of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.

    So what should we do with it?

    Alcatraz’ removal from the free-market means that it will likely never reach its full potential. However, the choice on the table is between federal prison and federal park.

    As a federal prison, Alcatraz would leverage its assumed cultural value as a symbol to scare criminals. There are a lot of assumptions in this theory…

    As a federal park, Alcatraz leverages its assumed cultural value as a historic and dramatized landmark,and it also leverages its intrinsic value as a beautiful place in the world. Millions of people have assigned individual value to this use-case.

    To us, the choice is crystal clear, Alcatraz should remain as a global tourist attraction. Its intrinsic value would be wasted as a federal prison.

  • Understanding Value

    Value Types

    To bring value-clarity to a topic, we first must understand value itself. There are several types of value that we will cover at Clearest Value:

    • Individual value
    • Societal value
    • Cultural value
    • Economic value
    • Intrinsic value

    Understanding each of these value types is critical to identifying true value.

    Indvidual Value

    This one is pretty obvious, individual value refers to the value that an individual places on something. Importantly, this type of value is invented by, and is specific to, each individual.

    • A parent typically places higher value on their child than a stranger does.
    • A voter typically places higher value on politics than a non-voter does.
    • An investor typically places higher value on their personal investment portfolio than the perfomance of the broader market.

    These are all examples of individual value, where individuals have created/invented/assigned value to something, according to their own individual judgement.

    Societal Value

    Societal value is the value that society collectively places on something. This type of value is often used to coerce the individual:

    • “It’s who you know, not what you know.”
    • “What do you do for a living?”

    These are examples of societal value judgements. The first example asserts that society values connections over knowledge. The second is a common question new aquantances use, which suggests a society that values work as the defining aspect of the individual.

    The reason that those examples are coervive is because neither of those examples are true representations of societal value.

    Societal value on a topic cannot be known with certainty, because it is derived from the individual value of each individual in society.

    Nobody tallied the votes on what individuals think about, “It’s who you know, not what you know.” When someone asserts a societal value, they do so as an attempt to force your individual value judgement into alignment with theirs. Coercion.

    Cultural Value

    Cultural value is identical to societal value with one caveat, instead of the coercion applying to all of society, it applies to a particular subset of individuals.

    Economic Value

    Most of us have an idea of what economic value is. Put simply, it is the value of something denominated in some form of money. In a large and free market, economic value is a way of determining the individual value someone else places on something.

    If I put an heirloom up for sale on the Internet, and I believe it is worth $10,000, but I only receive bids at $1,000, then my individual value assigned to this heirloom is greater than the economic value.

    This disparity between an individual value assessment and economic value is a strong signal when assessing the correctness of an individual value assessment that we will use frequently.

    Intrinsic Value

    The simplest way to explain intrinsic value is to say that it is the true value.

    To conceptualize this, let’s consider an example, consider the Sun. Imagine that the Sun were for sale. Individuals would place bids on the Sun according to their individual value assessments, and the highest bid would be the Sun’s economic value, but the Sun has intrinsic value, and that has no relationship to anyone’s individual value judgements. It warms the Earth. It brings light to the world.

    Wrap-Up

    This post is quite dense, but it is necessary to build this framework of understanding so that we can explore the value of everything together. Bookmark this post and refer back to it as needed!

  • Welcome

    What is Clearest Value?

    In short, Clearest Value helps you see things exactly as they are.

    Once you can perceive reality, you free your mind from the values imposed on you by the collective society, and you become a true individual.

    Clearest Value will address common false perceptions and contradictions presented by today’s society.

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