Why do people not value free stuff? Share your thoughts!

I believe that if you inherit that big block of gold, or win it in the lottery, you will still value it, but not as much as if you had worked hard all your life to eventually buy it.

 

No one treasures that for which they do not work. The old catch Phrase easy some easy go is applicable. Another one that which costs nothing is worth nothing.

 

Different things here. I give you a scoop of Ice cream. But I just dump it in your hand You won't be very happy will you? If I tell you the ice cream is free but the container I'm going to put it in will cost you five dollars you will likely be even more unhappy. You paid for the lottery ticket it is not free. You bet money on the horse it is not free. Buying lottery tickets and betting on horse races are a species of investment.

 

When you have no skin in the game, there is little real value to the result.

Simple.

 

Thanks for posting this saying, which I also did above. To which our conservative friend Belch replied that it is only left wingers who use sayings without critical thinking. LOL.

 

I'd like to try though

 

A large part of value is judged by the value others place on it.

I don't know if a car is a good car just by looking at it. Outside my area of expertise.
So I buy by price.

An expert values it for me.

When a child has a toy, and grows bored of it, he places it to one side.
When a second child attempts to play with that toy, the first child is reminded of the value of that toy and takes it off him and plays with it.

So we often judge value by the interest shown it it by others.


I have a big house. Women are sexy for me because I do.
So many of the items I own are status symbols. Their primary use to me, is to impress others.
Their value to me is dependent on the value placed on them by others.

As a merchant, many of the things I own are owned for the purpose of trading.
The value others place on them must be more than the value I place on them to make money. Their value to me is solely the value I estimate they hold to others.
If something I own is valued at nothing, "free", then it is often worthless to me.


A great many things have a negative value to me.
A free pile of rubbish in my garden will cost me money to dispose of.
So "free" is often a trick. A sales trap which I must avoid.


The gold bar.
Once I have earned my own gold bar, all gold bars subsequently given to me will hold a value to me equal to this because I understand the cost to me of acquiring one through my own labours.

In my experience, the poorer you are the smarter you are with money.
Because you have to be.
In countries with no social services, poor people have much to teach me.

Yes, the acquisition of wealth is a clear indication you have something going on, but not all people have the same opportunity.
So those with less opportunity are not necessarily behaving less smartly than those with opportunity.

 

In the 1950's every time something new came out, the perfectly serviceable old and even quasi-new would be put out on the curb.

Once I ran as fast as I could and grabbed a small Evinrude outboard on the curb before an older black guy could get it. He couldn't outrun me. But he had a truck, and he kept at it and built one hell of a business. He eventually sold to Waste Management and was a multi-millionaire. I went to high school with his son, who also became a multi-millionaire. His father was well liked. The son got on drugs and died young.

But those days are long gone. It's very rare now that something still good is placed out on the curb.

You can build a large house or addition out of scraps, but it takes a very patient carpenter to put in the excess hours. And when it comes time to sell most likely it won't pass inspection.

 

That was well said.

 

Ibasically used it to enchance the point I had already made.

If you find it on the curb it's probably broken and if not it soon will be. Hayek's, I believe it was, 'Tragedy of the Commons' is illustrative of this problem.

 

That, sadly, is a story that is frequently repeated down through History. Askia, the first guy to unite all of India is the first time in History I saw it writ large. The unification he created through both war and diplomacy was gone within ten years of his death because his son was a wastrel and drunkard who pissed off and ruined the various alliances his dad had assembled that welded the country together.

 

They are the least 'real' commies, actually. If all they do is hero worship Mao and/or Lenin, but live in the ordinary way, they are most definitely not Communists. You people seem incapable of understanding that Communism isn't a 'feeling', it's a mode of living.

REAL commies are those who live communally. As part of a collective .. where resources are shared, and no one gets a free lunch.

 

Nothing at ALL to do with the people I'm talking about. There is no time for hedonism in a working collective, and there is no room for self-indulgence or individuality. You guys really know almost nothing about Common Purse collectives .. which makes it impossible to discuss this with you.

 

Plenty of good stuff still makes it to the roadside. Antiques, vintage furniture, etc. Stuff that the lower socio-economic orders don't understand or want (having a marked preference for the shiny and new, no matter how shoddy).

In regards to the 'scrap' house, depends upon your local govt. Where I live, our councils love 'recycled' building materials, and actively promote builds which include a good proportion of salvaged material. Alternatively, built in a rural or remote location, where none of that matters. Still 'free', if you have access to land, a nail gun, and plenty of time.

 

Your political theology doesn't take into account people, which is why you always end up with far too many corpses and not enough body bags.

You have no room for people.

 

I learned the more you do for someone, they more they expect you to do for them. If a person is truly in need and you help them out, to their mind you now have assumed full responsibility for their life. In the end, unless you give more and more the person will declare YOU are the most evil of all people.

Look at common conduct of people living off government benefits - even on this forum. You NEVER, I mean NEVER, will hear or read them saying "thank you!" NEVER. Rather they rant and sob in endless self pity and fury about why aren't they getting more and those damn rich people - even justifying rioting, looting, stealing - all demanding they should be given more for free.

There has never been an occasion where we have done anything of real monetary value for someone in need that they didn't totally take it for granted and it went downhill from there.

There also is the old saying that if you want to lose a friend, loan that friend money.

 

That's been my experience, as well. People are like stray cats. Feed them once, and they're back for more the next day. The only difference is that cats will eventually leave if you stop feeding them. People will get angry that they no longer get free stuff.

It's why keeping the homeless in the urban environment instead of out in the sticks is good. When the city slickers run out of free stuff, they're going to have to deal with a whole lot of angry poor people.

We hillbillies will find the whole thing immensely entertaining as we watch the latest brouhaha on fox news.

 

I have seen the opposite. People at the lowest economic end shop at convenience stores and buy food from fast food restaurants - spending 5 to 10 times as much if they went to a discount grocery store. They tend to live for the moment, even if economically could be far more efficient with their money.

 

The fact that they're poor might be a clue to some as to why they aren't very good with money.

 

Exactly, most are poor for a reason.

For a business we tried hiring people off the street who were not bums and beggars. Rather, homeless people, even with a family, who really seemed down on their luck. The jobs required essentially no skills, just a willingness to work and the pay was in cash and beyond anything they could earn and MUCH higher than prevailing wages.

None could do it for more than a month - if that. Increasingly they had excuses of why they couldn't make to work, why they were late, why they had to leave early - or would just not show up for 3 day and then come back - knowing they would be told they no longer had a job.

While some are poor beyond anything they did such as physically or mentally handicapped, most are into drugs, alcohol or just bums by their very nature. That's just how it is. Most people who are "poor" are poor because of themselves - primarily just being lazy.

 

So does that 10 dollar bill you found on the sidewalk have less value than the ten bucks you already had in your wallet?

and no, I am well aware that there are some right wingers who use trite sayings. You included the "only".

but then, you're a lefty... You had to do that.

 

Want to know the difference between Democrats and Republicans? Democrats tax and spend. Republicans cut taxes, take out massive loans, and spend.

 

Perhaps your business is a crappy business to work for. Maybe that is why you have to resort to hiring drug addicts and alcoholics.

 

Nearly all efforts to expand government come from the left. And we don't have the money to pay for expansion so we borrow from China.

 

You will probably have to leave America to meet poor people mate.
When you get to entire country's that are poor, then all the smart people are poor too.
And it's them you can learn from.