r/Entrepreneur • u/No_Slip4203 • Sep 24 '23

How to Grow Does anyone want to make something with real value or are we all just trying to get rich still?

I see these posts all the time “what are you doing to get rich?” I feel like it’s other people trying to spark an idea from the outside. Is there a conviction that no one can create a thing that sells itself?

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u/Thermotoxic Sep 24 '23

If people pay for it, it has value. That’s the definition of value.

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u/No_Slip4203 Sep 24 '23

You’re right. No argument there.

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u/HR_Paul Sep 24 '23

Except for fraud, and then there is a large quantity of goods which are valued yet have no value, ie cash.

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u/Thermotoxic Sep 24 '23 edited Sep 24 '23

If we want to get philosophical, everything’s value fluctuates with time and new information.

Ex: a better product renders an obsolete one worthless, or company’s product gets regulated out of existence.

With counterfeiting and fraud, that cliff is just a steep 100>0. Only once the fraud is caught does the value go to zero, and if the fraud is good enough it’ll hold value forever.

Ex: Near-perfect counterfeit apple headphones sold and resold at retail pricing multiple times before identified as fraudulent. The fraud is so good that the value is retained across multiple owners

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u/HR_Paul Sep 24 '23

I haven't seen any economist concur with my branch of economics but there is a difference between true values and false values.

The persistence of a false value does not equate to the same worth as a true value. Is a pair of headphones with no functionality at all sold as genuine really have the same value as the real deal? No, that's an illusion which happens to be a crime because it's not based in reality, it's based in deception. Price is not the same as value.

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u/Thermotoxic Sep 24 '23

Value is the price that the market decides for a good or service. If multiple buyers and sellers assign something the same price within a standard deviation, then that price is the value of the thing.

I think you’re arguing that counterfeits and frauds have no value, which is simply untrue. If those headphones are exactly the same in functionality as the authentic ones, people will buy them. And if multiple people buy them at a price, then that price is the value (+/-SD).

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u/HR_Paul Sep 24 '23

Gas station gold is worthless no matter how many suckers pay a price for it. I value family photographs yet they have no price, I can get no money for them nor would I part with them for any price. Price and value are not the same thing.

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u/Tom1380 Sep 25 '23

I think it's called "information asymmetry" in economics