Adding cost vs. Adding value: Why Life isn't like Monopoly

Have you ever played Monopoly? You know, the game where you go around the board, and if you land on a square that belongs to someone else you must pay them rent? And you get your money mostly from other people paying rent?

The thing about this game is that money only really enters the game at one point: when players finish the circle they collect money from "the bank".  (and a few rare cards you can draw that tell you that you win the lottery or somesuch.) Every other way to get money takes it from the other players. 

Real-world economy is like this too. Think of the ways you can make money-- most of them involve taking it from other players. We work for a paycheck, which is money we take from our company, which is money it takes from its customers, which is money they take from their paychecks, which is money taken from... you get the idea.

Unfortunately, in this model there is no "going around Go". 

When the economy is suffering, as it has been recently, everyone starts moving around the board a little slower, so they have to pay less, which means fewer people are landing on your squares and giving you money, which means you move around the board a little slower... etc.

Unlike Monopoly, the object of the game is not to earn money.

Money, like in Monopoly, is just little bits of papers or maybe some numbers kept track of electronically.  Unlike in Monopoly, our real-world bits of paper can buy us real-world pleasures and neccessities. These pleasures and neccessities are the reason we chase down the bits of paper in the first place.

Unlike Monopoly, you can sometimes skip the bits of paper and go straight for the pleasures and neccessities.

In Monopoly, everything has a cost, but nothing has any real value.  The cost is the dollar amount that you must pay to acquire the property, railroad, etc. But the value is the amount of pleasures and neccessities that that property brings to you.

Let's talk for a minute about cost vs. value.

Example 1:

A movie you enjoy a great deal, watch several times, and loan out can cost $20 but offer you hours and hours of relaxation, bonding with friends, common experiences, ability to provide for sick friends when you loan it out, etc.  In this scenario, the cost is $20 but the value is high. Or, you could buy the same movie used for $7, and the cost would be less, but the value would be the same high amount.

Contrast that to a movie that you buy for $20 but watch once and dislike to the point that you don't even finish it. You never watch it again, you never loan it out, and it takes up space on your shelf. The cost is $20, but the value is less than nothing, because not only do you not gain any pleasure or fill any need, but it requires space in your living room to exist.  

And yet the two movies cost the same.

Example 2:

Consider another example: A junkyard is full of broken cars. They are worth nothing-- they are only there because people have needed a place to abandon them.  However, the junkyard owner's daughter is quite good with engines-- she takes the working pieces from all the cars and manages to make a car that works.  She then uses this car to get a job and attend classes to further her education. The cost of the car is very low, but the value that she creates from a junkyard full of broken cars is priceless. 

Too often we focus on the costs of items, and not their value. Sometimes we recognize value (but if I bought this expensive exercise machine, think of how in-shape I would be! I would feel better about myself, be more outgoing, live longer and happier!) but only as a way to justify the cost.

What ways can you create high value with low cost?  This is where dollars truly enter the system-- when pleasures and neccessities are amplified and multiplied for little or nothing.  

• Do you have clothes in your closet that don't fit (value = zero) that you can give to people who need them (value = high)?
• Do you have food that will soon go bad that you can't finish (value = zero) that you can make a big dinner with and have all your friends over (value = high)?
• Do you have free time (value = open) that you can donate to an organization you support in the form of volunteering (value = high)? 
• Do you have a spare room that you aren't using (value = low) that you can rent out to create housing for someone and additional income for you (value = high)?
• Do you have a task such as cleaning or yard work that you abhor (value = low) and enough money to hire someone else to do it, creating more jobs in a low-job market and freeing up sometime for yourself to get another job, further your education, volunteer elsewhere, or just relax (value = high)? 
• Do you have a special skill (value = open), such as an ability to fix home computers, write insightful commentary, tend neighborhood children, or fix good meals from inexpensive ingredients, that you could share with others, possibly in exchange for their special skills (value = high)? 
• Do you have a messy house, a junk pile, unfinished projects, unused space, or wasted material (value = open) that you can clean up, move out, finish up, or give to someone who can use it (value = high)? 
• Do you know a group of people who don't know each other (value = low) with the skills to start a major project that will revoluntionize the way people think (value = high)? 

There are only so many pieces of green paper in the world, and right now everybody is protective of theirs.  Forget about the cost -- What kind of value do you want? What kind of value do you offer? What are you going to do about it?