Haiti

Just read this. Matt Taibbi reaches a poignant new zenith in no-holes-barred elite shit-kicking.

My inaugural gown was worth a dozen seals

Among the innumerably hideous recollections i have over many years of following Exxon's attempts to dodge financial responsibility for the Valdez oil spill was the company's proposition that each seal caught in the crude was worth exactly $1000. Presumably that would be the assessed value before fur and lungs were coated in hydrocarbons, and maybe 20 years ago, Exxon thought they were being overly generous, since nowadays Chinese wholesalers offer seal coats for as little as $85. Then again, Exxon may have been flaunting their arrogance, as it appears that black seal fur is quite a bit more expensive. Who knows? It's all pretty despicable, so much so that i shouldn't even be embarrassing myself by making such lame, inane jokes about it.

We see the same mentality in US health insurance companies, telling people their kids' survival is not worth the expense, or that a middle finger is of greater value than a ring finger (which may actually be true, considering appropriate responses to corporate mandates in just about any rapacious industry). If Michael Obama had bought her inaugural gown on eBay, she would have had enough money left over to stock the Jefferson Memorial pond with a large family of seals... according to Exxon's calculations, which in the end are as offensive and ridiculous as dumping a wild marine animal into an urban pool or spending $20.000 on a dress. Probably though, the First Lady put style first and felt cost wasn't an issue; or, that since one can't put a monetary figure onto what/how Americans would feel seeing her look absolutely regal that night, the figure presented in cooperation with the dress was essentially priceless, ergo whatever was spent is irrelevant.

The issue of valuation has always dogged me. Aside from - or perhaps in spite of - the obvious relationship between production costs and asking prices, determining the intrinsic value of something is relative, at best and impossible, at worst. With consumer goods, it's easier to look at this than when dealing with something like a mountain gorilla. For example, if i were to buy a fancy color printer, it would be a simple matter of keeping track of how much money i save at Copy Central and how much more income i'd be able to explicitly derive from the sale of whatever propoganda, cards, etc. i printed myself, until the point where money saved + income generated = purchase price of the printer. That's very straightforward. When i look at my teaching fees, setting the value is much trickier, because i've really no idea how much one lesson is intrinsically worth on its own merit. Hence, i have to rely on what the market will bear and hope my prospective students find a rationale for accepting the fees i request. Some do, some don't - when i get a high fee, i put more energy into that class, but i'm not convinced this actually produces more value, in the basic, albeit elusive, sense of the term. The mountain gorillas? You spend a day bushwacking after them in the jungle and then tell me how much money you would've accepted in exchange for that experience. As poor as i am financially, i cannot give you a figure for which i would willingly have foregone that adventure and its concomitant stash of gaia-esque insight.

Raj Patel has come out with a new book which looks at this very important and compelling question, The Value of Nothing, and i'm sure it will be worth reading if, like me, you sometimes find yourself overwhelmed by all the distortions of value in which we mall-walled urbanites, especially, are adrift. There's no telling how long it will be before Patel's book is available (in English) in Hungarian bookstores, but maybe after seeing this video, one of my 5 readers - surely none of whom live in Hungary - will feel inspired to give the book a whirl and then you can tell me about it.

Can't take credit for coming up with this, but i do like how they seem to be waiting for everyone to have a snowball ready before someone fires the first shot... proving yet again how low homo sapiens are on the primate behavioral development chart.