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Hello everyone,
I am glad I found this thread, as I am attempting to think through the same question! Stefano, your assessment makes a lot of sense to me, and I would imagine that is the correct train of thought. With scarcity giving the conditions for someone to make a valuation, the valuation has to occur at the margin. Since a large majority of people live with access to water or have stored water available, the valuation of an ounce of water is much less than the valuation for a diamond, which is most likely much more scarce in their area.
Other factors to consider: running water would decrease the valuation immensely, especially if that water is affordable. This would also cause second order, third order, and higher order uses of water to have less value, because the water is so readily available.