Explaining the Measures of Worth Lawrence H. Officer and Samuel
H. Williamson Clearly, intrinsic values, objects, and events are
difficult, if not impossible, to measure in money terms. There
is probably no objective way of assessing the worth of freedom
of speech, good health, or a beautiful sunset. Such items lack a
well-defined monetary amount associated with them. Therefore we
do not attempt to measure the worth of such things. We also
cannot measure the worth even of an item associated with a money
amount, if the time period (say, year) of that money amount is
not clearly established. What is the worth today of "a loaf of
bread produced or consumed sometime in the past"? Such an
incompletely phrased question cannot be answered. We are
concerned with measuring the worth of items with which both a
monetary value and a past time period are clearly associated.
For example, A loaf of bread sold for seven pennies in 1915;
what is its "value" today? Your great-grandfather's estate was
$1000 or £200 in 1900; wha