"Intrinsic Value"

broadly speaking economists say something has intrinsic value because they believe the value of that good or surface can be measured objectively the Labour theory of value was a good example when Adam Smith and later on David Ricardo as well as even called Marx explaining that in their view the economic value of a product or service is determined based on how much work went into it it has a counter example we have the subjective theory of value associated with karl menger the founder of the Austrian School of Economics as well as economists like William Stanley Jevons and leon walras which states that let's just say value is in the eye of the beholder if John is holding food but is actually thirsty whereas Rachel is holding a glass of water but is hungry the two will gladly trade one another this is because at that point in time John values Rachel's water more than his food for as Rachel values John's food more than her water the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle looking at let's say gold it definitely has a clear cost of production at a certain point in time as well as physical properties such as not rhodium being a good conductor of electricity and so on therefore it's safe to say the likelihood have been always being worth something is quite high fiber that something is also highly dependent on human emotion his confidence in gold as a store of value Falls so does its price in fact the price can even stay under the cost of production under the right circumstances as strange as it may seem at the end of the day the two dimensions actually complement one another so why pick sides