Reply #10: Is that because...

[Ready4Change]

A horse always needs someone to clean up after it? (kidding.)

Back to the subject. It seems to me that "value" is what we think something is worth. Cost, on the other hand, is more factual.

Take a photograph, for example. It can be low cost. Throw away camera: $10. Development costs: $15. Total costs: $25. For about 25 photos that's a final cost of about $1 per shot.

One of those pictures is of a beloved grandparent, smiling joyfully, a beam of sunlight shining while she sits in her favorite chair.

That photo only cost $1. But what is its VALUE?

What happens to that photo's value when that grandparent dies?

What if that photo is the only one in your possession in which she is smiling and happy?

I think that while cost can usually be boiled down to joules, value may sometimes be more ephemeral.