THE CONCEPT OF ECONOMIC VALUE AND HOW WOMEN CAN INCREASE THEIR WORTH: AIR vs DIAMOND

Everyone needs air to survive, but not everybody needs diamonds to survive. Without Air you die, without diamond you still remain alive. Yet Diamonds are very costly while Air is free.

Ordinarily, the term value is seen as how useful an item, a service or a product is to a person. This means that people attach value to things depending on how useful they are to them. Air is more useful than diamonds and hence should have more value than diamonds, but why is diamond costly while Air is free?

ECONOMIC VALUE: Economic value is a measure of the benefit provided by a good or service to an economic agent.  It is generally measured relative to amount of money one is willing to spend on the commodity.

The above concept of economic value shows the reason why Diamonds cost more than Air. People naturally are willing to pay more for commodities that are scarce. This means that people consciously and unconsciously attach more value to scarce commodities than they do to commodities that are in abundance. 

Hence scarce diamonds cost more and is more valued than abundant Air. From what has been said, we can conclude that Air has no economic value at all because people do not even pay for it.

Another instance is the case of university degrees; a PhD is more valued than a BSc degree, because there are less PhD holders than BSc holders. In other words, PhD is more scarce than BSc and so has more value.

Bringing it down to women;

Naturally, by population figures, there are more women than men in the world. This means that men are more scarce than women and hence should have more value, as is the belief in various cultures. Considering the usefulness of both genders, both should be valued equally. But Air is not valued equally as Diamonds, even though Air is more useful. Scarcity has to come into play for value to rise.

Women! The key to gender equality is to create a scarcity of women and since nature does not favour the female gender in this regard, this form of scarcity has to be artificial. Women need to create artificial scarcity of themselves in order to increase their value. 

How?

The First issue to address is prostitution by women. Nothing says am abundant like Air ‘for women’ than seeing them on the streets half naked struggling to satisfy the inordinate pleasures of a man. Prostitution shouts “there are so many of us and the only way we can survive is by satisfying man’s pleasures”. 

Even though it may not be the true reason, it is implied. If a man has need for inordinate pleasures and does not find a readily available channel where he can pay as low 500 naira to ease off tension, then he will learn to value women more.

Secondly, when the men are wooing you as a woman, make it harder for them, do not just jump on to any man that can buy you an Iphone 7, make the tests you give to the men more difficult and as all round as possible. 

Let it not just be about what he can buy you (don’t get me wrong what he can buy you is very important), but also how much he is willing to give up for you, is he caring enough, is he willing to support you, how does he handle your flaws, does he realise you are just human and can make mistakes e.tc. 

By the time you must have considered all this, the man must have spent not less than 3 months wooing one girl. Then scarcity is created and value keeps rising.

To cut it all short;

Uneducated women are in abundance; create scarcity by doing everything possible to be educated.

Sit at home wives are in abundance; create scarcity by getting a job.

Ordinary women are in abundance; create scarcity by becoming empowered.

Emotionally unstable women are in abundance; create scarcity by getting a grip of your emotions. If you do not know how, read Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence

A female president won’t be a bad idea, or a female general in the forces.

In simpler terms, women should move away from these areas of perceived natural abundances in order to create artificial scarcity collectively (doing so individually will not yield much).

Above all women should help, motivate and support themselves.

Do this, and watch as the value attached to women in the society skyrockets

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY