Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is your point, but not everyone agrees with your point. Which doesn't really mean that you're wrong, just that we have entered an area of subjectivity. What you suggest is certainly one way to measure "better" objectively, but that doesn't magically make it the best way. On a large scale, you can see this in the field of health care. Some people argue as you do, and this leads to a fully free market for medicine…
>In Ontario, for example, it is usually illegal for a doctor to charge more than a set amount for a certain type of procedure, and thus the people able to pay more are prevented by law from doing so. There are several different possible justifications for such a law: 1. We think the amount people can pay for some services should be capped, someone willing to pay more doesn't mean they value it more 2. We think that p…
As a society, we value the idea of everyone having access to health care, and if we make medicine a free market, the only people who get it will be those willing to pay the most.
Thus, we specifically reject the argument that providing health care to fewer people who pay more results in a greater benefit.
The reasons for our belief vary from completely subjective moral arguments to arguments that society overall benefits from having a healthy citizenry, just as society overall benefits from having a healthy infrastructure.
I don’t need to debate the specific reasons with you, I’m just pointing out that it is neither #1 nor #2. We certainly think there are people willing to pay more, and that those willing to pay more are correctly valuing it form themselves. We don’t believe that those unwilling to pay more don’t understand the value of medicine.
In the end, not everyone agrees with your perspective on value. Many do. I understand there’s this gigantic country south of us who believe medicine should be a free market, and that many of its citizens think its health care system is providing better value than ours.
But I insist that your views, while valid from your perspective, do not represent a universal truth.