Money and Value

When I do something, I try to do it as well as I can - probably, so do you, and probably so does everyone else.

So why do we end up with ISP's who can't deliver what they sell?
Why do we have voting booths that run out of ballot papers?
Why do we have politicians who can't manage to be truthful?
Why do we have Public Servants who neither serve, nor care about the Public?
Why does any work you have done on your house have a 10 year guarantee, but anything that goes wrong isn't covered?
Why do we have insurance companies who will take every penny you've got in premiums, but demand you jump through all sorts of hoops before they fail to give you a penny?
Why do we have banks that are now my best friend, when two years ago they would cheerfully have put me in debt for the rest of my life?

If everybody is trying their best, why does it turn out like this?

My take is simple. Everything is measured in terms of money. We no longer have a value system, we only have a monetary system.

Example: I use the internet. I pay a premium to an ISP for a certain level of service. I value that service beyond the price I pay, because it is of importance to me. If that service slips, and I can no longer do what is of value to me, then I need to re-assess. Having re-assessed, I now pay more for my internet, but I only pay for what I use and I am not locked into a long term contract and I have an internet connection I can carry in my pocket and use almost anywhere in the UK. Overall, the value of the service I now have is more than the old one to me. The cost might be more (could be less depending on what I use) but the value is the important thing.

Example: I research a problem at work and come up with the answer that is best for the users of the system. I make a presentation to the "powers that be" and I am told it is "too expensive". When I ask what is the cost of the performance degradation on the users output when using a "less expensive" solution, I am met with blank stares. The value of the "too expensive" is not the amount we pay for it, but the amount by which the users productivity goes up as opposed to the "less expensive" solution. Simple concept, but totally alien to "the powers that be".

Let's start valuing again, instead of pricing.