*On the Labor Theory of Value

*

*Walter Huston’s explanation of the Labor Theory of Value in “The Treasure of 
the Sierra Madre”*

A rather amusing muse on the value of gold (and any commodity) comes with 
Walter Huston’s explanation in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” in which he, 
a grizzled old veteran prospector enlightens Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt in a 
miner’s flop house in Mexico:

“ Real bonanzas are few and far between. They take a lot of finding. Answer me 
this one, will ya, ‘Why is gold worth some 20 bucks an ounce?”

“ I don’t know…because it’s scarce?”

“ A thousand men, say, go searching for gold. After 6 months, one of ‘ems 
lucky. One out of a thousand. This one represents not only his own labor but 
that of the other 999 others to boot. That’s, er, 6000 months, that’s 500years 
scrabbling over a mountain, going hungry and thirsty. An ounce of gold, Mister, 
is worth what it is because of the human labor that went into the finding of it 
and the getting of it.”

“ I never thought of it just like that.”

“ There’s no other explanation, Mister.”

Mister, there’s no other explanation. Video: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boUD5eG9Bf4 ( 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boUD5eG9Bf4 )


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