However it’s applied, the term “value” almost always refers to something that lasts, something that doesn’t fall apart as soon as it’s put to the test, something with lasting appeal. I’ll never forget my first experience with sticker-shock, shopping for clothes in Europe. The hand-made sweaters and boiled wool jackets seemed an appalling price, until it dawned on me that people had every intention of getting twenty or even thirty years of wear from them.
It’s possible to find lots of things, including furniture, for throw-away prices. More than ever the focus seems to be on filling the short-term need now and the land-fill later. If, at the end of the day, we learn to stop screaming “more, more, more” and start looking for — no, insisting on — greater value in our future, we may come through this thing better off after all.
