"Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things
by:
Adam Smith
(1723-1790) Scottish philosopher and economist
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I’m not sure labor equates to money as the economist would here indicate. Labor though, is the originating and common standard of barter. All labor being not equal – labor can be bartered for or exchange with a tangible standard of value, such as an exacting weight and measure of a precious metal. Further, it is the eventual value of the labor that gives the ultimate worth assessment to money.
 -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Indeed!  Property is worthless without the labor to acquire, create, transport, store, defend, and use it.  Money takes many forms and it can be a medium of exchange but also the labor/property being exchanged itself.  Tobacco was a form of money — but it isn't worth anything without the labor to produce it.  An unharvested carrot is worthless.  All wealth and prosperity is the result of someone's labor.  This is where making promises comes in — promising to do something in exchange for something.  Now the money system has been turned inside out such that all the money represents 'promises' (i.e. debt).  It'll all be fine as long as the promises can be kept... ;-)
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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     -- jim k, austin      
    "Cost the limit of price." Self interest benefits society as a whole, promoting quality of product. In a truly Free Market with respect to consumer sovereignty, the "hidden hand" becomes apparent and the product becomes self regulating. Labor is the exchange, it is unethical to charge more than the labor to produce a product taking into consideration the total amount of overhead.
    This can be seen clearly from the Crafters/Servicers, point of view, seeing many newbies,over value their product, pricing themselves out of the market. Yet a modest increase over time due to quality demanded, govern the increased cost.
    "There is profit in all labor." though, it is greed that stifles the market in many ways. Master/slave mentalities infest the minds of lesser beings.
     -- Ronw13, OR     
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    As it is written:

    " And on the seventh day, God rested
    from his labors ..."

    ~ Genesis 2:2
     -- Patrick Henry, Red Hill     
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