Value has never arisen out of thin air; it is determined by our social consensus.
Why do products have value? Because someone is willing to exchange this cost for the product, that is why the product has value.
However, the determination of value is based on the consensus of the entire society. If the competitors around you price their drinks at 50 yuan, then when you sell your drink for 60 yuan, you will be eliminated by the market and go bankrupt. Conversely, if you sell your drink for 40 yuan, you will go bankrupt due to cost issues. Thus, the surviving companies can only be price takers (without pricing power, prices are determined by the market). But what if we have a strong ideology? (Or irreplaceable technology) Then we will begin to gain the ability to set prices.
Do you buy into this? The decor is upscale, claiming to use the highest quality ingredients, top-notch service, and a perfect ambiance; this store's Coca-Cola can even be priced above 200 yuan. Is this due to high input costs leading to high pricing? The answer is no; this is the pricing power brought about by ideology.
Have you really seen the source of the ingredients at this store? Then why does the ingredient have a higher price under the claimed environment? It is also ideology. When I believe that a product can elevate me or that its uniqueness is extremely high, it gains pricing power.
This explains why luxury goods can always be priced at a huge margin and why the diamond scam has yet to be eliminated from the market (the actual supply of diamonds discovered long ago makes them no different from ordinary stones), because all of this originates from human ideology.
This can also explain why worthless garbage can be endowed with value. When charismatic and influential figures make extravagant purchases, they can garner so much public support because they have a large following. They understand how to drive ideology and can create one after another value scam out of thin air.
The generation of value is a zero-sum game; the sense of achievement or benefits you gain from value are losses taken from others. When someone becomes a long-term believer in a valued asset, they continuously inject funds into this commodity and do not intend to withdraw, thus causing a long-term increase in value. Therefore, the winner of the zero-sum game will be the one who injects funds and creates an ideology that causes people to blindly invest their wealth into projects.
What projects possess these characteristics? The answer is faith and religion; the earliest figures with great influence and control are often the leaders of religions. They are the faith of the people and have significant influence, allowing them to rally crowds. Simply put, if they say that feces are edible, everyone starts eating feces.
Isn't modern merchandise just a transformation of religious forms? Carrying luxury bags worth tens of thousands, guided by influential stars, driving vehicles worth millions—aren't these all values attracted by charismatic individuals? The essence of everything comes from people's blind pursuit, and these pursuers create endless value. Even if the world's most famous artist or designer were to turn toilet paper they've wiped with into an art product, it would be revered by ideology as an invaluable holy object. This is human blindness and the reason why value exists.
