The savers who invest sometimes feel as hard pressed for funds to invest as someone who is a nonsaver feels hard pressed for funds to spend on consumption. The saver who wishes to invest thinks he sees all kinds of opportunities for good investment and he laments that he does not have enough savings. For the savers, therefore, there are also to the right of our broken line many investment opportunities which they must forego. There is shortage against what these individuals really want. There are in our chart no absolute values whatever.
Nothing here has an intrinsic economic value.
Values depend upon the person's subjective rankings of his wants compared to the specific circumstances in which he finds himself. If a man is on a camping trip in the mountains and camps next to a good stream of water, he does not think in terms of an expenditure for water, but if he is a rancher in a semi-arid territory he is willing to pay a good price for water. Water at one time has a value of zero, and at another time a price per gallon. Value is subjective, variable, not absolute, a mere rank and not an absolute entity. What it costs to produce something does not give it value .