2 feb

Is value the same as price? Or is it the other way around? Or is it just plain nonsense? You will have to be a true believer in market capitalism to think one of the first two statements.
What did Marxism say again. They liked to think about value in terms of labour spent to produce something. It is not the most practical approach these days towards a sense of determining (let alone creating) value, but deep down it is something that we can connect to. Just to put it into extremes: Why can a banker create the same amount of value in five minutes as a nurse in one week. Or compare a footballer with a teacher. There must be a difference between the value towards society and the value towards markets. And something has gotten wrong somewhere.
I had to think of these things after visiting Rozet, as the map says, or Rauzet, as the people in the hamlet itself like to call it. To see the ancient priory in this place was the purpose of my walk yesterday, I somehow got distracted from telling about it. The priory is being renovated. A Cousin of Julie, Maureen, worked at the place (in Rozet, or Rauzet) a few years ago, digging up history. In fact she dug up some future too. She met her husband there.
I had never heard of the Grandmontines, but it is another strict catholic monastic order established at about the same time as the Cistercians and the Chartreuses. The Kings of England and France were both very fond of the Grandmontines, but the order never got as popular as the Cistercians, probably because it was a little too strict. In order to make rich people feel obliged to donate money, these monastery orders had to be strict. In order to attract monks they could not be too strict, I suppose. It is kind of funny to notice that the village of Chez Bernard is nearby. Rozet and the order of Grandmont always had to live in the shadow of the Great Bernard.
The priory was bought in 1992 by these friends of Maureen. The woman came walking out and was very enthusiastic to find out we knew Maureen. She begged us to come back another day because she was about to go and see a movie at the English cinema somewhere nearby.
To own a 12th century Romanesq church seems quite amazing to me. Part of the roof had fallen down the woman – we never asked her name – told us, when they bought the building. It was fixed a few years ago. ‘Maureen hasn’t even seen that’, she told us. Next project would be to replace the doors, then a new floor and then the stained glass windows.
Must be fun. Expensive fun, but then, worthwhile fun. Because sometimes it is very difficult to find a difference between market price and social value. In fact, one could argue, this is true most of the times. The exceptions, when market price and social value are too far apart, are the real reason for a government to exist. Nobody should forget… (it is sunday, preaching time, today!)