If for the moment we take value as something given, then in accord with our foregoing discussion the following proposition is established beyond doubt: Economic value as such does not inhere in an object in its isolated self-existence, but comes to an object only through the expenditure of another object which is given for it. Wild fruit picked without effort, and not given in exchange, but immediately consumed, is no economic good. It can at most count as such only when its consumption saves some other economic expense. If, however, all of life's requirements were to be satisfied in this manner, so that at no point was sacrifice involved, men would simply not have economic activity, any more than do birds or fish or the denizens of fairyland.

DEFINE: Clarifies that economic value is defined by expenditure/scarcity rather than inherent usefulness, making freely available goods non-economic.

DEFINE: Menger defines economic value as emerging from expenditure/sacrifice rather than inhering in objects themselves.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 245