To have is not to value. It is the effort it takes to earn something that gives it its value. Say George is given a car for his sixteenth birthday from his rich parents, and Bob starts working a job at the age of fourteen to earn enough money to buy a car when he turns sixteen. Which of the two will value their new vehicle more, George, who didn’t do anything for his car, or Bob, who put in many, many hours of hard labor to claim his prize? Clearly Bob will value his car more because he worked harder for it than George did. This is a clear example proving that value is directly affected by ease of obtainment.
The ease of obtainment is very clear. If you work hard to earn something, you will value it much more than if you obtained it in an easier fashion. It is my opinion that you must work for something in order to value it much at all. If I am given a Nintendo GameCube for Christmas, I will probably appreciate it less than if I had to work hard to obtain it.
Thomas Paine once said, “That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only which gives everything its value.†I wholeheartedly agree. I live in a household where I have to work for nearly everything I obtain. Not much is given me easily. Sometimes it feels hard, but I am thankful for it because it means that I value the thing that I own much more than if I didn’t have to work for it.