Value-based pricing is the worst societal invention. Imagine a medicine can be made from simple ingredients, but you discovered a recipe by accident. It's very valuable since it might save lives, so the value is high, the cost is low and you can reap the benefit on the mere basis that you discovered something by accident. You also need to make sure that no one "gets it", so do not educate people, just milk them - and in the worst case, mislead them, work against any threat "knowledge" would pose.

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

Imagine a world, where progress and invention would be something shared and done not out of greed but out of ability and ultimately generosity that would add to the grace of our race.

Instead we celebrate greed, as if we were a bunch of apes.

My fear is that human society needs to reach new lows before we actually have the chance to see our own potential (and then it might be too late, anyway).