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Comment by nateberkopec | Hacker News Reader

GiveWell can point you to various charities in 3rd world countries where you can be reasonably certain you can save a life for about $5000-7000. https://www.givewell.org/

Save 1 life in the USA, or take the same 7.5 million and save ~1000 lives in Africa. Interesting lens on which to view these numbers.

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Cost =|= Value =|= Price

I get the cost/value != price, but what's the difference between cost and price?

It costs me 100 bucks to produce and sell an item, the market is only ready to pay a price of 80. I loose 20.

In terms os life: the value of life is universal (at least it should be), the cost of saving one (or ending one...) depends on circumstances. And the price someone is paying in order to safe / end said life is again something different.

Edit: The value of the item initially mentioned can be anything: from the 80 for the customer at the time of purchase, 500 because it provides the customer with clean water a week later or even negaitive (e.g. because it is a replacement part, non-original, for a classic car and the resulting values of the car decreased after installation).

Ah, cost is the amount to produce and price is the amount to consume then? I never actively tagged those ideas with distinct words, but I appreciate the insight.

Welcome!

This isnt a universal definition, just how they are using it.

For sure, I just found it to be an interesting lens to view that though.

Using "cost" to refer to the amount you pay for something and "price" for the amount you get for selling it is pretty standard usage, especially in accounting contexts.

Yes, But "cost" is relative to who is paying. It certainly isnt "cost is the amount to produce", as stated upthread.

The cost to a consumer purchasing a burger is the retail price, not the amounts the restaurant spent on labor and ingredients.

Cost is on the producers side, peice is whatever the product can be sold for. Value is depending on circumstances, accounting value on the other hand is pretty well defined, and either based on cost (inventory at the manufacturer) or purchasing price (inventory and assets on customer side).

I think the term cost can only be specified with respect to an entity.

A given good has multiple cost, up and down the supply chain. A widget can have different costs to the original manufacturer, the wholesaler, retailer, and finally consumer.

It makes no sense to say the cost of a widget is X, without specifying cost to whom.

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