What Does “Value” Really Mean?
When you think about “value,” what comes to mind? For most people, especially in professional and entrepreneurial circles, value typically equates to profit, monetary worth, or productivity—essentially, the things we directly get paid for. But this perspective, as prevalent as it is, paints an incomplete picture of what’s genuinely valuable. Imagine looking through a narrow window at a beautiful, expansive landscape: you’re only seeing a tiny portion. It’s time we step back, broaden our view, and discover the entire spectrum of value available to us. The consequences of not doing so are growing by the moment.
The Limitations of Our Current Economic System
Today’s dominant economic system is built around rewarding actions that directly generate profit. It’s a straightforward approach that seems logical on the surface: produce more, sell more, profit more. But what happens when only certain kinds of activities are incentivized and rewarded?
This system often leads to outcomes that aren’t beneficial to our collective well-being. It contributes to isolation, competition, environmental degradation, and a culture that undervalues essential, yet intangible contributions—like emotional support, community-building, and ecological stewardship. Simply put, what we currently value and incentivize doesn’t always lead to the well-being we truly desire.
Expanding Our Perspective – The Full Spectrum of Value
To truly thrive as individuals and communities, we must broaden our understanding of what constitutes value. Several frameworks help illustrate this clearly. One perspective-shifting model, developed by Ethan Roland of Appleseed Permaculture, identifies eight distinct forms of capital: (also spoken to well in this article by 7th Generation Design)
- Material Capital: Tangible resources like buildings, tools, and materials.
- Intellectual Capital: Knowledge, ideas, and education.
- Experiential Capital: The invaluable insights gained through direct experience.
- Cultural Capital: Shared stories, arts, and beliefs.
- Social Capital: Relationships, networks, and community goodwill.
- Natural Capital: Ecosystems, biodiversity, and environmental resources.
- Spiritual Capital: Personal authenticity, connection to purpose, and a sense of greater meaning.
- Financial Capital: Traditional monetary assets.
Another foundational framework explores what true wealth is, and how communities can bring that into being. In their book, Creating Wealth, Gwendolyn Hallsmith and Bernard Lietaer invite us to rethink wealth beyond financial terms alone, positioning it instead around meeting genuine human needs. They propose a holistic, multidimensional understanding of capital—one that includes vital yet often overlooked elements such as social connections, environmental health, and cultural assets.
Expanding our view to recognize these diverse forms of capital helps us see resources that are often invisible in traditional economic thinking.
After all, what’s the value of:
- A clear view to a natural landscape right from your backyard?
- The radiant, compassionate presence of a seasoned monastic?
- The perfect connection?
- Someone who can fix your toaster oven, instead of buying a new one?
- A child’s laughter?
- Feeling safe and secure?
These examples of different types of capital may not directly generate profit but do contribute significantly to our overall quality of life and resilience.
Why Well-being Matters – Aligning Value with Desired Outcomes
What outcomes do we truly want from our economic system? If our goal is collective well-being—thriving individuals, flourishing communities, and a healthy planet—we must carefully examine and redefine what we value and incentivize.
Consider these questions:
- Do we genuinely want a society that rewards only profit-focused activities?
- What if emotional support, caregiving, ecological preservation, and community-building were recognized and incentivized?
- How could redefining value in these ways enhance our lives and communities and create more of what we want?
Aligning our economy with a holistic understanding of value positions us to nurture and sustain what truly contributes to our collective flourishing.
Readjusting Our Lens & Unlocking Our Resources
What’s exciting is that redefining value is more than a theoretical exercise—it’s an invitation to transform how we live, work, and thrive together. It begins with each of us personally recognizing and appreciating the wide array of resources and contributions available. Simply opening our awareness to what we’re valuing as worthy of recognition and compensation and what goes unseen and unrewarded is immensely powerful.
The next step is putting this new awareness into action in our lives.
You can start with doable yet powerful practices in your day-to-day:
Express Appreciation: Regularly acknowledge and thank people in your life for contributions that often go unnoticed. Simply voicing recognition is a powerful way to redefine what you consider valuable.
Support Local & Community Efforts: Choose to support businesses, groups, or initiatives that clearly value community well-being, environmental care, or cultural enrichment alongside profit.
Redefine “Success”: Regularly reflect on your definitions of personal and professional success, and consciously include elements like relationships, health, creativity, and community involvement in your evaluation.
Practical Steps to Redefine Value in Our Communities
At Holistic Systems Cooperative (HSC), we want to take this practice further and begin to create economies where we consciously decide what’s most important to us. we’re actively redefining value through practical, community-driven processes. We’re utilizing frameworks such as Community Contribution Tokens and Commitment Pooling Vouchers to recognize and reward diverse forms of capital.
Our community participates in “relative value indexing,” which means collectively determining what types of contributions hold value and how these contributions compare with each other. This approach acknowledges the dynamic nature of value—recognizing that what’s valuable may shift as our community evolves.
When you contribute—whether through knowledge sharing, emotional support, network connections, or administrative assistance—your value is visibly acknowledged and rewarded through community tokens. These tokens can then be exchanged for goods, services, and opportunities within the community, creating a robust, interconnected ecosystem of reciprocal support.
By actively participating in communities like HSC, we can practically experience and reinforce these redefined values, cultivating a thriving, resilient economy centered around true well-being.
So, consider for a moment: What forms of value are you currently overlooking in your life or community? How might your everyday interactions shift if you started recognizing and rewarding the broader spectrum of contributions around you?
Together, let’s step back, broaden our view, and embrace the rich, multidimensional landscape of true value. Our collective well being hinges on it.
