Law of commodity value

The law of commodity value, proposed by Michael Hentrich as an undergraduate, explains how individual behavior and events shape reality, not to be confused with the law of value used by Karl Marx. While a sizable literature in social psychology, sociology, and economics has documented the symbolic potential of value, very little has been done to calculate the literal evaluative value of commodities according to their projected or actual total cost and benefit to society. The law proposes the relationship between values, commodities, and behavior in society. It's main contribution is that these variables can be expressed simply in a formula. It is thus a social and economic explanation that describes the subtle forces that influence market and social commodities. Both sociological and utilitarian calculations of value influence behavior, and the law borrows from Jeremy Bentham and utilitarianism, along with Marxian economics, Max Weber, Adam Smith, and John Maynard Keynes.
Definition
While "commodity value" actually refers to two separate variables, they are inextricably linked and Adam Smith defines commodities in terms of exchange value. In calculating the value of a social process, the following formula is used:
:::::: <math>v=cb</math>,
:where
:* <math>v</math> is the value of a behavior (the social benefit of a prison reform in terms of crimes prevented per year, for example)
:* <math>c</math> is the commodity (in utils/time, the number of prisoners reformed, for example)
:* <math>b</math> is the net behavioral gain or loss (in utils/time, the benefit of a prison reform in terms of ex-convicts working for the economy, for example).
Explanation
While understanding individual and market behavior has been increasingly important in the work of modern sociologists and economists., the law and its implications add to the discussion of value and to the multivaleant nature of social processes. Pertinent to the discussion of value is the discussion of capital, or social capital. Indirectly a law of capital, the result is expressed in terms of the net social benefit or loss to society. That said, it can be appropriately applied to strict monetary calculations but in these cases the formula represents a heuristic tool which can be equated with other formulas, such as the formula used to calculate Gross Domestic Product.
Controversy
While a commodity is simply a good for which there is demand, this is unsettling because it implies that a price can be put on any and all human behavior. While some agree that pricing human behavior accords with rational choice theory and other models, others argue that this is unethical. The pricing of human goods is the subject of much debate, especially for markets that are held to be sacred (such as with organ trade).

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