What is the Worth of a Knife, or a Life?

Sales are at 28%

That's what I discovered after comparing last year's sales to this years. I knew from the beginning that although everyone needs a knife at some point, no one NEEDS one of MY knives… so if the economy crashes, my business will be one of the first to fold.

I'm not in the business of selling cutlery- I'm in the business of selling craftsmanship.

Anyone can go to Walmart and buy a knife for $20 that will probably work just fine for most random cutting jobs. If they need a  higher quality blade, they can spend $50-80 and get a good knife at the same store. 

Most of my real-world working knives start at $90, and they are pretty small- only 5” OAL. One of my knives the size of a good all-around Buck or Gerber costs at least twice as much as they do. My knives work well, but they are comparably expensive; luxury items, really. 

So, when inflation explodes, and housing and grocery costs literally double in the space of 4 years, luxury items like my knives don't sell very well, which is to be expected. 

Fortunately, I have marketable skills outside knifemaking that I can and do lean on to get through times like this; but this brings up another question in this society of being paid-by-the-hour: 

What am I worth?

One of the things I hate most about working for other people is having someone else put a price on me. 

“This is what you are worth per hour to me or this business, take it or leave it.”

I can either take the job and make the best of it, or move on in hopes of getting a higher bid on myself. 

Being somewhat of a perfectionist at times, I can be very hard on myself, and very unsure about putting an asking price on my time, especially when I know the ultimate decision about my being hired is not up to me.

Lately, I've also wondered about my ultimate worth/value as a human being. Am I uniquely talented in a way that contributes to society's well-being and is difficult to replace or replicate? 

Hardly.

If I die or disappear, will my family or the world come to ruin, or will my current employer go out of business?

I doubt it.

My family will miss me, but they will move on and survive one way or another, the world won't notice, and my employer will replace me.

So am I worthless? 

Ultimately, I think that the value of a person or an item is dependent on the price willing to be paid for it. The highest bidder determines the value. 

With luxury knives and common wages, this value fluctuates a lot. When necessities are easily obtained and extra money is plentiful, people will pay high prices for unique craftsmanship, if they value it. If they are desperate for help with their business, they will gladly pay high wages to employees. But if necessities are not met, luxury craftsmanship drops on the priority scale, as does the value of an employee who is not really needed. 

However, people aren't luxury items, or items at all- and we aren't merely a wage either, whether we are employed or not. We are told that each and every individual has had a price paid for them- a price far more costly than any hourly wage; a price we can't fathom. 

1st Corinthians 6:20 states: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are

God's.”

What did that price look like?

Alma 7:11 states (speaking of Jesus Christ): “…he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people…and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”

Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-18 follow up: “I, God, have suffered these things for all… Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink— 19 Nevertheless, I partook and finished…”

I personally often have a hard time trying to understand and remember this, but, just as with the law of gravity, my lack of understanding or remembering doesn't make it go away. 

Sometimes it takes contemplating the value (or lack thereof) of my knives for me to start remembering my own value.