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expended on their production.

Refutation 4: Argument from Non-Exertion: Some economic value can be created without little or no deliberate individual effort. A would-be entrepreneur might take a walk and noticewithout prior intentionthat in one part of the city, a good sells for less than it does in another part. This effortless recognition could enable him tousing minimal labor purchase the cheaper goods and re-sell them in the other part of the city, thereby enhancing their economic value by an amount far exceeding the labor expended. Likewise, the entrepreneur could inform a fellow businessman of his idea in exchange for a cut of the profitsin which case the entrepreneur himself, through his idea alone, has created economic value which required virtually no labor on his part.

Refutation 5: Argument from Unequal Ability: Individuals differ in skills and abilitiesand using the same amount of labor, some can create more economic value than others. Let us posit two carpenters, A and B. A can make a table in one hour, whereas B can make two identical tables in one hour; both A and B must exert equal effort to accomplish this, and both experience equal disutility from their labor. Yet if A and B take their tables to market, B will earn twice as much as A, other things equal, because he has provided twice as many valuable goods. Among different occupations and different types of production, the discrepancies among individuals will be even greater; the president of a corporationwhose ideas animate the productive activities of thousands of peoplecan generate millions of times more economic value than an ordinary day laborer during the same time period.

Refutation 6: Argument from Incentive: If the economic value of the products of labor were exactly equal to the disutility imposed by the labor, there would be no incentive for the laborer to produce the good or service in the first place. He would have no reason to undertake an effort merely to compensate himself for his costs, for doing nothing would achieve the same result in less time. Unless the economic valueand hence the economic returnsof an activity exceed the disutility of performing it, individuals will overall be strongly discouraged from undertaking it.

Refutation 7: Argument from the Unequal Uses of Purchased Goods: Two otherwise identical goodswith the same amounts of labor expended on themcan have dramatically differing economic values. If a guitar is purchased by a musician, it can generate immense economic

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