Monday, June 30, 2008

Man's Life Worth 400K

From FoxNews:

SYDNEY, Australia - A man who auctioned his life - his house, his car, his job, even his friends - on eBay said Monday he is disappointed with the selling price: almost $384,000.

Ian Usher, a British immigrant to Australia, put everything he owned as well as introductions to his friends on the online auction site after a painful breakup with his wife prompted him to want a fresh start.

Bidding closed Sunday and reached nearly $384,000 - an amount Usher said his house in the western city of Perth was worth on its own.

"I guess I'm a little bit disappointed at the final price, I'd hoped it to be a little higher than that," Usher told Nine Network television on Monday. "But I am committed to selling and moving on and making a fresh start."

He declined to reveal the buyer's identity, or what his next step would be.

Usher said he had hoped to get at least $480,000 (a half-million Australian dollars) for his life — his house and all its contents, car and a motorcycle, a jet ski, skydiving gear, an introduction to friends and a trial period in his sales job - but that the final result was enough for him to make a new start in life.


That's 400K in Aussie dollars. I can understand the guy's disappointment, but I have two comments:
  1. He says his house alone is worth 400K. Rule 1 of capitalism: the (economic) worth of any given thing is exactly what someone is willing to pay for it at the moment. No more; no less.
  2. He's lucky he's a grown man. Were he still unborn, his life today wouldn't be worth a plugged nickel.