It’s really all about values

How much would you pay for a pot of honey? An architect’s services? Your dinner? An original piece of art? I ask because I bumped into an old acquaintance recently, an estate agent, who was afternoon drinking with a big grin on his face, having just closed a house sale of R2.5 million. This means he scoops up a commission of 7.5%, or a tidy little R187 000. Not bad for a day’s work.

Later, I saw another friend, an architect of international standing. He looked wry when I told him of the sale.

Imagine, he said, what happens when he tells potential clients of his asking fee to conjure up their dream house – they baulk, even though it’s less than the commission they will unquestioningly pay an agent when they sell their designer home.

And this got me to thinking about what we value and what we don’t.

I love art and I buy it when I can, yet I have taken friends to galleries with me and they are horrified at the prices.

“My sister could do that,” said one friend, who has a dabbling sibling with high school art experience.

“But she didn’t,” I muttered, as she took a surreptitious photo for her sister to copy (which never happened).

The original painting cost as much as a nice new sofa, although no one questions that, yet something beautiful that will be enjoyed every day for a lifetime is a different matter.

So it is with many things that take time, artistry and zeal.

Consider honey: a pot from a beekeeper with passion and a small business making raw, local honey could cost anything from R50 upwards, but still folk grab the pasteurised goo without provenance from the supermarket. It might as well be syrup it is that characterless.

It’s the same with restaurants, which bear the cost of a professional chef, of trained staff, of quality ingredients, of talent and experience. Yes, I know I can get my fill from a chain eatery in a shopping mall for half the price I would pay in a restaurant with a view and a vision, but you might as well compare water with wine.

Too often we prize only what we can put an immediate financial value on.

We underrate that which is not instantly quantifiable, that which takes time, talent and experience, that which ultimately makes for a rich life.