The Market also fails because it does not always pay all of the costs. To use Williams example, the person who grows the watermelons may gain and the person who transports them and sells them on may gain. But if the soil is unsuited to cropping and blows away after a few decades, it is only future generations who have to pay a price for that, and whose food will be more expensive because there is less land.

Trump is a master value extractor, and he doesn't really give a damn who he hurts in the process.

Things are valued differently in different places and times by different people. That’s the whole rationale behind trading. Trading is beneficial to both sides.

If I buy a truckload of watermelons in South Georgia in late summer when watermelons are near worthless and haul them to NYC where they are highly valued, I am providing a benefit to people, myself included, just by moving around existing resources and outputs.

Awesome post! A lot of people don't understand this and then overpay for their iphone, luxury clothing, and of course it's all bought on credit. The price is way above its value when compared to products of similar function. The rich get their money by playing people's psychology. no one seems to notice or care until they look up and realize that the people they were willingly giving their money and attention have gained massive wealth.

"There are those who do all the work. And there are those that live off the work of others"--Old working class proverb.

From what I remember, value-added was a feature or features added to a product or service that give it a competitive advantage in the marketplace. I think it even extended to intangibles such as a brand name.

I can't help thinking value extraction here is another way of saying cutting costs. That wouldn't really be the opposite of value-added but I must admit I didn't come across the term when I was in college.