The point to understand is that each of us is constantly involved in making relative value decisions.

Our value scale can be likened to a thermometer.  The degree of intensity with which we seek to satisfy our various desires is constantly changing, all of the time.

In the morning, some people have a very high desire for orange juice, some for coffee, some for a cigarette.

At that particular moment, the individual might prefer a cigarette to a ten-course champagne dinner!  Later in the day however, if the same choice were offered he would probably choose the dinner over the cigarette.

We might wish to say or argue that the dinner would certainly be better for the individual than the cigarette, or that the orange juice is better than either the cup of coffee OR the cigarette, but that is not the point.

The point has to do with human motivation and desires, and how those motivations and desires affect the individual's subjective measure of value which cause the individual to make value decisions that influence his or her economic actions in the market.

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