Welcome to a market economy where goods and services are priced based on the value people assign to them and are willing to pay. Where things like rarity, scarcity, and energy to obtain said goods factor into the price.
Isn't it nice to step outside your socialist mindset now and then?
No. I think placing value on arbitrary items is absolutely stupid. Also, subject to market manipulation because rarity/scarcity has jack ***to do with it. (edit: talking specifically about non-practical items here, not tools/other functional goods/services.)
You, of all people I suspect, understand this. Look at diamonds.
They really weren't all that valuable until *** who run the diamond trade managed to manipulate the entire thing, create their own market for demand through intense advertising and social pressuring. Basically they brainwashed an entire culture into believing their shiny rocks are worth way more than they should be, and that you should feel like inhuman scum if you
don't spend ungodly amounts of money on them.
All the while they convince you that manufactured diamonds are somehow "inferior" to those dug out of the ground by slave labor.
Frankly I think these people should be brutally castrated.