musings on worth

I was watching television again and several items awakened my interest on perception .This time it was how human beings perceive worth . three areas really , number one was a discussion on antiques road show about a piece of glassware , the discussion was around
if it could be attributed to a specific maker , in which case it was worth several thousand pounds more than if it couldn't . What then was the intrinsic value of the object ? Tom Keating asserted on his death bed that there were several of his paintings displayed in museums as works of the old masters .My feeling is that if they are unable to be distinguished from the original , then they are as intrinsically as valuable as the original especially as many of them were not copies but were "in the style of" .Later on a footballer was discussing his ( to my mind) somewhat obscene amount of money he got per game whilst as the evening progressed a newly qualified nurse was talking about leaving the profession as the stress involved was not compensated for by the wages . I once ran an intensive care unit and at that time I was the lowest paid of three of my friends , one lorry driver , one trainee footballer , and a club entertainer . I would not hesitate to admit that the situation has changed and present wages are much better , but the perception of worth is still an important factor. The third area was about food ,one of the cookery shows was extolling the virtues of belly of pork.I grew up in a farm working family , and my father always maintained that the only part of the pig you couldn't eat was the squeak , belly of pork was cheap tasted good , and provided lots of calories .Ideal for a farm workers family . It definitely was not trendy . However now it appears it is and the price has risen accordingly , So is it the endorsement by some TV chef or is there a real change in perception taking place ? Especially as the food in question although undeniably tasty, would seem to go against the lean and keen ethos of today . a fourthbut somewhat risky example does occur to me , benefit fraud is as we are told punishable by having a criminal record , but alowances fraud (oh yes, to my mind just as fraudulent and more criminal as many of the benefit fraudsters have very little , but i know of very few poor MPs ) does not .Fraud is fraud the difference must be in the perception of the act