Mises Made Easier
Percy L. Greaves Jr.
V
Value (i.e., Subjective economic value as contrasted with objective use-value, q.v.). The importance that acting man attaches to ultimate ends. Means (factors of production, q.v.) acquire value as man ascribes to them a usefulness in facilitating the attainment of an ultimate end. Value is not intrinsic; it is not in things. It is within the human mind; it reflects the way in which man reacts emotionally to the conditions of his environment. Value is reflected in human conduct. It is not what a man or groups of men say about value that counts, but how they act. Value is always relative, subjective and human, never absolute, objective or divine. See "Marginal theory of value" and "Subjective-value theory".
B. 27; HA. 96; TH. 19-69; UF. 37; also PLG. 27-54.
Value judgments. See "Judgment of value."
Vandals. A group of Teutonic (German) tribes, who, during the fifth century, fought their way westward across the Rhine (406) and the Pyrenees (409). Led by their hero king, Genseric (d.477), from 428 to 477, they went on to Africa where they captured Carthage (439) and made it their capital. From this base, they attacked Constantinople and Rome, plundering and destroying all in their way. With Genseric's death, their power declined rapidly.
Although the Vandals were probably no worse than their contemporaries, their name has become a synonym for wanton and willful destroyers of the property of others, particularly works of art.
Vassal. A feudal tenant who, in return for military service or its equivalent, occupies and manages a feudal estate or fief at the pleasure of a superior lord, king or emperor. See "Feudalism."
Verstehen, (German). Understanding. See definition of "Understanding."
Vested interests. Established or entrenched positions; existing claims, right or privileges.
Vicissitudes. Rapid, unpredictable and often violent changes which completely alter the previously existing situation.
Vikings. Scandinavian seafaring adventurers who, starting about 788, ravaged European coastlands for two centuries. Operating from seaport bases they repeatedly raided the countryside before being gradually absorbed in the local populations. They originally plundered and finally settled along the coastal areas of what are now Germany, the Netherlands, England, France, Eire, Spain, Portugal and along the western and northern shores of the Mediterranean as far east as northern Italy.
OG. 135-36.
Volkswirtschaft -en, n. volkswirtschaftlich -e, adj., (German). National political economy in the sense of a nation's politically directed or controlled economy or even national socialism. The term implies that the welfare or interests of the nation or society are somehow different from, superior to, and often opposed to those of the nation's individual inhabitants.
HA. 323-26,399,516,521.
Volonti generale, (French). General will.
Vorlesungen zur Ph?nomenologie des inneren Zeithewusstseins, (German). Lectures on the inner (mental) consciousness of time.
