Divergence between value and price arises when one value-quality becomes a single standard.

Evidence

In an exchange that takes place under such circumstances, when the feelings of loss and gain at least balance each other (for otherwise no actor who made any comparisons at all would consummate the exchange) yet when these same feelings of value are discrepant when measured by those general standards, one speaks of a divergence between value and price. This occurs most conspicuously under two conditions, which almost always go together: (1) when a single value-quality is counted as the economic value and two objects consequently are adjudged equal in value only insofar as the same quantum of that fundamental value is present in them, and (2) when a certain proportion between two values is expected not only in an objective sense but also as a moral imperative. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 257

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the divergence between value and price, and its two structural conditions, within Simmel’s exchange theory.
• XREF: connects to: Money is an impersonal standard that negates the content of goods — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 65

Related

• Economic value emerges through the distance exchange creates between self and object (similarity 0.81)
• Money erases qualitative distinctions by reducing everything to quantity (similarity 0.80)
• Money makes desire instantly operative, dissolving the technical distance to objects (similarity 0.80)
• Money is an impersonal standard that negates the content of goods (similarity 0.79)
• Exchange value is measured by what a commodity trades for, not by its price (similarity 0.79)
• Exchange creates value as genuinely as production does. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Money is an impersonal standard that negates the content of goods #expands (0.85) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 65