ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Total economic value

Total economic value is the total amount of money that something is worth. For example, if you have a toy that you want to sell, its economic value will be how much money someone is willing to pay for it. However, this value is not just determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. There are many other factors that contribute to the total economic value of something.

One of these factors is its usefulness. If your toy is really fun and can be played with in many different ways, people might be willing to pay more for it. Another factor is scarcity. If your toy is very rare and hard to find, people might be willing to pay even more for it because they know they are getting something special.

There are also economic values that are not directly related to buying and selling. For example, the value of clean air or water. These things are important for us to have, but they are not things that we can buy and sell. However, we can still put a total economic value on them by looking at how much people are willing to pay to protect them, how much it would cost to clean them up if they were polluted, and other factors.

Overall, total economic value is a way of measuring how much something is worth, taking into account all of the different factors that contribute to its value.
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