Basic market mechanics of supply and demand deciding the price can be seen everywhere- and often in places you would not notice. I've probably talked about this earlier but I'll repeat it and try and elaborate the concept further- since childhood I've wondered how on earth I would have enough knowledge to justify being paid tends of thousands of rupees per month for whatever job I would end up doing. It WAS to an extent lack of self confidence, but I would have the same question for a large number of my batchmates (I would ask the question only to myself of course) who were on average dumber than me. The truth is however that it doesn't matter how bad our knowledge is- the fact is that other people are equally bad at it while starting off on their jobs and hence whatever supply you give them is high enough for their demand to be satisfied at the price they take you at.Also, the average person's skill level at a particular level in a firm will correspond to the average person's salary at that level, especially for large firms, provided the company has existed for long enough for the balancing to take place. Imbalances in skill level and salary will even out over time and will reach an equilibrium based on certain other factors (such as if the location is too remote, the salary would be slightly higher than it otherwise would). The comparison to demand and supply doesn't make a lot of sense I admit- BUT the fact that everything is decided by relative values and not by absolute values is fact enough for it to be entirely market based. For many of you though, this is a very obvious fact. Let us move on to other less obvious things.
Market mechanics are also evident in friendships- especially adult friendships. People who are high achievers, highly rich, social butterflies, good looking etc tend to form groups based on these generally desirable traits (I'm talking about the majority here- a minority may value other things). The cool group could for instance may have an attractive girl, a rich but not so attractive guy, a high flying corporate guy, a social butterfly etc. You are given membership in a group based on what you can give back to them- may not be money or good looks or coolness or anything in particular but can be a combination of these traits which make it worth their while to hang out with you. Friendship isn't all about getting benefits out of each other though- it's also about having fun hanging out with such people (people who have desirable characteristics are generally fun to hang out with, and would make friends wherever they go and having such friends enables them to get more friends and thus snowball). A more obvious example is a relationship where market mechanics are a lot more obvious- being rich, cool, feminine or masculine etc are mostly desirable characteristics and you would look for a partner who has these desirable characteristics at least as much as you feel you can give them. There is a a degree of realism our mind has when it comes to setting expectations from what you get out of your partner (based on your assessment of yourself, and past failures in wooing possible partners) which is similar to the price expectation you have out of a phone with a certain set of features or a kilo of tomato based on its quality.
An even less obvious application is in morality. Good and evil do not exist in the pure sense of the words and are judged relative to how good and how evil people in the society generally are. For instance, in a Hindu village where it's normal to discriminate against a Muslim, and say, not allow him to stay in your house for rent, it isn't considered a sin to do the same. The relativeness of good and evil becomes very clear as you become a grown up, when suddenly you start hurting other people and being selfish and still not feel that guilty just because you feel others would do the same thing. As an adult, finding a good (moral) friend is often about picking the least rotten out of the rotten apples. And as I've mentioned in a previous post, given the limited amount of time we have to life- it is often unadvisable to question the quid pro quo and a lot easier to accept these things as part of human existence. The relation to market mechanics of course comes from the fact that - similar to how there is no direct match between your skills on your job and your pay (it depends on how skilled people around you are), there is no way to measure good or evil without the whole market that exists in goodness and evilness. If you're providing goodness at a lesser price than the market (you are less irritating or something along those lines), you will be considered as a good friend. But of course, morality is the least important consideration adults have while making friends(slightly drifting from the topic here)- material benefit is the most important.
The last application I'm going to talk about and the least obvious of the ones here is happiness- your happiness is not an absolute thing that can be obtained by completing certain tasks. Firstly, it depends on how well off the people around you are- with respect to the things you value (looks, money etc). Secondly and more importantly, it depends on how life treats you with respect to how you expect life to treat you. In short, if you are happy with the effort you are putting into living and are happy with the results life is giving you- you are happy in life. This is similar to paying a price and being happy with the product's quality at the given price. The only way to be unhappy is to overpay for the goods (putting in too much effort for no results) or not paying enough for the goods you want even though you realise you're not paying enough (this is due to lack of motivation and is a different topic altogether- the discussion here is more about disappointment than with existential crises, and so lack of motivation wont be explored further)
