How much value does a particular new product or service bring to our lives? This is hard to quantify, and yet traditional economics has provided us with a neat means for doing so: look at how much it costs. In a free market economy, how much something costs tells us how much people are prepared to pay for it. And how much people are prepared to pay for something is a direct sign of how much they value it. The problem with this model – using the market price to assess value – is that it is starting to break down with new technologies. Many of the products and services we value most, including popular apps and social media platforms, are provided for free. While there may indeed be a cost, such as a loss of privacy, this is not a financial cost.