The premise that value is intrinsic in labor, independently of the utility of the products of labor, is not limited to Marxism but is central to a number of belief systems. One thinks not only of the so-called "Protestant work ethic," but also of the sign over the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, proclaiming that "Arbeiten macht frei" ("work makes one free").

The labor theory of value and other cost-of-production theories all implicitly regard human activity as mindless. Only the mind enables us to maximize the value produced by our actions, while at the same time minimizing their cost. If cost were the direct determinant of value, then any thought process that enabled one to achieve the same value or a greater value at less cost or with less work would have to be regarded as impossible, or perhaps as "cheating" in some sense. If it were literally true that "you get what you pay for," there there would be no point to using one's mind to try to find a bargain, to find a less expensive way of producing a value, or to seek to economize on costs in any way whatsoever.