Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard has been impressing me quite a lot lately with his take on the object value system and consumption.

He wrote that there are four ways of an object obtaining value. The four value-making processes are as follows:

1. The first is the functional value of an object; its instrumental purpose. A pen, for instance, writes; and a refrigerator cools. 
2. The second is the exchange value of an object; its economic value. One pen may be worth three pencils; and one refrigerator may be worth the salary earned by three months of work.
3. The third is the symbolic value of an object; a value that a subject assigns to an object in relation to another subject. A pen might symbolize a student's school graduation gift or a commencement speaker's gift; or a diamond may be a symbol of publicly declared marital love.
4. The last is the sign value of an object; its value within a system of objects. A particular pen may, whilst having no functional benefit, signify prestige relative to another pen; a diamond ring may have no function at all, but may suggest particular social values, such as taste or class.

Its something so simple, so logical. A pen is something we use everyday. But only by questioning it do we find answers and how many of us can truly say we are learned men without questioning the most basic of things? I find this genious. What do you think?