I do know what you mean, Books (and what Tim/Mounds was talking about before) -- I'm just a little uncomfortable with this "computer-programmer-speak" which is so reductionist....
I mean, I'm like a pseudo-geek myself and believe in the Scientific Method and all, but I feel like it's easily misapplied by spiritual hucksters who are simply marketing a different spin on traditional spiritual wisdom, dressing it up in the business/programming-speak of our modern times, making it look like something new -- and simply trading on people's hopes and fears....
That's what's really got me. The business of spirituality, this "prosperity gospel" thing where instead of talking about social injustice it's simply about getting new cars, an ideal mate, and all that other "abundance" teasing (I'm a girl; I know about being a tease!
)...because God/The Universe wants you to!
Anyway, back to your question of worth: I just think it's dangerous applying a business notion of value to human beings and human lives. In fact, I'd say that that's been the sad record of human history all along, and that it's the one constant theme of our species' evolution from beasts to something more: what is our fellow man and woman worth? What is their time worth? Their blood, sweat, and tears?
In other words, what are
we ourselves worth?
The miserly mindset Lioness originally inquired after, trying to square that away with the Calvinist foundations of LOA/IM theories (they're really nothing more than modern-day Calvinism and Social Darwinism if you study your history), seems to me a sad comment on those people by those people themselves. They really do hold themselves cheap, and therefore try to accumulate much.