Chris Bonds gives us a quote from the first Adam Smith on opera singers.

>   [begin quote] There are some very agreeable and beautiful talents of
>   which the possession commands a certain sort of admiration; but of
>   which the exercise for the sake of gain is considered, whether from
>   reason or prejudice, as a sort of public prostitution. ...

In other words, the free market determines price, not value.

Steve Schwartz