Human Sweat - Is The Value Decreasing?

Recently an incident happened with me that made me think about the title of this post.

I belong to Delhi and work in Chandigarh. It is just a 4 hour drive to my home from my workplace and hence I have frequent trips over the weekends. One such trip, I got dropped down at a point from where I had to take a rickshaw to my place. This is a point on the ring-road from where I used to take local buses to travel within Delhi when I was still of the small-to-drive-a-car-not-wanting-to-drive-a-scooter age. I have been living in this house for the last say 10 years or so. The price the rickshaw-wala charged 5-6 years back was Rs. 5. This is not the point of thought. Rather, the point of thought is that the amount charged today is the same Rs. 5!!!

While inflation has hit us big time in the recent times, the cost of human labor is still the same. The cigarette that I started smoking some 5 years back (I am hinting at my loyalty there :-)), has started costing me Rs 4.5 now starting from Rs. 2.5. The cold-drink that I drink to quench my thirst (I sure am inspired by Sprite) has seen an increase of some Rs. 2-3. The movie that I watch to keep the I-am-having-fun feeling alive has seen probably a 200% increase in the price (thanks to the PVR group). In all, cost of everything has increased except human labor.

I sat in the rickshaw to go to my house after quite sometime. And as soon as the rickshaw-wala asked me to pay Rs. 5, immediately this thought struck me. Is the value of human sweat decreasing? You would think that the price is still the same, it is not decreasing, then why this question. But with the inflation in picture, same amount amounts to lesser today than it did yesterday. And hence the question. Is human sweat less worthy than a careless smoke or a gen-time-pass movie? Thought about it for sometime, but could find no answer.