Glamor Economics

Chapter 38

Chapter 6 Can Money Buy Satisfaction—Consumption and Preferences
Section 1 Differentiated Enjoyment Brought by Exchange—Commodities

Commodities are the most familiar to us.We eat, drink, wear, use, and travel every day, and everything is inseparable from commodities. As long as we have money in our pockets, we can buy all kinds of commodities we want at any time.So what is a commodity?
In the first issue of "Xiamen Science Popularization" in 2002, there was an article in which the author Ge Xiaolan listed six interesting commodities for us. Let's take a look:
1. Nauru in the Pacific Ocean is an island country formed by coral reefs. It is very rich in minerals, but there is no land for crops to grow on the island.To combat this, Nauru exports minerals and imports soil to grow crops.

2. Icebergs The most exotic commodity in the world is the icebergs exported from Greenland, Denmark.This is 10-year-old ice that is considered pure, free from contamination and with very few impurities.

3. The sound of water The American businessman Fenech traveled around the world and recorded the babbling sounds of thousands of small streams, waterfalls and rivers with a stereo tape recorder, and then sold them at a high price.Interestingly, the business in this industry is booming, and there is an endless stream of buyers of hydroacoustics.

4. Air Japanese businessmen use modern technology to store fresh air from fields, valleys, and meadows into "air cans", and then sell it to citizens who have lived in downtown and suffered from air pollution for a long time.Buyers open the air can and put it close to their nostrils, the aroma hits the face and refreshes the heart.

5. Yellow sand Some Arab countries have vast desert areas, but the yellow sand in these deserts is not suitable for building swimming pools, while the yellow sand in the UK is the most ideal material for building swimming pools.At a time when oil-rich Arab countries are building swimming pools, Britain's yellow sand is in high demand and prices have skyrocketed.

6. Rainwater Japanese businessmen discovered that water is a valuable commodity in Arab countries, so they began to export rainwater to Arab countries.The first country to import this commodity was the United Arab Emirates.The country imports about 2000 million tons of rainwater a year to water crops.

These six special commodities show us some characteristics of commodities.Commodities have not existed since the emergence of human beings, but are the product of the development of human society to a certain historical stage.For its generation, the following two conditions must be met:

The first is social division of labor.It is the basis for the production of commodities.Because of the social division of labor, the request for exchange was put forward and the possibility of exchange was made.The characteristics of social division of labor are that each laborer only engages in some partial and unilateral labor, and only produces some or even a single product.People's needs or needs are multifaceted.In order to meet various needs, producers have to exchange the products they produce with each other for the products they do not produce but need.This kind of commodity production and commodity exchange is the commodity economy.

The second is different ownership.It is the prerequisite for the production of commodities.The act of exchange occurs because the means of production and the product of labor belong to different owners.Under the condition of private ownership, the two parties in the exchange of products become independent stakeholders and the opposite of economic interests.This determines that the exchange between the two parties cannot be unequal, but can only be equal, that is, the principle of equivalent exchange in the commodity economy.Since the exchange of labor products is equivalent commodity exchange, the production process of producers becomes a commodity production process aimed at direct exchange.

It can be seen that commodities are not only the product of social division of labor, but also the product of private ownership.Commodities are productive products that have value and use value.Consumer goods refer to the appellation of commodities when they play a certain role in the market. Consumer goods must be commodities, but commodities are not necessarily consumer goods.Commodities can only be included in the ranks of consumer goods when they enter and circulate.

[links to related words]

Commodities in the narrow sense only refer to tangible products that meet the definition; commodities in the broad sense can be intangible services, such as insurance products and financial products, in addition to tangible products.

The value and use value of commodities Value is the social attribute of commodities, but also the unique attributes (essential attributes) of commodities, and value is the basis of exchange value.Use value is the natural attribute of commodities, and things without use value are not commodities.Value is abstract, and it is expressed through objects before money is created; after money is created, it is expressed in money.

(End of this chapter)