JNathanK wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Anything that can be bought or sold is a commodity.
ruveyn
I wouldn't say anything that can be bought or sold is a commodity, but, rather, everything that is bought and sold is a commodity. Water is readily available and a thing unto itself until humans decide to put it in plastic bottles and sell it for a profit. Saying something is a commoidity because it has the potential to be bought and sold is like saying people are slaves because they have the potential to be bought and sold.
To use a less charged analogy, its like saying all trees are doors because they can be made into doors. Its not a door until its made into a door, just as an object or an action isn't a commodity until its made into one.
Actually, there is a whole branch of economics,
Environmental Economics, that tries to look at the value of things that cannot be bought and sold, with the goal of optimizing wellbeing.
For example, you cannot buy and sell clean air. A factory that produces stuff to sell may dirty the air. Which environmental economists call an
externality. The dirty air may damage the health of people who breath. But, taking measures to reduce pollution costs money, and may reduce profits, which isn't in the economic interest of the factory owner.
If we were to try to go for absolutely clean, virgin air for everyone to breath: that wouldn't be feasible, either, because then we would all be sitting in very cold, dark houses during the winter.
So, the environmental economists look at various ways of optimizing human wellbeing through how much air pollution can be generated, how the pollution is allocated, etc.
Anyway, my point is: even things that humans cannot bottle and sell do have economic value, and can be regarded as an economic commodity.
09 Feb 2013, 3:43 pm
