Bureaucrats, developer, Administrators
9,842
edits
Commodity: Difference between revisions
moving List of Commodities List of commodity markets, which will be moved to Wikipedia
(used to be #REDIRECT service economy, now copied from Wikipedia and starting adapting for our points-of-interest) |
(moving List of Commodities List of commodity markets, which will be moved to Wikipedia
) |
||
| (7 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
A '''commodity''' is an undifferentiated [[product]] whose market value arises from the owner's right to sell rather than the right to use. Example commodities from the financial world include [[oil]] (sold by the barrel), [[wheat]], bulk chemicals such as [[sulfuric acid]] and even [[pork belly|pork-bellies]]. More modern commodities include [[bandwidth]], [[RAM]] chips and (experimentally) computer processor cycles, and [[negative commodity]] units like [[emissions credit]]s. | A '''commodity''' is a simple element of a [[service economy]] which performs only very predictable services, e.g. [[gasoline]] which only really burns up in a combustion engine. This simplicity makes it possible to define it as an undifferentiated [[product]] whose market value arises from the owner's right to sell rather than the right to use. Example commodities from the financial world include [[oil]] (sold by the barrel), [[wheat]], bulk chemicals such as [[sulfuric acid]] and even [[pork belly|pork-bellies]]. More modern commodities include [[bandwidth]], [[RAM]] chips and (experimentally) computer processor cycles, and [[negative commodity]] units like [[emissions credit]]s. | ||
In the original and simplified sense, ''commodities'' were things of value, of uniform quality, that were produced in large quantities by many different producers; the items from each different producer are considered equivalent. It is the [[contract]] and this underlying [[standard]] that define the [[commodity]], not any inherent quality of it as a living organism as such. One can reasonably say that food commodities, for example, are defined by the fact that they substitute for each other in [[recipe]]s, and that one use the food without having to look at it too closely. | In the original and simplified sense, ''commodities'' were things of value, of uniform quality, that were produced in large quantities by many different producers; the items from each different producer are considered equivalent. It is the [[contract]] and this underlying [[standard]] that define the [[commodity]], not any inherent quality of it as a living organism as such. One can reasonably say that food commodities, for example, are defined by the fact that they substitute for each other in [[recipe]]s, and that one use the food without having to look at it too closely. | ||
| Line 10: | Line 10: | ||
Some [[economics|economists]] advise redefining every commodity and product market as a [[service market]], wherein state inspections, market regulation, property rights enforcement, and other services previously assumed under [[classical economics]] to be the domain of the state, could be charged for. If this advice were followed, the term [[commodity]] would still apply in [[value of life|human life]] analysis, or narrow domains such as relatively safe food goods, or industrial inputs (oil, screws, wireless spectrum) where quality is more or less standard globally, and there is little risk to life of any failure. | Some [[economics|economists]] advise redefining every commodity and product market as a [[service market]], wherein state inspections, market regulation, property rights enforcement, and other services previously assumed under [[classical economics]] to be the domain of the state, could be charged for. If this advice were followed, the term [[commodity]] would still apply in [[value of life|human life]] analysis, or narrow domains such as relatively safe food goods, or industrial inputs (oil, screws, wireless spectrum) where quality is more or less standard globally, and there is little risk to life of any failure. | ||
===List of Commodities for which Commodity markets exist=== | |||
see [[List of commodity markets]] | |||
=== Marxist commodity === | === Marxist commodity === | ||
Commodities have a special meaning within [[Marxism]], as the | Commodities have a special meaning within [[Marxism]], as the embodiment of an [[exchange value]] in a [[use value]]. Within the Marxist description of [[capitalism]] commodities only exist to expand the amount of exchange value in the possession of the [[bourgeoisie]]. Exchange values, determined by the amount of work an average worker using average tools would require to produce such a good, directly express [[human labour]] and [[proletariat|proletarian]] servitude. As such, Marxists see commodities as a central element of the [[exploitation of labour]] within capitalism. | ||
While the Marxist assumption about the effect of commodity definitions is not universally accepted, many other theories have come to reflect some distinction between [[exchange value]] and [[use value]]. See [[service economy]] for the details of the [[Natural Capitalism]] view, for instance, in which likewise the [[commodity contract]] is deemed to be a major way [[comprehensive outcome]]s are obscured, and responsibility for harms done is diffused to the markets as a whole. The view of the [[corporation]] as an [[externalizing machine]] is also related, and has become accepted even in quite centrist circles relatively. | |||
---- | |||
<small>Adapted from [[Wikipedia]] article [[w:Commodity]] under the clauses of [[GFDL]]</small> | |||