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Commodity: Difference between revisions
moving List of Commodities List of commodity markets, which will be moved to Wikipedia
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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 | 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. | ||
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===List of Commodities for which Commodity markets exist=== | ===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. | |||
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<small>Adapted from [[Wikipedia]] article [[w:Commodity]] under the clauses of [[GFDL]]</small> | |||