What is the economic good?

Economics can not be studied without knowledge of a certain category apparatus. One of the fundamental categories of this science is the economic good. In this article we will give a definition of this term, as well as tell about different types of benefits.

We live in a world of needs, and these needs are endless - as soon as a person satisfies one, other, higher level there and then arise. In the broadest sense of the word, good is what can satisfy the needs of a person of any kind: physiological, moral, mental, and so on. As the economy examines the issues of exchange, the economic good is a blessing that can be exchanged for another benefit on mutually beneficial terms for counterparties. If there is a possibility of exchange, then there is also a certain price, established under the influence of supply and demand. Proceeding from all of the above, we can give the following definition: economic benefits are any objects, processes, phenomena that can satisfy a particular human need, freely or limitedly exchanged in the market. An important characteristic is also the limited quantity of goods in comparison with human needs.

Surely many readers will now ask the question: how does the economic good differ from the usual? We answer: it's all about the possibility of sharing the good for other benefits. Thus, a person can not receive an economic blessing for nothing - he must definitely give something in return. Note that along with economic, there are also free gifts, such as sunlight, satisfying the need for lighting and warmth, or air, which makes it possible to breathe. According to the definition, the supply of these goods is so great that the equilibrium price becomes zero. For example, an interesting situation occurs with water: being by nature a free gift (in order to get drunk from the river, you do not need to pay anything), it becomes a good economic after cleaning, chlorination, filtration and delivery by water. Note also that not everything that gets free is free: for example, a movie uploaded by a user through a torrent tracker gets to him for free, but formally it is subject to copyright of the creator, and officially can only be distributed for money.

Since the concept of "economic good" includes an almost unlimited list of all kinds of goods, services and intellectual property products , it is customary to classify them in some way. Classification, if possible, of identifying value implies the division of economic goods into benefits of explicit value (which is visible even before purchase), the blessings of hidden value (which can only be determined by purchasing goods), and the benefits of trust, the value of which manifests only a short time after purchase and use. So, the blessing of obvious value can be any vegetable or fruit - in its appearance it is possible to determine its quality even before purchase. An example of a blessing with hidden value is a box of chocolates - before we paid for its value and opened it, we will not be able to determine the quality and value of its contents. A typical benefit of trust - a drug, the effect of which manifests itself only after the course of treatment. Also, economic benefits are classified by participation in the consumer basket, as well as the dependence of their consumption on the level of prices and income of the buyer. According to this classification, the benefits of basic necessity, ordinary and status goods are distinguished.

As you can see, the economic benefit is the object of economics itself. Thus, the classical formulation of "..production, exchange and consumption of goods, services and ideas" can be replaced by "... production, exchange and consumption of economic goods."